My juvenile Australian arowana didn't last a day

Happy holidays all,

I haven't been in the hobby long but one of the fish that attracted me to the hobby was arowana's.

Anyways, the lfs had a whole heap of juveniles (around 2 inches) of the saratoga - leichardti so i grabbed one.

Placed it into my 10 foot tank which has a bunch of cichlids which are now still only 2.5-3 inches (oscar, salvini JD's, and a larger maybe 4 inch vieja synspilum but he is not aggressive).

The day I put him in there he looked and swam exactly like i expected along the top of the tank, but next day, nowhere to be seen, and I did never find anything.

There is a lid covering the tank but I know he could have possibly threaded the eye of a needle to jump through a couple gaps but looked everywhere around the tank, outside & in but nothing.

Anyways next day, I put some juvenile blue acara into the same tank and within two hours one of them had their head taken off. Don't know which one did it but now I think this is what happened to the arowana as that was only about the size of this blue acara.

What do you think?

I would still like to get one but would have to grow it out some in a separate tank and introduce it later when its big enough not to be attacked.

Anyone else had this experience?

 

A 2in arowana is pathetically small, basically a fry still and IMO should not be housed with anything until it is at least 4-5in long. This is partly because they cannot defend themselves and partly because they cannot compete for food with aggressive feeders (like cichlids). Live and learn I guess.

Same goes for the acara. When getting new young fish it is best to always keep them in a tank on their own until you are sure they are eating, disease free, and plenty big enough not to be seen as prey by the larger fish. I usually quarantine new fish for 2-4 months. I really like to make sure they fatten up as most specimens in the stores are on the thin side.

 

A 2in arowana is pathetically small, basically a fry still and IMO should not be housed with anything until it is at least 4-5in long. This is partly because they cannot defend themselves and partly because they cannot compete for food with aggressive feeders (like cichlids). Live and learn I guess.

Same goes for the acara. When getting new young fish it is best to always keep them in a tank on their own until you are sure they are eating, disease free, and plenty big enough not to be seen as prey by the larger fish. I usually quarantine new fish for 2-4 months. I really like to make sure they fatten up as most specimens in the stores are on the thin side.

Yes no arguments here. Before I consider another I will have a separate dedicated tank that i will use to grow them out first, probably a 4 footer. As you said live and learn.

 

Arowana is expensive fish food for cichlids!

 

Arowana is expensive fish food for cichlids!

Yes indeed! $75 is a bit much in good times or bad lol.

I have another one now but managed to get hold of a 4 foot tank which I'll use as a grow out, along with the 3 remaining small blue acara which i also rescued from the bigger tank.

Here is a photo of the new one - all of 2 inches give or take. You can see why he was taken after looking at him. Seems obvious now I guess

 

Ok you’re now doing a fish in cycle with that 40g. So you will need to test daily. Even if you jump started it with media from the other tank. Big gamble throwing another in an uncycled tank.

Oscar’s and Jack Dempsey’s should not be together. The others I have no idea what they are. But not all cichlids get along. They may be fine as young fish but kill each other as they get bigger. As you’ve learned they are meat eaters. An arowana is not a good choice. It lives on the top of the tank and will always look like bait to those below.

 

I just grabbed a big sponge filter from a cycled tank which I'm using and added a canister but for the first while I'll be doing quite frequent water changes (every 2-3 days) and yes monitoring regularly.

I think my bet is possibly on the oscar as he seems to be the only one in that tank that swims all over the tank including near the top. All other fish keep to the bottom/mid sections.

Yes lesson learnt though

 

Oscar’s are probably the most personable fish. They will follow you eat from your hand watch you even play with you. They are great fish. But they should be kept alone in big tanks. Most American cichlids are solitary fish. Not schooling fish. People do mix and some get away with it but most don’t.

Ok I just looked up the other 2 cichlids. Both are very aggressive and should be kept alone. Both state yes you can put with other cichlids but should be kept alone.

I don’t think that arowana should be put with them till maybe it’s full grown. These are American cichlids mostly from Mexico and the arowana is an Australian fish.

 

I'd think the arrowana needs to get to at least 12" size or bigger before it stops presenting as a snack to your cichlids.

the way they move and stay up top, it's too enticing to not take a crack at it if they can just get their mouth around it.

 

Thanks guys, I'll take your great advice on board. Ok sounds like I will need to leave him in the grow out tank for quite a bit longer. Easy done.

The tank he will eventually go in is a 10 ft 330G but sounds like 12+ months. I can see why as a lot of those cichlids at that time will probably be what 8-10 inches so maybe atleast 12 months.

 

Thanks guys, I'll take your great advice on board. Ok sounds like I will need to leave him in the grow out tank for quite a bit longer. Easy done.

The tank he will eventually go in is a 10 ft 330G but sounds like 12+ months. I can see why as a lot of those cichlids at that time will probably be what 8-10 inches so maybe atleast 12 months.

Yeah that's what I was meaning by giving the arrowana more time, by the time it grows your cichlids are going to get bigger also there's going to be risk until there's just no chance of the cichlids getting their mouth around him anymore.

