David R

Don't most syno's come from rivers/lakes with softer water than the rift lakes?? I've had loaches with africans before, as long as the pH goes up slowly they seem fine. IMO they're a much tougher fish than people give them credit for.

Wow, I guess everyone on here just keeps neons and angelfish.... :roll:

That aro looks solid!!!

That rule/guideline is the biggest laod of horse s**t ever! There are far too many variables to take into consideration, its so vauge and variable its not even worth considering as a 'rough guide'. IMO if you're not having problems with territory, aggression or water quality issues then your tank is not over-stocked. 8) BTW that is only an end-shot of a 400g tank!

3' long is fine, just as long as it's 6' wide....

The arowanas, the bichirs, the eels, the knife fish, etc etc, lets see them! Past and present, but only your own fish, no wish-list fish or random pics from the interweb! Current: My Dat, currently around 18cm: Bichir, (P. palmas), around 20cm: I'll try take some photo's of the whole tank once the sumps set up, even tho the uaru's and laoches arent really 'oddball'. Past: The only photo I have of my old 5' set-up with the black aro, uaru's and fire eel. Aro was around 16" in that photo, grew from 6" to nearly 2' (was almost nose-to-tail across the tank when I sold him) in just over two years. One of my favorite fish ever, and if I see another I'm going to buy it regardless of what I have in my tank or how poor I am!! and my Ctenopoma I just sold: At 6" he was the biggest I've ever seen, and I was really sad to see him go (especially when I went to Hollywoods today and saw them selling 2" babies for the same price I got for mine on trademe!). Appologies for the lousy quality of the photos, one day I'll spend some time taking some decent pics...

Correction, just plain hard. When it comes to standing up to other fish, or surviving in adverse conditions, inch for inch I think you'd be hard pressed to find a tougher fish.

If you've got three males or three females you might get away with it. If you've got a pair then one con and the bristlenose will probably get picked on.

ASian aro's are bred in huge ponds, not tanks. There is a much higher demand for them which it makes it commertially viable, unlike breeding SA aro's. Black aro's don't look that similar to silvers (well to me they dont, but I think all discus look the same.....), and IMO are a much nicer fish, grow a little slower/smaller than silvers and dont seem as prone to drop-eye. (well mine didnt get it after 2 years, possibly because he never got feeders?). You'll still need a big tank tho, 6'x3' footprint minimum IMO. Mine out-grew my 5'x2' in about two years! I would love to keep another some day, but they are pretty hard to find, I've only seen them once at hollywood since I bought mine about 7 years ago.

I suppose I could release a bunch of fry for the dat, bichir and ctenopoma to eat while I'm gone, good idea.....

I'm actually in auckland now (havent changed my loaction) and [no offence or anything] I'm not too keen on giving a random person off the internet the key and alarm code for our place when we're not going to be there for two weeks. Thanks for the advice all, I should be able to make it back to auckland at least once during the two weeks to feed and check everything is running. Alan the tank has two good sized canister filters, so if one blows out then hopefully the other one will be enough to see them through. I'm a little concerned about turning the heater off as loaches + decreases in temp usually = whitespot, and I think the chances of that happening are much higher than the heater failing and cooking the fish.

For the first time in about 8 years I've got the problem of no one being able to feed my fish over the holidays. I'm heading out of town for around two weeks over xmas/new year, and so is pretty much everyone I know/trust in auckland. I've got a 4' tank with a 7" tiger dat, 8" marbled bichir and 5" leopard ctenopoma (+ a few loaches and catfish), and theyre mostly fed on meaty foods like beefheart and prawns (+ shrimp pellets for the bottom feeders). They are only fed once a day, and regularly get periods of fasting for up to 3 days. I usually do weekly water changes, but with the decreased amount of food going in I'm guessing there would be less waste and they'd be fine without a water change for two weeks. I'm wondering how long they could go with out food for. I could probably arrange for someone to feed them once or twice over the two-week period, but its quite a drive for them and they have no idea about how much to give them etc. Does anyone have any experience with fasting preaditory fish??

Awesome looking setup!! Planning on putting any other big fish in there?? BTW, make sure the piece of wood is well secured with the bricks. If they fall off it will float really fast, and it could do some damage to the lids/lights.

I disagree, at nearly 2' my black aro showed no signs of dropeye despite being kept in a tank with a school of clown loaches, and many other tankmates. I think the main cause is bad diet (fatty foods like feeders) as mine ate nothing but pellets and bloodworms. As for tankmates, arowanas are predatory fish, not really aggressive fish if you get what I mean. I would keep them with agressive fish (like most CA cichlids), go for larger, less aggressive tankmates. I kept mine with clown loaches, uarus, silver dollars and a big fire eel. The loaches were quite small [in comparison to the 20"+ arowana) but he nevre bothered them, IMO because he was never fed feeder fish and was kept well fed with other foods.

I'd cut out the feeders all together. They don't need to eat live fish, and there's better things to feed them. AFAIK feeders can be quite fatty, so the exercise he gets chasing them might be like jogging to McDonalds for a quarter pounder and large thickshake....

My old one (as mentioned above) was around 14" when I sold it, and big enough to swallow a whole cube of bloodworms (like the big cubes that come individually packaged, not the small thin ones you break apart). The one I have now with my dat and bichir is around 15cm long and still a little on the skinny side, altho he loves shrimp and seems to be getting a bit bulkier now. Definately one of my favorite fish, and I've never had a problem with them escaping despire people saying they'll find their way out of any slamm hole....

My aro only got my finger once, but my fire eel bit me on a more regular basis (due to me hand-feeding it daily so the aro and other fish didnt get his food). The first time I pulled my hand away so fast it pulled him out of the water and onto the floor some 5' down! After squirming around the carpet for a minute while I found a towel to pick him up with (remember they're called Spiney Eels for a reason!) he went straight back into the tank, seemingly no worse for wear...

It might help get it used to your hand being in the tank, but don't think the fish will be able to distinguis between your finger and the piece of shrimp when its hungry!! [speaking from first-hand experience here...]

Don't worry, if you've got a couple of convicts chances are you'll have plenty more in no time...

Hey Forrest.... Hey Bubba Tank-raised shrimp?? Seriosuly tho, the tanks look good, just need some fish in them!!

You won't get any better by just using common names! It's not actually that hard once you sorta learn the basics of how latin words are pronounced. Luke I guess the answer to your question is similar to the number of LFS's that sell pacu's, arowanas etc to people who don't have 1000L+ tanks....

Geophagus balzanii? :lol: Yes it's latin, common names are over-rated.

Good idea! Perhaps the shops themselves might know whats in stock a little better than some random people who visited the shop few weeks ago....

Maybe a year. My black aro out-grey its 5'x2'x2' tank in just over 2 years, and AFAIK silvers grow faster and get larger. Tank will need to be 3'+ wide to accomodate these fish.

Speaking as an ex-aro owner, go for width over length. You would be better off with an 8'x4' than a 10'x2'. My black aro took just over two years to get to the stage where he was nearly touching front to back on my 5'x2' tank!! Have you never flicked the light on when you come home late at night and freaked yours out?? Mine could hit the glass at each end of the 5' tank several times in a matter of seconds!!