This fish has many different variations leading to huge differences is pricing. The Australian version of the Arowana is the Saratoga, both the Jardini and Leichardti are great additions, they uphold the same characteristics as the Arowana’s found overseas, its just they are legal within Australia.
The silver Arowana is by far the most common and popular in the United States due to its cheap price and small starting size. You must not be fooled however, for it can grow up to 2 feet in length and easily break through aquarium glass if it becomes startled or angry.
Other variations include the Green Arowana, which is slightly more expensive and then the RTG variety, which are imported from overseas with a microchip.
RTG species are near extinction and so there prices have become astronomical, around $1000-5000 for a single fish. If you are not an experienced hobbyist then don’t even bother. They are the same as any other type of arowana, it is just they are becoming so rare that the price and demand has gone through the roof.
Arowana’s will need to be fed a composite diet of both meat and vegetables. If just fed fatty, meaty food’s there will be a build up of fat above its eye, resulting in the unwanted “drop eye” syndrome which substantially decreases its reselling value.
Live foods will be a nice treat for these monsters although it can promote agression. They are best kept with a small school of Arowana's but of course this is most difficult due to the extremely large tank you would need. Try not to turn your Arowana sour and into a blood thirsty predator by only offering live food as a treat or occaisonal snack.
Crickets and mealworms are great and whats even better is you are able to breed these seperately to have a constant supply of food!
This fish should not be kept with any other smaller fish in the aquarium, it will need to be completely solitary unless with its own kind or other huge fish. Try to keep more than 2 if you keep a species tank as just having two can become very tetitorial.
Recommended Diet
When they are small, Arowanas should be fed live and frozen brine shrimp, black worms, and a few small fish. My friend Fred used to keep his Arowanas in an aquarium with hundreds of small White Clouds. I could see the Arowanas usually did well, but I wondered how many White Clouds were eaten by the small Arowanas.
When they are small, Arowanas should be fed live and frozen brine shrimp, black worms, and a few small fish. My friend Fred used to keep his Arowanas in an aquarium with hundreds of small White Clouds. I could see the Arowanas usually did well, but I wondered how many White Clouds were eaten by the small Arowanas.
As Arowanas grow larger they are usually fed
larger fish. Silver Arowanas have been seen
leaping out of the water to eat insects from
trees. African Arowanas will survive and grow
on the diet given above, but this fish is also
a filter-feeder, and feeding filter-feeding
fish in aquariums is usually very difficult.
Varieties Of Arowana (dragon fish)
Arowanas are much more than freshwater aquarium fish. They are highly revered in South-East Asia and South America for their ability to consume the pests which threaten to destroy the rice crop. Swimming in the dark and dank rivers and paddy fields they are best characterised as ambush predators. For some unlucky insect, beatle, centipede, millipede, frog, small bird perched on an overhanging leaf, life expectancy will be short because the arowana can leap up to 3 feet in the air at lightning speed.
Arowana Tank Size
What this means is that you must keep your carefully regulated aquarium tank tightly enclosed. Otherwise, your arowana will leap out. On no account, place other species of smaller tropical freshwater fish in your tank unless they are bottom feeders and foragers. Arowanas have voracious appetites and will consume any surface feeding smaller species. In fact they will harrass and fight with and damage other species such as oscar fish or black molly fish or plecos.Besides being agile, arowanas have good vision. Throughout the dark and dank brackish water, they wait for their prey to swim past before lunging out after them. Even though river sand, pebbles, stones and ketapang leaves and peat may form a 3 inch depth substrate at the bottom of your tank, your arowana loves to hide away from the hot 100 degrees temperatures it is accustomed to.
Arowanas are endemic to Malaysia and Brazil dependent on the species. Silver arowanas are endemic to Brazil. If you feed an adult arowana ensure that you only feed it once per week. Contrary to established practice, feeding your arowanas with live fish is not healthy because they have many parasites which spread in your arowana’s digestive system causing harm and damage.
Right food for the right size of arowana is the key fact you have to remember because they grow continuously for the first 5 years. Small arowanas consume shrimps and small tropical fish. Large arowana like goldfish sized fish.
If you put six or more goldfish in the tank your arowana will pursue them and voraciously consume them. If you put an adult frog in the tank, the arowana will hunt it down as prey.
Be aware that the super red arowana,. jardini pearl arowana, malaysian golden crossback arowana require 450 gallon tanks to swim around in when they reach full size. As do the silver arowana, black arowana from south america which are endemic to guyana and brazil where they roam the amazon and rio negro rivers.
Arowanas have trap door mouths which are deep. Since they carry their young in their mouths, this serves a dual purpose. As they are ambush predators, they require multiple hiding places in plant thickets or in driftwood. Filtration is especially important to keep the water fresh and oxygenated. Black water peat extract keeps the water dark. If the temperature is kept at 77 degrees temperature, they thrive.
What is unique about arowanas is that they have individual personalities and can be taught to recognise their keeper and trained to be called by name. Usually this is done by reinforcement training based on feeding times. When feeding time arises, your arowana will respond to the call.
Male arowanas are indeed mouth brooders. Males will incubate the eggs and young for 60 days until the young reach lengths of 3-4 inches.
Arowanas are often purchased as an investment by collectors who buy them young and sell them on for thousands of pounds worth of profit when they reach five years old. Every species of arowana requires different minimum gallon tank sizes with the 150 gallon tank being the minimum for black, Asian, jardini arowanas whereas the silver arowana requires 250 gallon minimum tank sizes.
Instead of feeding arowanas goldfishes or juvenile carp once per month, pellets and monthly fish fillets, crickets, cockroaches, centipedes, lizards, pieces of mango fruit are much more suitable for their diet. If you provide live shrimps by the handful every two months they will thrive. They even eat birds if they fall into the tank.
As arowanas mature as adults, they can reach 5 inches in 5 years and continue growing to lengths of 24 inches. In many ways they resemble tropical versions of the British pike or barbel. Another name for the arowana is bony tongue as the mouth is composed of bones which act as teeth.
Arowana Care
Tank water must be filtered continuously by an aerator air pump with thermometer regulated heat temperatures. At least 20% of the water should be changed every two days with the entire tank changed every 3 months. Limes should be added to the water to keep tank PH acidity between 6-8.5. Use 20-watt lamps to keep up the appearance of sunlight.
Always be aware that your arowana is susceptible to viruses, bacteria, fungi and any time your arowana is passive or weakly swimming on the surface with decreased appetite, broken scales, cracked fins and breathing irregularly then you have an arowana with an illness.
