What are people's experiences keeping arowanas??

i know they need very large tanks etc but how are they to keep?
do they have specific diet requirments?

i know alot of people keep them with Oscars but do they actually make good tank mates?

reason i ask is iv always wanted one and would never get one without being 100% prepared, feel im nearly in the posistion to have one but just wondering how people who actually have them feel about them?

Cheers

Matt

I have had Silver AROs in the past. Mine did well with Oscars and Jack Dempseys. I hope you have a big tank. My 6 foot tank was fine for a couple of years until my Aro reached the 18in mark. After that when I did a water change he would almost always jump out or at least jump and hit the top of the tank. I fed mine feeder goldfish,earthworms, and hikari gold pellets. They are beautiful fish but can be a problem. However, I would get another one;along with a bigger tank with better tops.

I have never kept aro's but have heard a few things. The biggest problem people have with aro's is they get a thing called drop eye where their eye drops and looks down instead of up. No one is really sure why they get it but one way suggested to stop it is too keep them looking up. This means keeping them in a pond!!!!!! A friend of mine used to work in a LFS and he said he went round to this rich guys house and his pond was underneath his dining room- the dining room floor was the top of the tank. A bugger to keep clean but it stops drop eye!!!

your post got me curious and went looking on youtube, my god there is some cool vidoes on there of them. im sure your aware of the one eating a mouse, cant be healthy, but its awesome, lol

i have had my aro for two months now with my oscars...and so far...no issue
yet ecept with the occasional jabbing of aro against my lutino.....
take note, aro attck the lutino alone, not the other..... and i was relieve
to see the lutino fight back making the aro splashing hard to scape the attack...

We just have to wait for Marcus to chime in.
He has a less fortunate story about arowana and Oscar.

I had one for some time, but it didn't live long...
Dunno why exactly.

Noddy wrote:


I have a RTG arowana, had it a little longer than Paul so still getting to know it really. It didn't workout with my oscar in fact it done so much damage to the oscars jaw it died. I was not happy arowana don't show mouths like oscars they just snap out and bite. from all the arowana sites i have looked at 150g is minimum size tank needed. I still think it would be better suited in a shallow pond much larger. they feed fairly cleanly, not much waste ends up on the bottom, are very picky at what the eat, (mine will eat good quality king prawns but turns it nose up at smaller cheaper prawns) a lot of arowana won't eat pellets so you need to think more about diet. it is a true predator and will Savage like oscar. it wants to hunt. It likes a lot of water movement and don't like changing water conditions. you need to keep your parameters stable, including nitrates. its not good to have it rise then fall at water changes. be prepared to do a little more testing and changing. also need a bit of space at the top of the tank as they jump and feed on the surface. feeding can be very aggressive so the can hit the tank lid if you are not careful. this can damage the powerful but still delicate jaw or head. its a very majestic and wonderful fish to keep, and I am very happy to own it but it dose have more problems.

Just thought I'd add mine is doing well with clown loach, they can easy maneuver out the way of a snap and as they too are fast moving fish all seam to get on well.

marcus wrote:


Now that picture spells "photo of the month"!

VERY NICE

Win wrote:

what is?
The pic does not show, Win.Moved or deleted...

lol i rightclicked marcus's aro and used the image properties and redid it... it was supposed to be his fish. it was earlier... i dont know why it did that.

Never mind, that fish is NICE indeed!