FishProfiles.com Message Forums

ok, it was brought to my attention that my years of spreading that a silver arowana should have at least 300 gallons is wrong.

Aparently it is ok to have 3 in a 180 gallon tank, or so says the "top" guy of predator fish on yahoo answers.


Anyway, i was always taught that the silver arowana needs 300 gallons in a home aquarium at least. So when i heard 3 in a 180,i confronted him and my life there has been going down daily.


So what do you think, how many gallons

He's probably talking about bioload and using high filtration to cope, and in terms of waste it probably is theoretically possible, but anyone who thinks an adult arowana only needs 180 gals of environmental space is an utter nitwit, and you can tell him that from me. A near on 3 ft adult, in a 180 gal? In my book thats pretty much fish abuse, and as for having three... if hes not talking about juvenile specimens i'll go get my shotgun.

If people really gave a flying fart about their adult arowanas theyd put them in 2000 gal pools, complete with a clear area to facilitate their jumping and dire need of visual stimulation above water level. A 300 gal is actually pretty small for such a big fish, but it will pass. Smaller is an idiots mistake. Guy sounds like your typical idiot of a monsterfishkeeper. Top man huh, yeah right.

This is akin to suggesting people keep cats in a box, and never let dogs out the house, budgies in hamstercages, and bettas in cups, goldfish in bowls. This guy might know how to run a tank, but as for a top guy, most definately not. Ive met many such vaunted "experts" who make such incredibly glaring beginners mistakes. They dont deserve the title.

Ignore his flawed advice is my advice to you. He's obviously not correct. Even pros can be idiotic on occassion and this is a good example. Ive met a lot of "experts" talk such bulldung, its usually because their peer group isnt very good, or no-one has the nuts to argue with them, ive met vets, zookeepers and people with PHD's who can be that stupid, trust me.

Go fish in a bigger pond where the pros are better.

thank you longhairedgit

it gets to me sometimes, also another one is when i was taught that koi need 2000 gallons to fully develop, but again was corrected and told that 150 gallon is enougnh

Sounds like a persistant theme going on wherever you are talking to these people. For true maturation koi do really need a pond or a lake, better yet is for their growth to be at a normal rate in cool water. People forget that they get over 2 feet. My uncle pete has a lake and his koi are so big, having grown contentedly there for the last 25 years or so as to be beyond most peoples wildest dreams of a carp. Theres no way anyone could be expected to match that size in an aquarium, and since the lake is normal... then how can what their be describing be normal development, especially as the difference in fish size and health not to mention longevity is so staggering? Hyped temps and small raising conditions is exactly why a lot of koi officionados wont touch isreali koi for instance, they dont want a koi that has gained weight abnormally fast or cant tolerate winter temps and has to be kept indoors in suboptimal conditions, or go through the risks of cold adapting them. A good koi is raised slowly in a large , cool , body of water, fed sensibly according to season, and will be a tougher, stronger, bigger and most importantly much longer lived fish with a decent life quality, and a joy for most of your life.

Maybe you can keep a failrly massive fish like an african lungfish in a smallish body of water, because the truth be told, they hardly move and have a lung, but active fish like koi and arowana who swim, jump, rush, root about and cruise? No way. Arowana in particular are quick witted and intelligent, far moreso than a koi, and to expect one of those to live in an aquaria barely big enough to turn around in is outright cruelty. My jerdons carp is already getting too big for a 250... he's just too damn fast.



I think these people youre chatting with are to be firmly ignored.

To expand upon the many salient points LHG has covered above ... a fully grown adult Silver Arowana, Osteoglossum bicirrhosum, is a metre-long fish when fully grown. Which means that its minimum space requirements based upon body size alone, neglecting other factors, in order to give it swimming room and turning space, will require a surface to the aquarium that is a 6ft x 6ft square. Ideally, you need to give it more, and if you're keeping several of these fishes, you need to expand that accordingly, so that for 3 adult specimens, I would be looking at providing the fishes with something like a 12ft x 12ft square area to the water surface to give them room to move, flex their fins and engage in something approaching natural behaviour.

