The Silver Arowana

Image: Markus, our silver arowana

It’s been years since we last had an arowana at home. Superstitions aside, since we don’t really believe in those, hubby and I took it in simply because we just saw it a fish shop, for the first time. Out of being spontaneous we just took this in much to the kids delight. They named this silver arowana, Marcus.

   

Friends and visitors find the arowana a curious fish. Most would ask what kind of a fish it is as this amazonian dweller is rarely available in our region.

Having one, we learned that these predators are high jumpers. That’s how they catch prey in the wild so it is best to have the tank covered. I read somewhere that it can feed on monkeys too. Ö It is also good to consider the tank an arowana would be in, make sure that it can turn around without bending its long body much as this will cause deformity. The arowana is an active swimmer…At best, use a 300-gallon tank.

We have only fed ours with floating fish pellets as we thought giving it live food would only make it prone to disease. During its stay, we had a plecostomus of almost the same size with it in the tank. Putting in anything smaller would have been  a prey to the arowana but it did get along well with the pleco as it would be hard for it to swallow.

Marcus grew up to be 15 inches while at home. As most aquarium fish would, it is relaxing to watch him swim back and forth…even if he appears to be frowning. :/