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will a small shovel nose cat be ok in a 125 gallon with a small silver arowana for 6 months. a larger tank is on order.

6 months is probably fine, but a large tank definitely will have to come in as Limas get approximately 2' long and Arowanas can get even longer. Large Pims do grow exceedingly quick, possibly exceeding an inch or perhaps even two per month if especially well fed, but if for only 6 months it should be fine. Mind you, a tank large enough to hold an Arowana AND a Lima Shovelnose are past All-Glass Standard sizes, so you should be properly prepared.

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

For now, you're OK, but as stated above, for those fishes a 125 gallon, big as it seems, is a temporary home.

Your Lima Shovelnose will be looking at nearer 250 gallons as it grows, and the Arowana around 300. if you want those fishes to share the same home, you're looking ultimately at a very large setup ... the Lima Shovelnose will hit 2 feet in length and the Arowana - if it's one of the South American ones - will reach 3 feet with ease. You'll also have the fun of keeping that huge aquarium covered - because Arowanas are notorious jumpers, and a big one is basically an ICBM with fins. If it goes carpet surfing, it'll land with a very loud 'thud' - and if it lands on a glass coffee table it'll shatter it! Bear in mind you're looking at a 25 lb fish in the case of the Arowana, and a 15 lb fish in the case of the Lima Shovelnose, and these are fairly substantial fishes to have jumping around in your living room!

You're looking ultimately at keeping those fishes in a tank that's at least 8 feet long and 3 feet wide - you need it that wide so that the Arowana can turn around. Even if it's fairly shallow (say 2 feet deep) that's still 299 UK gallons, or 359 US gallons (1,359 litres). Got space for this beast? Plus, have you ever tried a gravel vac on a tank that size?

Basically, even supposedly simple maintenance tasks, when scaled up for that size of aquarium, start to take on a fairly daunting aspect unless you're dedicated. Take my water change and gravel vac earlier today - in two modest sized aquaria, that took an hour. I dumped something like 60 litres of old water in total and replaced it with 65 litres of new (making up for evaporation losses and the fact that my aquaria had been somewhat neglected while recovering from my stint in hospital). So I shifted 125 litres of water around, which is 125 kilograms in total. That was approximately a 50% water change in each of the two aquaria.

If you do a 25% water change and a gravel vac on that system, you're going to be shifting 340 litres out and 340 litres in - 680 litres of water in total. You're going to be shifting more than half a ton of water every time you do a 25% water change and gravel vac. You're going to have quite a bit of fun with the logistics of that operation. Furthermore, because those two fishes are fairly messy eaters, they'll foul the water pretty quickly. So if you don't want to find yourself shifting half a ton of water twice a week, you'll need a decent filtration system for that big setup. Welcome to big capital expense and fairly hefty running costs. If you're prepared to take this on, and you have the funds to do it, go ahead. I just don't want you to launch into this without your eyes being fully open as to what you'll be facing!

Even an 8 feet by 3 feet by 2 feet aquarium is a custom made job, built on site. Nice and expensive. An immovable object of hefty proportions once constructed, and once full of water, a constant load of around 1700 Kg on your floor joists. Sure they can take that? If it's a concrete floor in a basement, no problem. I'd think twice about putting an aquarium that size across standard house floor joists though. Heating it and keeping the water clean is going to involve some interesting electricity bills, and more capital outlay for the necessary technology. Big external Eheim filter is going to be mandatory for that system with those fishes in it. Yay huge fun.

At this point, you should be VERY glad you did NOT buy a Red Tailed Catfish, because the long-term home for one of those would involve you in some serious civil engineering - you would probably have to excavate a complete new basement room to house the behemoth of an aquarium that fish would need, and you'd be constructing the aquarium on site using a jib crane. No, I am NOT kidding. You'd be building an aquarium half the size of my living room for that fish - call it 4,000 gallons - and the glass panels for that would be something else. Next time you hear of someone buying one of those fishes without properly researching its long term needs, laugh at what they will be facing if they want to keep it ...


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

good thing it isn't my money

the plan is to house these fish for a few months as in FL right now, my family is apart of a big car company, and they want a "dazziler" center show tank, i already had the sliver arowana for 4 months(alittle over) and waiting till the custom tank is built, so i was debating to get the lima now, or later.

i believe the sketch is for a low rim open tank(not sure how well it will work out with an arowana) in the middle of the show room, so about 7-9 feet long, and 5 feet wide. but only like 5 feet tall with plants around the tank. and i think the idea was to make a waterfall "theme" so like the tanks at the bass pro shops with the waterfall.

Ah, corporate project this one? In which case, money should be no object.

Even if this tank is only 3 feet deep, a 9 feet x 5 feet tank should be fairly impressive ... 9ft x 5ft x 3ft is 3,822 litres or 1,010 US gallons. 9ft x 5ft x 5ft would be 6,371 litres, or 1,401 US gallons. If the idea is to run that with a waterfall feature, then that could be incorporated as the output of a big external power filter, which should aid water quality management quite a bit. Mind you, having that as an open top aquarium with a South American Arowana in it could result in some interesting management problems. A 3ft Arowana sailing through the air will have an interesting effect upon any customers that happen to be walking past, and if that fish lands on a car windscreen, hey ho, again, all manner of fun and games could result ...

Wouldn't mind seeing a photo of the finished aquarium though!




Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002