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Asian Arowana - Raising a Winner

by Joseph Tan

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Joseph Tan (left) receiving the trophy from Dr Ling ( AVA)

I got interested in arowana in the year 2000. Being a rookie, I did not want to spend too much money then (I still do not spend too much these days), fearful that the poor fish might die on me! Friends recommended to me that Panda Aquatics sold their arowanas at reasonable rates. So it was on that fateful day that I made my very first trip down to the farm.

When I reached Panda Aquatics, I spoke to a man and simply told him I wanted to get a “nice” fish (I found out later he was the owner). He suggested that I take a look at a tank of small red aros. There was a tank of around ten pieces of 6 inches red aros swimming around. Having read some helpful tips from a website, and never bought an arowana before, I looked for a “sexy” proportional red. It was fun, exciting and pretty difficult when you have ten little fishes swimming actively all over the place. Pretty soon, I got a headache following them around the tank.

Soon, one little fish got my attention by consistently swimming to and fro in front of my line of vision. At first glance, she did not look too bad. By being the kaisu Singaporean that I was, I wanted the best fish. Every time I glanced around, my eyes kept going back to her. She was brave, always swimming in front, and kept fanning her big tail at me. There was a much bigger fish competing for my attention too. Finally, after squatting there for an hour (frankly, I lost count of time), I could not make up my mind. I asked Mr. Kan to help me. He blared out “Get the big tail fish la!”. With that kind of instruction, I could not say no. Miss Big Fan Tail was going to be my first aro to be seriously kept for experimenting. Mr. Kan said “Good choice, nice fish. If you are not satisfied, come back anytime”. I went back several times, not to return Miss Big Fan Tail, but to purchase new arowanas.

Aquarama 2005 Big Size Class 1 - 2nd Prize

To be honest, I liked her fanning tail. However, her other physical traits were not what you would expect from a quality red. She was dull in color, no sparkle or shine on her scales, and had none of the features that hobbyists demand on a potential fish these days e.g. red lips, strong red finnages, nice framed scalation, blue hue on the scales etc. She had none of these, and was rather green in fact. Her finnages’ red tone was reasonable. But, I supposed I was just being a rookie and not so discerning. I can tell you, most of you would not have bought this little red given her physical appearance. I am glad I trusted Mr. Kan’s advice, as it turned out 4 years later to be one heck of beginner’s luck for me, big time.

Anyway, she was “tapaoed” home and, so began her journey with me into some rather “weird” experiments that deviated from the standard arowans ways of keeping then. She became my “guinea pig”. I experimented on her with new, and at that time, innovative ideas borrowed from koi keeping. Some of the things I did to her included soaking her in potassium permanganate for three days!

JUNE 2001
As she settled down, she developed this strange but endearing way of begging for food and attention by chasing people in front of her tank or snapping at them. Hence she acquired the name Rotty (as in Rottweiler). By then, she had started spotting on her cheeks, and specks of brown started appearing on her frame edges. Wow, my first experience of an aro turning color. From that point onwards, I thought I was doing fine with my methods. I should persevere and continue doing what I did. In June, I started taking some photos of her. She was around 1 foot or so by then. Her body thickened, broadened, and her color spread but did not deepen.

June 2001

June 2001

JANUARY 2002
Her scales developed a thickly defined orangey color. Frankly, I found this period of transformation the most obvious both in terms of color, hue and tone. She was close to 18 inches in length, and her body broadened significantly to give her that massive torpedo swimming shape. Her cheek color spread wider, and her lips grew increasingly redder. She was simply a sight to behold.

Jan 2002

Jan 2002

APRIL 2003
I bought a small fiber glass tank, and decided to see if I could spur up her growth, knowing that the best part of her growth is almost over. She was kept in an 8ft by 3 ft by 2 ft fiber glass tank in the balcony, enjoying some sunlight. Although her appetite began to slow down, the thickness across her shoulder from the top increased. This showed that she was getting enough nutrients.

Apr 2003

OCTOBER 2003
She truly enjoyed herself in the late afternoon sunlight. Her scales’ tone and color thickened across her entire body. But I soon grew tired of seeing her from the top view. Boring la! She was close to about 20 inches already. I was quite disappointed with her growth but happy with the color improvement. I started planning to bring her back indoors. There was this big fear. Nay Sayers warned me “Her color will surely degenerate once she comes out of the sunlight.” I had a tough time deciding what to do, and in the end, I made up my mind to move her indoors. The big plan to get a massive tank and engineere her move took me 4 months.

Oct 2003

FEBRUARY 2004 - 2005
Rotty moved into her swanky new tank and not too soon thereafter, started “playing” with me. I was petrified from that moment onwards that her color would wash out after a while. So the nail biting monitoring started. I could only say that contrary to popular belief, her color stayed true, and improved over the months. My guess later was that this could be due to two reasons. One was she had good genes. The other was her color was true and not the results of illusion. Her fiber tank remained bright throughout, and she had crystal clear water. Hence, her body did not darken to give the optical illusion of “redder” color than it actually was. She never looked washed out ever since she moved indoors. Anyway, her color rate of improvement, like her growth was growing at a modest pace. Her girth and sheer size made her swim in slow motion, but in rather a majestic manner.

Feb 2004

Feb 2004

Jan 2005

Jan 2005

SOME TIPS TO SHARE

In bringing out Rotty, I made one golden rule for my new hobby. I was determined to make the hobby as simple as possible, and not to become a slave to my arowana. With this in mind, I was guided by the following routines to grow Rotty:

1) Managing water quality

2) Maximizing growth

3) Monitoring development with great PATIENCE

This is not to say that I did everything correctly, nor the best way to bring up an arowana, but these are the routines that I did not compromise on over the past years.

