Split off from here https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/...d-arowana-species.722649/page-29#post-8280864
Oooh, I just read this post. Been off MFK for quite a good long while due to many reasons, so many and so bad that I should also join any forum I can Google with : Oh God! Why me?????
Anyway, I have just started an Asian arowana community on 2nd September. It has so far turned out well. Only one fish that was quite badly injured to date, where it has to be isolated for treatment. But since I am upgrading again, the LFS will take the injured fish back and nurse it back to health for sale (there wasn't permanent damage, at least I was assured of that, and that fish is beautiful in his own right, just overly aggressive and ambitious enough to take on the biggest in the tank). I have added new fish twice since early September. And luckily for me (note : each arowana has their own personality, what happens in my tank must never be used as reference), to my surprise, there were no major fights. In fact, it was rather peaceful. I do get lost scales n torn fins, with torn fins almost on all of them, but lost scales....average 1 scale/week from the whole community.
I started with 8 pieces, now it stands at 12 strong. Supposed to be 13, but one little one (a sumo crossbelly XB MGBB) thinks he's Rambo. The little one still didn't suffer serious injuries, only 4 scales lost. But due to the how precious he is to me, it's now in a solo tank while waiting for another occupant in my house to move for an upgrade.
Tiny swimming among the big boys
This is what I did. I am not saying I did all the right things, but my community did remain peaceful for now except the occasional one day violence which I had to attend to.
First, always introduce new arowana in numbers by batch. Try not to just add one in, cuz that one will be so easy to recognise n harassed.
Second, have the equipment to your tank (I'm talking about the wavemakers and aeration tube connected to an air pump of course) such that they can be easily reconfigured or rearranged. This part, in my experience is very important. I got those long (1 feet to 1.5 feet aeration tubes).
Third, always have standby tank. And of course, always have your 'WEAPONS' and I would strongly suggest standby air pumps. I also strongly recommend that the air pumps you're getting is overkill (double the output of your regular ones). You'll find them very useful. I have two powerful ones with additional hose n aeration tube ready for deployment.
Your weapons are the high powered air pumps. They create much more current than wavemakers. I chose long aeration tube as I can choose to put them from back to front. This creates some sort of wall and hence compartments. I only do this when I see fights or adding new fishes. The sudden compartmentalised tank combined with sudden high powered aeration confuses the incumbent, and they'll also be busy fighting the current than bother who's new or fight. All the excitement on fighting the current will die down the next day or max the day after that. That's when you'll need to rearrange the tubes again to keep them confused, but by 3rd day, you should be able to turn on one of the higher powered air pumps for observation. If fighting gets bad, just turn it on again for6 hours maybe. You can switch them off for feeding, if they are up for it too, but keep them on if you see fighting or you're not able to see (ie. When you sleep). Those high powered air pump of course aren't meant to be there for the long term. I just use them to change tank environment n break up fights. Once the fighting doesn't seem serious, please turn them off. And if you see your tank looks like a big volume of water boiling with arowanas thrown all around, stop the pump immediately, it means the pump is not suitable. Too powerful.
Still assuming you can keep water parameters at tip top conditions at all times, actually I have noticed that more space doesn't mean less fight. In fact, they fight more. I'm not talking sardine packed. But you don't need a lot of space. That is because before arowana fight, both will swim circular motions (some South East asians call it fight club) It's almost 98% of time they do this before they fight. I didn't read, but I'm just assuming they are sizing each other and it's easier to avoid a bite this way as they can move their tails away faster. This is the interesting part when too much of space is bad. Too much space, the fight club gets to continue until they keep attacking. But when you have a more packed environment, a fight club very hardly lasts as there's a very good chance another arowana oblivious to what's happening will swim right through the fight club, breaking the fight. Most of the time the fighters will be a bit confused who they wanted to fight earlier, and then pick a fight with the one next to it, and the cycle goes on...... this is proven from my own experience. And a fight club will also not last if one of them swims away too. Not to say that you don't need a big tank, just that when they are all in the mood to fight, don't let them have too much open space. The fighting usually gets less as they grow bigger. My own experience is that it's only the smaller ones that does most of the fighting. The bigger ones only fight back when attacked. But the bigger ones can wreak serious damage when they panic (eg. Sudden power cut, where lights are all off or any sudden change of environment), their defensive instinct could be all maxed up, and will attack anything. I once had a red killing off all its tank mates (non arowana) during a power cut.
