Hello, so starting a month or two ago my small silver arowana (around 4 inches) stopped swimming at the top of the water, and spends the entire day hiding near the bottom of the tank behind driftwood. There's nothing wrong with it from what I can tell, and it looks great, even grew a whole inch while spending most of its time hiding. The one exception is when it is hungry, during which it will swim up to the top and front of the glass. Once it is adequately fed it goes into hiding again. Not really sure what caused this sudden change in behavior, wondering if anyone has experienced something like this?
Silver arowana hides 95% of the time
- Thread starter doorknobsink
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Juvenile silver arowanas are very skittish. This isn’t a unexpected behavior. Till it gets bigger this will likely continue. Would make sure ur water is pristine.
How large is your tank, any other tankmates, how bright is light, any cover in top reaches of tank?
I agree with the above small Aro's seem to be shy often, and there are environmental factors that can make it better or worse as well.
I agree with the above small Aro's seem to be shy often, and there are environmental factors that can make it better or worse as well.
75g, 3 skirt tetras. The light is one T5 bulb across the length, the tank is pretty decently planted. Usually some moss and water sprite floating at the top, but def not enough to cover all surface.
well, in general dimmer lights, more cover especially up top, more tankmates (not aggressive ones though), are some things that might make the fish more confident. It may just be that it is a small fish in what is (for now) a big tank. If it's eating and seems healthy I would expect it to grow out of it.
Ahh got it. More tankmates would make it more confident? Can't believe there is the possibility of the tank being too big and intimidating it haha. Definitely will leave some more plants floating around.
More tankmates that act as "dither fish" specifically; your tetras fit the bill for this. Small fish happily swimming around signal to other fish that there are no predators near, is the theory at least. Seems to work very well with some species to get them to stop hiding.
And the tank is large for a 4" aro, yes that may be part of the problem as far as being shy. But it won't be big for very long, I wouldn't move him into a smaller tank or anything. Just wait it out, if he is eating I bet by 6-7" he is more confident.
@Gourami Swami is on point I personally have raised 4 inch Silver Arowana and they instinctively were like yours and when they grew around the 8 inch mark got bolder lol.