MANAGING WATER QUALITY

Right from the onset, I laid down three simple parameters. These were:

Constant water parameters PH  - Maintain as stable as possible. To achieve this, I shoot for a PH of at least 7.5 to 8. To get this, I buff the water with coral chips. I did not monitor on GH, KH and the rest. PH is the only one I monitor. This is OPTIONAL.

Constant Water Change - Weeks in and out for the last four years, I never once passed up the chance to have at least 25% change of water. This is COMPULSORY!

Constant Filtration Maintenance - Maintain the heart of the aquatic system constantly through weekly flushing of the filter media. Simply no excuse to skip this. This is COMPULSORY!

Practices Which I Avoid due to their Contravention of the above Parameters:

Black Water – Perhaps it does have its merits. But difficulty in maintaining the constant concentration due to my weekly water change will simply put more stress on Rotty. She has never been soaked in tannic acid her whole life.

Water Conditioners – As in black water treatment.

I believe managing water quality is the key to Rotty’s superb development. As they say “Keep water good, and the fish becomes good”

MAXIMIZING GROWTH

Based on Koi keeping, the the best exponential growth will be the first two years, after which it will slow down and grow at a slower pace.

I am a strong believer that there is no food like LIVE food as far as maximizing growth is concerned. However, I am worried about possible diseases borne by aquatic feeders. I started looking for live food that will not be a health risk to Rotty, and also easy to keep. I finally found the answer in Superworms.

Soon I started using PondMasters’ Vita-Superworms as the staple diet. These Superworms have been gut loaded with special vitamins and minerals. I developed the following feeding routine:

1st year 80% Superworms, 20% market prawn Fed twice a day

2nd Year 80% Superworms, 20% market prawn Fed twice a day

3rd Year 60% Superworms, 40% market prawn Fed twice a day

4th Year 50% Superworms, 50% market prawn Fed once a day

During Aquarama 2005, Rotty measured 23 inches long.

Please take note in feeding such a high protein diet; I pay special care to maintaining the water quality. Water quality will degenerate very fast if you get lazy while feeding such a high protein diet. So, if you are lazy, please substitute less protein food in your aro’s diet.

MONITORING GROWTH WITH PATIENCE

Rotty was only 6 inches when I first brought her home. I borrowed some Koi theories in monitoring her growth and development. This was the biggest challenge as there was no reference point to fall back on. However some common sense prevailed and I still apply the following milestones today. However, for these milestones to work, you need to get the right size fish at the right age. A stunted 6 inch fish can actually be one year old! So, if you get such a fish, these milestones will not work. Watch out for these:

1st year Growth should be half to three quarter inch a month. So, by June 2001, Rotty put on at least 6 inches. Do not shoot for the moon and try to achieve one inch of growth a month as mentioned by some hobbyists. I have never been able to get that! If that is true, your 6 inch fish will be a monstrous 18 inches by the end of the first year!

Rotty’ cheeks started blushing and her scales’ turned rustic within the first 4 months. Once it started, it got stronger and stronger, even as she continued to lengthen and broaden.

Rotty was able to develope her strong color despite her fast growth in the first year.

2nd Year .She reached around 18 inches. Her cheeks color spread around in a larger area, and scales’ color became more and more defined. Color continued to improve in depth, tone and hue. Growth slowed down

3rd year She measured 20 inches. Scale color had developed up to three quarters of her body length. Color and tone took on almost a deep orange. Appetite also slowed down, but swimming became majestic due to her sheer size and bulk! Growth slowed to a crawl.

4th year Color and scalation became an evident deep orange and was bordering on red hue under correct lighting conditions. Size measured 23 inches prior to Aquarama 2005. She ate moderately but her bulk was maintained.

One thing evidenced in Rotty is that her color development keeps up with her growth. This is the sign of a quality red. I have seen some aros where the color development stalled, and the color never got better in spite of the best care later. It is simply not true that you need to restrict your arowana’s growth for the color to catch up. If you do that, your arowana will never reach its maximum potential for size.

It has been a rollicking 4 years or so for Rotty and me. She has been living in a 900 liter tank for the past one year plus. The tank setup is a simple sump filtration system powered by a dependable EHEIM pump. She is living under artificial lighting. I shared with you earlier on my fear that her color would be washed out. Thankfully, this was not the case. On the contrary, her color got stronger and stronger under artificial lighting. She is living proof that with good genes and care, color can still improve in spite of being groomed under indoor lighting. Her lighting consists of one single tube 5 foot aquarium FL, one 4 foot NAN and one 5 foot 110W PL, duration 8 hours a day for the past 6 months. Prior to that, she was living under 2 tubes of 5 foot aquarium FL only! Like I said, nothing fancy, just simple things.

I hope you can shorten your learning curve from this. Again, I want to say that this is by no means a know-all article. I am sure that there are better and more effective ways to raise an arowana. I am still learning and look forward to learning from you as well.

Rotty is a true and good example that even under modest conditions and means, winners can be groomed.

DREAM ON AND PERSEVERE! (And use some common sense)

See Also:

Importing Asian Arowana

Harvest of Panda Red Asian Arowana

Gold Harvest at Panda Aquatic Centre

Harvest of Panda Gold Cross Back Asian Arowana