Once you throw in the two other factors LHG covers - the need for plenty of complex visual features above the waterline in order to provide them with the stimulus they need to prevent vision problems later in life - and the fact that these fishes are rocket-propelled jumpers, matters become more complex still. So, you have to dedicate a room entirely to the fishes, and furnish that room in such a manner as to resemble a stretch of Amazonian riverbank, providing the fishes with natural looking terrestrial scenery along the sides of the living quarters, which by this stage are starting to become more of an indoor pond than an aquarium. Even if one restricts the depth of the pond to just 2 feet because the fishes are surface dwellers and tend to stick close to the surface, the resulting body of water is nearly 1,800 UK gallons (2,154 US gallons). Increase the depth in order to facilitate the keeping of other fishes, and that volume rises accordingly. This poses some nice problems in civil engineering to overcome as well, not to mention the tricky matter of arranging the life support technology and its electrical power supply to be provided in a safe manner.

Basically, if you can't set up an indoor pond of this kind, and provide the fishes with the kind of largesse that will enable them to live reasonably natural lives therein, it's best not to buy them, certainly in my view.

Oh, to make matters worse, I recently saw a YouTube video uploaded by a Thai aquarist, who is going to have some major financial and civil engineering headaches in the not too distant future, because his aquarium contains - wait for it - an Arapaima. This fish is already approaching five feet in length and still growing with all the vigour one expects of a juvenile fish. THAT fish, to be kept properly in an aquarium, is going to need VAST quarters - does this Thai aquarist have access to a disused B-52 bomber hangar to house the aquarium needed? Because when that fish grows up, it will NEED one.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

That person is currently raising this fish???

http://www.iwokrama.org/forest/animals/arapaima.htm

You have GOT to be kidding!!!

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

heres one of his arowana responces.

second post.

I guess on yahoo, he is the only "qualified"person to answer arowana questions...

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AocCx9Xfe76kUbkYuvP7PSbty6IX?qid=20070803071533AAbMXwy&show=7#profile-info-LxAGRKGZaa


But he needs to be called out, frankly he doesnt know much, and frankly most of their "group" that follow my threads on their forum and vote down,,, dot know very much. As it is quite clear that they post info stolen from websites.

I believe he doesnt understand how large an arowana gets, and doesnt care as long as he can keep them in a small tank.

He is to me, like one of those people who you would just like to smack him silly... but then again i guess he is the only one qualified to answer these questions...shame.

Hmmm, maybe I should make his aquaintance

That person is currently raising this fish???

http://www.iwokrama.org/forest/animals/arapaima.htm

You have GOT to be kidding!!!

Nope, I'm not kidding ...



Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Arowanas get enormous, especially silvers. I've seen a massive one (Baltimore Aquarium, for those in the area) that basically defied all my previous imagination of what an adult arowana looks like. It was absolutely enormous, and way bigger and thicker than you think such a basically eel-like fish should be like. It easily looked over three feet long, but maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me. Anyway, three arowana in a 180 gallon aquarium isn't a permanent set-up; I'd be surprised if it lasted a year starting from juveniles. Apparently this person hasn't seen a really old arowana. I mean, arowana can get pretty big in a 180 gallon, but I can't imagine the 3+ ft beast I saw at the Baltimore Aquarium in a box like that.

Housing an arapaima is ridiculous. Although they technically don't move that fast, as big as an arapaima is they still need a ton of room, never mind maximum recorded lengths. The average arapaima I've seen still exceeds the size of a small child, and look at how much room those need to play around in. Though, on the other hand, I'm not sure the public aquariums and zoos I've been to that have them actually have B-52 hangar-sized set-ups, and those arapaima seem healthy enough.

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

I recently started a 265 gallon tank. I am not done with my cycle yet but when i am i was planing on getting an arowana. So everyone agrees my tank is too small........75 inchs long 26 wide and 37 high. There are differnt types of arowana and i dont think they sell the ones that reach 47 inches in the wild......i have to get the name of the one in my fish store...

i believe jardini arowanas get smaller than silvers and will be fine with your galons, But the problem is, jardinis are not very tolerant with other fishes, so your stocking may be only limited to getting only 1 fish which would be the jardini.