Arowana??

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lbiminiblue

lbiminiblue

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I was wondering about getting an arowana...have the space to keep him, just wanted to know if cold snaps might kill him. I think I know aht I'd feed him and I think he'd be pretty independent about getting food. Anyone have experience with these?
 
SubRosa

SubRosa

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Why would a cold snap kill it? You need to keep its tank heated to about 78F - 80F year round. That would require a heater necessary to raise however many gallons of water the tank holds the required # of degrees above the lowest room temp the room the tank is in is likely to get. Does the temp of the room vary appreciably in very cold weather? My house does, but that's because I heat with wood and tend to keep it warmer in colder weather. If you use a more conventional heating system and the room varies appreciably with outside you need to have the heating system or insulation looked at! As far as feeding Aros, babies and wild caughts can be finicky at first and live food which floats, such as crickets can be necessary to acclimate them to aquarium life. But after a short period they'd likely eat your watch if it floated long enough. It's just a matter of sizing the food to their mouths as they grow. Crickets are always a great treat, and if you want real entertainment turn off all of the pumps and add a few Water Striders!
 
LSUFireGal

LSUFireGal

Member
Sounds like he is planning to keep him in an outdoor pond. We have a stocked pond at the farm and have tried some of them before. I doubt they would have survived the winter and our pond is quite deep. They also have a ton of shimmer which (in my area) attracts the birds of prey. Ours were about 2ft. and were becoming sluggish when the temps hit the low 60's. they just didn't have the energy to avoid the hawks. :(

Unless you have a way to keep the water at or above 65 degrees I wouldn't try it. I also wouldn't put them anywhere you can't protect them from birds.
 
LSUFireGal

LSUFireGal

Member
Ps I didn't just try them for the heck of it. A friend had them in a small pond liner in his garage and if I didn't take them he was going to throw them out. :(.
 
lbiminiblue

lbiminiblue

Well-Known Member
oops sorry he's going into a pond. Temperatures rarely drop to mid 50s in december. What do you think?
 
lbiminiblue

lbiminiblue

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alright. Good to know. What do you think? I think he'd be a nice aggressive addition, we haven't had birds in forever, and when we did, it was herons catching guppies in the waterfall. No hawks to speak of, and the canopy of the garden prevents most predatory birds from flying in there. Should I go for it and if so what type of arowana?
 
lbiminiblue

lbiminiblue

Well-Known Member
SubRosa said:
Air temps don't matter, it's water temps that count. An overnight trip into the 50s won't cool a 5000 gal pond very much. A week of nights in that range may. Here's something to consider:Solar heaters for little pond
Click to expand...
not sure if it should go into consideration, but cichlids die every winter because of the cold, we have to skim them out. Everything else handles it well though.
 
frisbee

frisbee

Well-Known Member
Cichlids and arowanas come from some of the same rivers and streams down in South America. Most of them are tank bred now, but if the cichlids are not able to endure the cold, I doubt an arowana could. JMO.
 
lbiminiblue

lbiminiblue

Well-Known Member
frisbee said:
Cichlids and arowanas come from some of the same rivers and streams down in South America. Most of them are tank bred now, but if the cichlids are not able to endure the cold, I doubt an arowana could. JMO.
Click to expand...

ok...maybe some sort of heater...any other opinions?
 
ReefApprentice

ReefApprentice

Well-Known Member
My friend has one and man they can jump!As a treat he feeds it small crickets and it also eats the bugs that fall in his pond.Also he uses a solar heater to keep the pond warm during the winter months.
 
F

flathead1319

Member
Silver Arowana's are the best. i love them. I would say they are my favorite Fresh Water Fish. As for the temp, it effects them a lot. you need a heater... Ohh and they get way bigger than 3 feet. in the wild they will get between 7-9 feet. ive seen them over 4 feet in a tank. ive had 17 inch, a 24 inch and all inbetween. you can feed them Mouse, rats, the bigger ones will eat rabbits, basically anything they can fit in there mouths. if it dosn't think it can eat it, normally it won't try. i had an aligator gar and a Silver living together and they got along fine for a long time, until they dicided to see who was badder... (they killed each other) i cried.....actually i think im still crying.

as for the chichlids pretty much there all the same when it comes to tempature. you won't be able to mix them though. that is a recipe for disater, even if the arrowa surives the salt, and the higher PH he will start eating them...

How big are they?
 
lbiminiblue

lbiminiblue

Well-Known Member
No, but the first to go are nondescript camoflage cichlids. The blue and yellow ones never die, and the brown/green ones are always the bigger ones that die. I have a green terror and Shovelnose cat in there too...they mostly die during the long low temperature periods.
 
lbiminiblue

lbiminiblue

Well-Known Member
Ranging from babies to less than a foot. There's a big pacu in there too...you think the arowana would grow as much as he could in the pond?
 
lbiminiblue

lbiminiblue

Well-Known Member
flathead1319 said:
Silver Arowana's are the best. i love them. I would say they are my favorite Fresh Water Fish. As for the temp, it effects them a lot. you need a heater... Ohh and they get way bigger than 3 feet. in the wild they will get between 7-9 feet. ive seen them over 4 feet in a tank. ive had 17 inch, a 24 inch and all inbetween. you can feed them Mouse, rats, the bigger ones will eat rabbits, basically anything they can fit in there mouths. if it dosn't think it can eat it, normally it won't try. i had an aligator gar and a Silver living together and they got along fine for a long time, until they dicided to see who was badder... (they killed each other) i cried.....actually i think im still crying.

as for the chichlids pretty much there all the same when it comes to tempature. you won't be able to mix them though. that is a recipe for disater, even if the arrowa surives the salt, and the higher PH he will start eating them...

How big are they?
Click to expand...

I was thinking that I should provide some more structure in the pond, to give the fish more hiding places in case I get an arowana...
 
SubRosa

SubRosa

Well-Known Member
flathead1319 said:
Silver Arowana's are the best. i love them. I would say they are my favorite Fresh Water Fish. As for the temp, it effects them a lot. you need a heater... Ohh and they get way bigger than 3 feet. in the wild they will get between 7-9 feet. ive seen them over 4 feet in a tank. ive had 17 inch, a 24 inch and all inbetween. you can feed them Mouse, rats, the bigger ones will eat rabbits, basically anything they can fit in there mouths. if it dosn't think it can eat it, normally it won't try. i had an aligator gar and a Silver living together and they got along fine for a long time, until they dicided to see who was badder... (they killed each other) i cried.....actually i think im still crying.

as for the chichlids pretty much there all the same when it comes to tempature. you won't be able to mix them though. that is a recipe for disater, even if the arrowa surives the salt, and the higher PH he will start eating them...

How big are they?
Click to expand...
I believe you're confusing Arowanas with Arapaimas. Silver Aros get about 3', certainly not 7'-9'. Arapaimas do indeed get that big and bigger.
Osteoglossum bicirrhosum, Arawana : fisheries, gamefish, aquarium
Arapaima gigas, Arapaima : fisheries, aquaculture, gamefish, aquarium
 
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