Sometimes I wonder how Arowana continue to exist in the wild, or more how they survive to adulthood.

I mentioned before that I got a handful of 'em to grow out and breed. I think I've spent more time swaping them in and out of hospital tanks than any other animal I've ever kept before. Anything that's a decent size that's *not* an arowana (I've kept big goldfish in with 'em) gets along just fantastically with them. Put a few arowana together and it's instant drunken bar fight.

So I'm kinda stumped at this point. Does it make more sense to seperate them all, then introduce them when they get much larger or will them being larger mean that the fighting is just on a much larger scale? In the past with some species of turtles, that if I keep one isolated, males especially, will become absolute bastards when re-introducing them to a group. This is the theory I was going on, and what I had read on the few reports on breeding them. Granted most of the breeding reports are on the Asians, but I was hoping it would be close enough that it could apply to the silvers too.

They've got spots to hide, plants to block the views and random other things in the tank to keep them from constantly seeing each other. I have the ability to seperate them out till they get about 10 inches each, but after that they would need to go back in together.

Blah. I'd even be happy if they beat on each other like every other day or so. This constant refreeing is getting old.

How big's yer pond again, saint?

WYite

wow that's wierd

Right now, the biggest is 6 inches and the smallest is around 4 and a half. I had started them in a 75, since when I got them they still had the bits of the egg sac. Once they all lost the egg sac, they got a bit more active, and started beating the hell out of each other, so I switched them out to a preformed pond liner that I want to say is 175g, but it's a "natural" shape, kinda wiggly, that is 5 and half feet by 3 and a half feet, with some areas jutting out more than others. The larger center area is 2ft deep, some of the extensions are 16in deep. (It's supposed to be dug into the ground)

The guys at the fish farm don't sell 'em or keep 'em so they're no help, so I called the distributor they came from to ask. They said for the ones they grow out for special orders they keep up to 15 that size in a cement pool that's about 250 or so gallons (3x5x3) and they don't have too many problems. He was saying the guy who knows the most about 'em though was out today and should be back in tomorrow. He said he'd have the guy give me a call and see if we can't figure out why they're so rowdy.

Hopefully something can be done, I knew going into this that they were going to be trouble to breed. I just didn't know that they'd be a daily hassle to keep 'em from killing each other.

At this point I'm just hoping they mellow out when they get bigger. The way one eye acts with other fish in the tank is *nothing* like these babies ones do.

Worse case scenario is I have enough 60ish gallon tubs 2x3x16in (they were originally meant for hydroponic gardening) that I can screen the tops, and grow them out individually to about a foot and cross my fingers when they go into their hopefully final home.

Final home is a 10x8 pond that with the pond liner I have will end up being 2 ft 10ish inches deep.

I don't have much if any experience with Aro's. I wish I could help more, what I have read is they don't do well together esp in smaller groups...It is almost better to have five or six together. or a single species.....like I said that is what I have read and that info just came from other forums. Hope you get some more info and can rectify the situation.

Thanks.

I have 5, er, well 4 are together, the beat up one from today is taking some time off in a 30 to chill. I've read a lot of that as well, so I'm not sure what I'm missing.

Here's hopin I get some answers tomorrow.

I've read some articles that sound similar to what MC read. They recommend a group of 6-8 as a minimum because of aggression or else you should separate them. I'm not speaking from experience on this subject either though. Just what I've read.

So I just got off the phone. Here's what I got, and what is most likely the cause of my problems.

Still water is most likely my number one problem. Since they like to hang out on top and run their little barbels across the surface I've set up the filtration on their tank so that the water on top is near perfectly still.

The tank needs to be set up, where the filter is breaking the surface of the water, so that they don't do the barbel on the surface thing. If they can't they can be kept together in small groups. When the tank has still water the one dominant fish will drive the others down to the bottom essentially to starve. He suspects with the surface area of the pond I'm using and the funny shape that there's more than likely two that are dominant, and that they're causing trouble for the other three, which is why I'm swapping them out all the time.

Somewhere, I have the fountainhead attachment for the pump in their pond. I'm going to try digging it out and set that up.

Also five is the smallest number he would keep as a group, but he knows folks that keep three with no problems.

The other thing he suggested was to lower the temp some. I keep their water 78-80. He was saying that he usually keeps them 76-78. He thinks that the lower temp helps mellow them out some, though that's not nearly as important as the water surface thing.

Well...hope for the best. Get that pump attachment out and get the water moving.

Hopefully it works out for you. It is always good to hear opinions from people with real life experience. Let us know how it goes.

Hurray!

Total success. Not sure if the temp had much to do with it, but I've had the fountain goin, and now they're all being well behaved little fishies.

Just to test out the theory, (and because I was desperate to free up some tanks for more turtle road carnage) I moved the two roughed up ones into a 40 long and set the output of the filter to spray right across the top of the water line and they're living just fine together.

Earlier today I even saw the two of them swimming together around the tank side by side.

Cool! Good to know.

Friggin awesome maybe you should do a short write up on your experience and sticky it?!