As far as growing fast goes, high quality foods and small feedings multiple times a day. That method will give the arrowana additional food that won't be "overfeeding" in any single shot,, and allow it to gain body mass which translates to a faster growth rate. You can feed a growing fish small amounts every 2 hours really without worrying about digestion issues, they will gain weight from the extra and use it for growth. Every 6 hours is optimal, there's extra waste and calories they can't take in at every 4 hours or sooner, and at 2 hours or less they can't pass the waste fast enough and it's the same as feeding big and overfeeding them which leads to digestive issues.

 

Yeah that's what I was meaning by giving the arrowana more time, by the time it grows your cichlids are going to get bigger also there's going to be risk until there's just no chance of the cichlids getting their mouth around him anymore.

As far as growing fast goes, high quality foods and small feedings multiple times a day. That method will give the arrowana additional food that won't be "overfeeding" in any single shot,, and allow it to gain body mass which translates to a faster growth rate. You can feed a growing fish small amounts every 2 hours really without worrying about digestion issues, they will gain weight from the extra and use it for growth. Every 6 hours is optimal, there's extra waste and calories they can't take in at every 4 hours or sooner, and at 2 hours or less they can't pass the waste fast enough and it's the same as feeding big and overfeeding them which leads to digestive issues.

Thanks for that. Is there any particular types of foods you would recommend?
At the moment, its just a combination of tropical/cichlid flakes and dried black worms.

Also have frozen blood worms but havent fed them yet and also have a frozen cichlid food which I haven't tried yet.

 

Thanks for that. Is there any particular types of foods you would recommend?
At the moment, its just a combination of tropical/cichlid flakes and dried black worms.

Also have frozen blood worms but havent fed them yet and also have a frozen cichlid food which I haven't tried yet.

Personally I'm not a fish nutritionist, all prepared foods are lacking to some extent. I've been using a vitamin supplement called Boyd's vita-chem. It's a multivitamin food supplement and I like the results just using the cheap flakes food and that.

I literally feed no dry or live foods just the cheap tetra flakes and the vitamin supplement as directed on the container and happy with the results, fish have good health and activity, a good appetite, and great color.

Other people make foods themselves, or switch up types, or go for high quality flake or pellet.
One thing is arrowana are big fish, you have to be mindful of the sizes of feedings as the fish grows to keep them eating and putting on mass.
I had problems with larger fish many years ago where they would stop eating if he food wasn't worth the effort, and wouldn't eat it if it was too big.
I'd suspect with an arrowana you'll need to change the foods and feeding quantities as it grows to make sure it keeps eating and growing so a multivitamin supplement might be useful in that you can use it with whatever foods you are feeding to round out their nutrition.
I don't think he's gonna bother with flake and small foods when he's 2ft unless he's starving, I think you'll experience points along the way where any food you use won't cut it and you'll need to change it.

 

Personally I'm not a fish nutritionist, all prepared foods are lacking to some extent. I've been using a vitamin supplement called Boyd's vita-chem. It's a multivitamin food supplement and I like the results just using the cheap flakes food and that.

I literally feed no dry or live foods just the cheap tetra flakes and the vitamin supplement as directed on the container and happy with the results, fish have good health and activity, a good appetite, and great color.

Other people make foods themselves, or switch up types, or go for high quality flake or pellet.
One thing is arrowana are big fish, you have to be mindful of the sizes of feedings as the fish grows to keep them eating and putting on mass.
I had problems with larger fish many years ago where they would stop eating if he food wasn't worth the effort, and wouldn't eat it if it was too big.
I'd suspect with an arrowana you'll need to change the foods and feeding quantities as it grows to make sure it keeps eating and growing so a multivitamin supplement might be useful in that you can use it with whatever foods you are feeding to round out their nutrition.
I don't think he's gonna bother with flake and small foods when he's 2ft unless he's starving, I think you'll experience points along the way where any food you use won't cut it and you'll need to change it.

Great thanks really appreciate the reply.

From what i've seen already you are spot on as I tried a small floating cichlid pellet today and it was probably slightly too big for him to take so ignored it.

Sounds like a continual monitoring/adjustment as it grows.
At least at the moment the flakes and the black worms are being eaten as they are the right size (at the moment).

I'll look at for the vitamins.

 

There are many brands of flake food out there these days. The fdbw are very good and probably much better with the vita-chem added. Probably all you need. Another good company for food is sera. They make many flakes and granules. I use there discus granules. They float but eventually sink. Vita-bites are another good food.

Thanks Sparky! I’d forgotten all about vita-chem. I just ordered it and will be adding it to the fdbw I feed my discus.

 

There are many brands of flake food out there these days. The fdbw are very good and probably much better with the vita-chem added. Probably all you need. Another good company for food is sera. They make many flakes and granules. I use there discus granules. They float but eventually sink. Vita-bites are another good food.

Thanks Sparky! I’d forgotten all about vita-chem. I just ordered it and will be adding it to the fdbw I feed my discus.

Thanks 86, I'll order some too and also look into the other stuff. Fine/small floating granules is good right now until is slightly bigger

 

If I was your Arowana I would want food from here: aquaticfoodsblackwormco | eBay Stores

Black worms are yummy, but the Black worm farm also sells them freeze dried so they don't get rotten.