Water parameters soon..... Then in an arowana community, I was told they must be well fed almost at all times. I do not wish to try what will happen if I miss their meal by more than 2 days. Even their day where I'm supposed to give them a break, I still throw in some fish pellets....almost all will eat some.
Now water parameters, oh bro, you better know your water parameters very well. And your filtration more than capable. You should also understand how your filter works, as in what part is for what function. I'm sure many good experienced people here have already advised you, so, I won't go there. Many people here will be able to tell you real life experience where it could be something very minor overlooked, and your whole tank could be in fish heaven.
I would risk it and assume either you're super intelligent and a very fast learner, you'll be able to sort them out and manage your arowana comm.
There are good and bad about comm tanks. Let's talk bad. You'll never ever hardly get picture perfect arowana in your tank. Torn fins n lost scales are considered very minor. Bits of flesh bitten out, broken fin bones are not uncommon too. You should also mentally prepare that some may be killed. And those beautiful pictures of arowanas you see online? It's close to impossible to get any of your comm arowana to that sort of beauty level even if they have the best genes. Just remember that a community arowana can never look as beautiful as one through solo grooming (assuming all others are same like genes).
The good part, they are much more interesting to look at compared to a solo arowana tank. I had solo arowana tanks for close to 2 decades, n this is a fresh experience and I love this experience. Here's another reason why you'd want extremely capable filters, go overkill if you have to. Community arowana grows much faster than those in solo tanks. They also have much more balanced diet usually as they will almost take any food. I'd think it's a 'monkey see monkey do mentality. I was pleasantly truly surprised by their growth rate and appetite. So much so, I had to limit their intake.
Wish you the best, and please do listen to the advises of a lot of experienced keepers here. They do know what they are talking about.
Oooh, I just read this post. Been off MFK for quite a good long while due to many reasons, so many and so bad that I should also join any forum I can Google with : Oh God! Why me?????
Anyway, I have just started an Asian arowana community on 2nd September. It has so far turned out well. Only one fish that was quite badly injured to date, where it has to be isolated for treatment. But since I am upgrading again, the LFS will take the injured fish back and nurse it back to health for sale (there wasn't permanent damage, at least I was assured of that, and that fish is beautiful in his own right, just overly aggressive and ambitious enough to take on the biggest in the tank). I have added new fish twice since early September. And luckily for me (note : each arowana has their own personality, what happens in my tank must never be used as reference), to my surprise, there were no major fights. In fact, it was rather peaceful. I do get lost scales n torn fins, with torn fins almost on all of them, but lost scales....average 1 scale/week from the whole community.
I started with 8 pieces, now it stands at 12 strong. Supposed to be 13, but one little one (a sumo crossbelly XB MGBB) thinks he's Rambo. The little one still didn't suffer serious injuries, only 4 scales lost. But due to the how precious he is to me, it's now in a solo tank while waiting for another occupant in my house to move for an upgrade.
Tiny swimming among the big boys
This is what I did. I am not saying I did all the right things, but my community did remain peaceful for now except the occasional one day violence which I had to attend to.
First, always introduce new arowana in numbers by batch. Try not to just add one in, cuz that one will be so easy to recognise n harassed.
Second, have the equipment to your tank (I'm talking about the wavemakers and aeration tube connected to an air pump of course) such that they can be easily reconfigured or rearranged. This part, in my experience is very important. I got those long (1 feet to 1.5 feet aeration tubes).
Third, always have standby tank. And of course, always have your 'WEAPONS' and I would strongly suggest standby air pumps. I also strongly recommend that the air pumps you're getting is overkill (double the output of your regular ones). You'll find them very useful. I have two powerful ones with additional hose n aeration tube ready for deployment.
