Arowana tank size?

I have a new 75 gallon and want an arowana I've been reading online all day. I do not want to crowd the fish or hurt it, but I've seen lots of people housing several other fish in a 75 gal with an arowana or two...At my local fish store they have 3 of them plus about 10 other fish in a 30 gallon.

Iam torn between thinking I do not have a big enough tank and that they are in and probably will go to homes with smaller tanks than mine.

I do have great filters with four larger filter pads, four extra slots for extra carbon and four bio wheels...

Is it a very bad idea?

Is there another fish that swims the same way?

 

the Arowana can reach 47 inches in the wild, but I'm unsure just how large it grows in captivity. But I would say, a much larger tank would be needed to accomodate this soon to be giant.... something in like the 200 gallon range.

What I do know about them is that they need a tank with lots of open space above for swimming, some light plantings and a lot of peat as well... oh, and the tank must be fitted with a tight, heavy cover because the Arowana will jump, particularly when after prey.

 

Bad idea. The least-crappy fishstore near us won't even sell arowana to someone unless they can prove they have a 150g, but TheEssigs are right, they need ATLEAST a 200g, and can not be housed with much of anything small enough for them to eat.

Also, you have to have a lot of weight holding the hood of the tank on, they've been known to knock hoods off to jump out. They've also been known in the wild to jump from the bodies of water they inhabit and grab monkeys off of low-lying tree limbs.

 

Anyone wanting an arowana (and other species) should need a license to prove they have the facilities and the knowledge to care for these large voracious predators who can leap 6 feet into the air.

Even 150 gal tank is only 6' long. Arowanas can reach 4 feet, so that's not nearly big enough.

This is not a fish for the average hobbiest and most of the babies sold in petstores will end up dead or disposed of in some way.

 

....that really sucks, they are such pretty swimmers...I wish there were dwarfs...maybe one day

nothing else swims like them uh?

 

Phew, yeah couldn't tell what else you could get. I've seen full grown Arowanas. That is one massive amazing fish. They have them at the Smithsonian National Zoo. The tank is huge. It's stocked with Arownas, freshwater Rays and a bazzillion Guppies. The tank is so big you can go to the second floor of the building to look down into it. I'll look through my photos to see if I have a good one of the arowanas.

Found a couple. The small blurs are guppies for size reference. These were about 3-4 feet on average. I think they had one around 4 and a half if I remember correctly.

 

The Como Zoo in MN has a large "tank" in their Amazon exhibit that has a few arowanas. I can't even begin to imagine how huge this "tank" is, but at least thousands of gallons if not tens of thousands.
The arowanas are so long that they need both width and length of the tank to be pretty big, just so they can turn around.
They are, however, really neat.

 

Chattanooga Aquarium has arowana in a 20,000g tank and in a 7,000-8,000 gallon tank. I wish they had them in their 618,000 gallon tank, it was 3-4 floors high and would've been cool, but they had other large fish in there.

 

I can't even begin to imagine how huge this "tank" is, but at least thousands of gallons if not tens of thousands.

Right. There was a show on National Geographic channel, showing these fish in their natural habitat, leaping 6 feet in the air to snatch prey.

Anyone seeing this would realize how preposterous it would be to try and keep one in a home aquarium.

I think it's downright criminal for petstores to sell 3" babies for people to put in their 20 gal tanks.

 

Can you imagine doing water changes on a tank that big with not but a measly Python.

 

Even better, the bucket method

 

one thing when considering arowana (besides the fact that it jumps and it size) is WHERE the fish spends most of it's swimming time. It's far better to have a tank, say, 2 feet deep but 7 feet long and 3 feet wide.

On average a silver arowana in the wild will get about 48 inches in length, but in captivity usually reach about 3.5 feet. Still a big fish, don't get me wrong, but not AS big as they are in the wild... I imagine though it's still highly possible for them to get that large. We'll have to see!

 

I've seen one at the Oregon Zoo the other week.

Those are some big fish, very nice looking. They we're in the same tank with 2 big Pacu, I think.

Funny enough, the next tank to the left had tetras: bleeding hearts, which I have one (I know, only one) and they were so big. The dorsal fins are so long, compared to the one that I have home.

Initially I though that the tetras and arrowanas were in the sam tank, but it was deceiving, since they had a divider nicely masked between them.

I would not even think of keeping an arrowana, unless I'll have something in the hundreds of gal range. IF you wanna enjoy one, just go to the closest zoo and see it, it's a lot cheaper , and the fish does a lot better.

That of course, if you don't leave in Florida, or somewhere really warm so you can have a pond outside.

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