My Silver Arowanas

One of the first fish that I bought was the silver arowana. I bought a pair to be exact. The arowana resembled the chinese dragon and it fascinated me. I love the way it calmly swims. They have that majestic look to them. Many feng shui experts say that arowanas bring good luck to the keepers and their family. In fact they say it is bad to sell your arowana because that is like giving your luck away. And I can attest to this. The last time I sold one of my arowanas my car immediately broke down, my tank cracked, and my filter died on me. It's even been said that if you have raised an arowana for a long time they would die to shield their owners from really bad accidents. However, that is simply a superstition and I have no idea if that is true or not.

When I bought my silver arowanas they were about 6 inches. At that size they are extremely fragile until they hit 12 inches where they become stronger and hardier. One of the most important thing about taking care of arowanas is the water quality. The acid and nitrate needs to be low. I keep my tank around 75-80 degrees. I don't want to keep the temperature too high because the fish will become more active, eat more, and grow out of the tank faster.

My Silver Arowanas with dropeyes. His eye is faced downward.

Silver arowanas are known for having drop-eyes where one of their eyes will face downward. There are no cures for drop-eyes. Some experts believe that it is most likely genetics, due mass breeding. It can also be due to the pressure of the tanks and constantly searching for food at the bottom of the tanks. But overall, this defect won't affect their growth or health in general. Many hobbyists don't like the fact that Silver arowanas have drop-eyes and would prefer to raise other arowanas, such as black arowanas or australian arowanas. Other kinds of arowana like the asian arowanas don't normally have drop-eye symptoms because they are not as mass breeded as the silver arowana and their genes are selected with more care. The silver arowana is the most common of the arowana species. Even both of my arowanas have drop-eyes but they are still perfectly fine.

For food, I give my arowanas a variety of different foods to help bring out the color of their scale. I normally feed them beef heart to help bring out their colors because beef heart is packed with the right nutrition and minerals to make their scale vibrant. I feed them squid and shrimp because it contains potassium, a necessary nutrient for their health. I feed them feeder goldfish and cockeroaches (yes you read right. Cockeroaches) as treats because these contains the proteins to help recreate the  eco-food chain found in their natural habitat.  

Currently my arowanas are 24 inches. I have raised them for over 3 years and they are not quite fully grown yet. The adults can reach up to three feet. But unfortuately my 125 gallon probably won't support that kind of size. I'll be upgrading my tank to 180 gallons.