Your weapons are the high powered air pumps. They create much more current than wavemakers. I chose long aeration tube as I can choose to put them from back to front. This creates some sort of wall and hence compartments. I only do this when I see fights or adding new fishes. The sudden compartmentalised tank combined with sudden high powered aeration confuses the incumbent, and they'll also be busy fighting the current than bother who's new or fight. All the excitement on fighting the current will die down the next day or max the day after that. That's when you'll need to rearrange the tubes again to keep them confused, but by 3rd day, you should be able to turn on one of the higher powered air pumps for observation. If fighting gets bad, just turn it on again for6 hours maybe. You can switch them off for feeding, if they are up for it too, but keep them on if you see fighting or you're not able to see (ie. When you sleep). Those high powered air pump of course aren't meant to be there for the long term. I just use them to change tank environment n break up fights. Once the fighting doesn't seem serious, please turn them off. And if you see your tank looks like a big volume of water boiling with arowanas thrown all around, stop the pump immediately, it means the pump is not suitable. Too powerful.
Still assuming you can keep water parameters at tip top conditions at all times, actually I have noticed that more space doesn't mean less fight. In fact, they fight more. I'm not talking sardine packed. But you don't need a lot of space. That is because before arowana fight, both will swim circular motions (some South East asians call it fight club) It's almost 98% of time they do this before they fight. I didn't read, but I'm just assuming they are sizing each other and it's easier to avoid a bite this way as they can move their tails away faster. This is the interesting part when too much of space is bad. Too much space, the fight club gets to continue until they keep attacking. But when you have a more packed environment, a fight club very hardly lasts as there's a very good chance another arowana oblivious to what's happening will swim right through the fight club, breaking the fight. Most of the time the fighters will be a bit confused who they wanted to fight earlier, and then pick a fight with the one next to it, and the cycle goes on...... this is proven from my own experience. And a fight club will also not last if one of them swims away too. Not to say that you don't need a big tank, just that when they are all in the mood to fight, don't let them have too much open space. The fighting usually gets less as they grow bigger. My own experience is that it's only the smaller ones that does most of the fighting. The bigger ones only fight back when attacked. But the bigger ones can wreak serious damage when they panic (eg. Sudden power cut, where lights are all off or any sudden change of environment), their defensive instinct could be all maxed up, and will attack anything. I once had a red killing off all its tank mates (non arowana) during a power cut.
Water parameters soon..... Then in an arowana community, I was told they must be well fed almost at all times. I do not wish to try what will happen if I miss their meal by more than 2 days. Even their day where I'm supposed to give them a break, I still throw in some fish pellets....almost all will eat some.
Now water parameters, oh bro, you better know your water parameters very well. And your filtration more than capable. You should also understand how your filter works, as in what part is for what function. I'm sure many good experienced people here have already advised you, so, I won't go there. Many people here will be able to tell you real life experience where it could be something very minor overlooked, and your whole tank could be in fish heaven.
I would risk it and assume either you're super intelligent and a very fast learner, you'll be able to sort them out and manage your arowana comm.
There are good and bad about comm tanks. Let's talk bad. You'll never ever hardly get picture perfect arowana in your tank. Torn fins n lost scales are considered very minor. Bits of flesh bitten out, broken fin bones are not uncommon too. You should also mentally prepare that some may be killed. And those beautiful pictures of arowanas you see online? It's close to impossible to get any of your comm arowana to that sort of beauty level even if they have the best genes. Just remember that a community arowana can never look as beautiful as one through solo grooming (assuming all others are same like genes).
The good part, they are much more interesting to look at compared to a solo arowana tank. I had solo arowana tanks for close to 2 decades, n this is a fresh experience and I love this experience. Here's another reason why you'd want extremely capable filters, go overkill if you have to. Community arowana grows much faster than those in solo tanks. They also have much more balanced diet usually as they will almost take any food. I'd think it's a 'monkey see monkey do mentality. I was pleasantly truly surprised by their growth rate and appetite. So much so, I had to limit their intake.
Wish you the best, and please do listen to the advises of a lot of experienced keepers here. They do know what they are talking about.
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