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I was thinking of what would be the minimum tank height for an arowana. I was thinking of building a custom tank that is 13'x3'x1'. I was wondering if that would be tall enough for an arowana. Otherwise I could make it about 18" high, but not much more than that.

i don't think it matters, i think how long it is matters, because they are top water so hight wouldn't matter that much. fish swim sides ways to the length would be a issue.

1ft doesn't sound very deep.. even 18" would barely provide any up and down swimming room. They may be top dwelling fish but they still like to have some room to swim below water. My 10g is over 1' deep. The arowanas would be partially out of the water or scraping the bottom.

I really don't want to go up to 2' becasue I'm worried about weight. What about 20"?

even 18" would barely provide any up and down swimming room

as chris pointed out, fish swim side to side, not up and down. But I get what you are saying about the scraping along the bottom thing. I wanted to house FW rays in there too, so I should allow some space.

Last edited by djtj at 28-Apr-2005 20:31

You can't tell me arowanas do not swim toward the bottom ever. I've watched the 12-14" ones at the lfs use the entire 18" of depth in their 4' wide hex tank. They can also reach quite a bit of speed crossing the tank. The rays they have cover the whole depth of the tank and will curl their lip over the edge. The one ray likes it's stomach rubbed They only keep 2 arowana, 2 ray, and sometimes a large cichlid in there and when the arowana get over 14" they send them on to another store or back where they got them in exchange for 2 more 6" ones.

ok, so how tall should it be?

Wow, another ambitious set-up...

To note, stingrays have been kept in 1' deep containers. On the other hand, it is true that, despite being "bottom feeders", active stingrays do have a habit of occupying all strata of the aquarium. It's up to you in the case of stingrays.

Also, though of course Arowana are primarily surface fish, I would also agree that, for an adult, 12-18" makes the fish seem... disproportionately large in comparison to the height of the tank. I would think that 2' would be a good number. Although Arowanas can and do go in other strata if they wish, you're never going to find one straight up and down unless you've scared the bajeezus out of it and given it a heart attack (arowanas have high blood pressure, if I'm not mistaken... I'm totally serious, but perhaps my sources weren't.:%)), so a three foot high tank might even be pushing it (deep tanks get hard to work with). In any case, 2' sounds like it'd be a good number.

The weight thing is a concern, though, indeed. You should probably consult an architect who can look at your home and tell you if it's even feasible; I have heard of someone who placed a large tank in their office at home only to have to remove the tank and dig up his house...

Last edited by Shinigami at 28-Apr-2005 21:20

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

I think a 1 foot depth is too little for an arowana. I have heard people do that for arowanas prior to their gill curl operations, but not all the time. Arowanas do dive and when you have rays all bundled into a 1 foot space you can be sure that there are going to be clashes when the rays "fly" into the arowana's way.

You would be having fine sand in the tank since rays prefer them right? That would take away some depth in the tank already. I am housing an arowana and my tank has a 2 feet depth, and trust me, my guy rules all layers of the tank.

Then I'll see. If the floor is strong enough, I will buy the aro. If not, I'll just do a ray tank. I'll have to consult some people. Anyway, if you really want to understand what I'm doing in depth, check this out

I'd second the 2' height for the arowanas. You might get away with 20" but 2' would be best. Rays can be quite happy in shallow tanks although they do like to use every inch you give them. I was thinking of an indoor ray pond someday