How to Keep Silver Arowana? Detailed Guide to Breeding Methods and Precautions
The body of the Silver Arowana has a metallic silver appearance, containing mixed colors of cobalt blue, blue, and cyan, shimmering and dazzling, very noble, as if it were nobility among fish, deeply fascinating. How much do you know about the Silver Arowana? Do you know how to properly keep a Silver Arowana? Here is a comprehensive introduction to how to keep a Silver Arowana:
Introducing a New Silver Arowana into the Tank
1. When a new Silver Arowana has just been purchased, the air pump in the fish tank should be run for at least 24 hours to thoroughly eliminate chlorine from the water. If a biological filter is used continuously, it is best to let the water reach a pH of 6-7 and a water temperature of 25°C.
2. Add a small amount of table salt to the fish tank (approximately 1 or 2 teaspoons per 5 gallons or 20 liters of water) to reduce the risk of fungal attacks, keep the fish healthy, and boost its appetite.
3. If conditions permit, it is best to take water from the original tank of the new fish and add it to your own tank (if the water in the original tank is fine), preferably about 1/3, to help the new fish cope with adverse reactions to sudden environmental changes. It is recommended to raise arowanas from a young age.
4. Since arowanas are large fish, the tank should be at least 1.5 m long, 0.5 m wide, and 0.7 m high. The tank must have a cover, as arowanas are fish that swim in the upper layers and like to jump, to prevent them from jumping out of the tank when no one is around and suffocating to death.
Tip: Silver Arowanas are robust, grow quickly, and have a large appetite. They have a fierce temperament, can swallow small fish, and are not suitable for mixed keeping with other fish.
Daily Care of Silver Arowana
1. Water changes: Change at least 20%-30% of the water every week, and do not let the temperature or pH change suddenly, as sudden changes can cause the sudden death of the arowana. Be very careful when changing water to avoid startling the arowana. Also, when keeping arowanas, be sure to avoid completely replacing the water with new water, otherwise it will harm the fish. If you see the arowana's fins and scales falling off, it is caused by changing too much water; you can pause water changes and they will naturally recover. However, the amount of water changed should not be too little either, as too little will make the fins become opaque, the eyeballs cloudy, and in severe cases cause the gill covers to turn up.
2. Lighting: Red Arowanas need a lot of light, preferably up to 4 hours of light per day. Other arowanas should also preferably get up to 8 hours of light. Some fish keepers, for example those keeping Red Arowanas, like to use red light to illuminate Red Arowanas to achieve better results. The best lighting for arowanas is natural sunlight during the day; long-term use of artificial light will darken the arowana's back.
3. Filtration: Juvenile arowanas are too large in body shape, so they are not very suitable for keeping in planted tanks. If the tank is large, then the filtration issue becomes more prominent. Filtration systems suitable for arowana keeping mainly include top filters, external filters, top + pumped sand layer filters, and overflow filters. But note that when setting up an arowana tank, you should consider installing a water pump (surf pump), as the benefits are great: first, it can create a strong water flow; second, it increases the dissolved oxygen content in the water; third, and more importantly, it can keep the arowana exercising to maintain a graceful body shape; fourth, also very importantly, it can prevent the arowana from developing gill curl, and when gill curl occurs, the curled gills can be trimmed, and using a water pump during the recovery period can help the growing gill flaps grow smoothly.
Silver Arowana Feeding Management
1. When arowanas eat, they may hit a certain angle of the tank too forcefully and get injured, so it is best to feed in the middle of the fish tank. Arowanas are carnivorous animals, and most arowana diets include frogs, loaches, crickets, goldfish, grasshoppers, small shrimp, and so on.
2. There is a color enhancement issue in feeding; for example, for Red Arowanas, feeding red swordtails or small shrimp has a certain effect on enhancing the red color of Red Arowanas, because the bodies of red swordtails and small shrimp contain red pigment.
3. Juvenile fish under 12 cm have just started eating live bait. At this time, you can feed freshly molted white mealworms, small shrimp (be sure to remove the head and tail, and preferably peel them into shrimp balls to avoid the hard shell injuring their digestive tract), bloodworms, and other relatively palatable bait. Feed small amounts more frequently, four times a day.
4. Small arowanas around 15 cm can be fed normal mealworms and small shrimp (it is best to remove the shrimp rostrum from small shrimp), and can also be fed 1.5 cm small fish. At this time, the arowana grows rapidly and has an astonishing appetite. The feeding frequency and amount can be appropriately increased.
5. Arowanas over 20 cm can be fed larger fish, shrimp, loaches, meat chunks, and other bait. Various insects and other live bait can also be fed; these are all foods that arowanas like, but be careful not to let these baits become contaminated.
In addition, internal organs, especially the liver, are not suitable for feeding arowanas, as their relatively high fat content can cause diseases in arowanas. Among live bait, goldfish is not a good bait. For artificial bait, it is best to use beef with a relatively low fat content; of course, you can also buy finished special arowana bait.
Common Diseases of Silver Arowana
1. Drooping Eye Syndrome
Caused by long-term feeding of food from the bottom layer; if returned to a pond, it will recover. Cover the entire fish tank with opaque black paper, add a white lamp above the tank, feed food from the top layer, or place an object at the top of the tank to attract the Silver Arowana's attention; after 3 months, remove the black paper.
2. Gill Curl Syndrome
Caused by unclean water quality, insufficient space, insufficient dissolved oxygen, and sudden water temperature changes. In the initial stage of the disease, irregular movement of the fish gills can be seen, breathing is rapid, the soft membrane on the gill cover turns outward rather than inward, and the red color of the fish gills can be seen. Change the water quality as soon as possible and provide more oxygen; the fish gills will change from soft to hard, and with no other choice, surgery can only be performed.
[Surgery requires] scissors, gloves, disinfectant alcohol, a clean and moist cloth, and anesthetic.
[Method of operation] Find a clean plastic bag, put water in the bag, place the Silver Arowana in the bag, add anesthetic to the water in the bag, wait for the anesthetic to take effect, take the Silver Arowana out of the bag and place it on a clean and moist cloth, use scissors (make sure they are disinfected) to perform trimming, then put the Silver Arowana back into the tank, increase the dissolved oxygen content, and after the arowana regains consciousness, let it rest and let it rest under dim conditions. If the Silver Arowana has no interest in food at all, siphon and replace 20%-30% of the water every day, change the water quality for 6 days, and add table salt to reduce the risk of parasite attacks.
3. White Spot Disease
Caused by parasitic protozoa, with small white spots covering a certain part or most of the Silver Arowana's body. It mainly affects the fins and reduces the arowana's appetite, and the Silver Arowana is often seen rubbing its body. Raise the temperature to 30 or even 34°C and add 3% concentration of table salt. If it still does not work, it must be treated separately in a medicated tank. Main symptoms: white spots spread all over the diseased fish's body, like white powder sprinkled on it; in severe cases, it looks like a milky white film covering the fish's body. Cause of onset: caused by Ichthyophthirius multifiliis parasitizing the fish body. Main prevention and control measures:
① Sprinkle 0.1-0.2 ppm mercurous nitrate over the entire pond.
② Sprinkle 500 ppm copper sulfate and 500 ppm magnesium sulfate over the entire pond.