# Planted Tank for Arowana?



## fshfanatic (Apr 20, 2006)

There is a member over at aape forum - Index that has kept Asian Arowanas in some very nice planted tanks.. I believe his name is either Arowanaman or redarowanaman do a search.


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## Borg (Feb 6, 2007)

Alrite...will do...thks


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## eeng168 (Apr 22, 2005)

*arowana keeper here....*

I keep my asian arowana tank completely bare. 

Only thing in there are the heaters and the Eheim intake and outtake pipes...

Never heard of too much light being no good....if anything...you would want to have more light to see the shine on the scales.


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## Borg (Feb 6, 2007)

What type u keeping? Golden or SR?
well i was refering to Juv SR which hasnt crossed their 6th level scales. I know we tan our fish to get the colors out...but that is always best done from the side or bottom..NOT from the top...as it wont do much help to it.


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## Borg (Feb 6, 2007)

Oh I forgot to say...Yes I know most kept their Aros in bare tank...thats why I started the thread asking how can I maintain a good planted tank and still be able to keep Asian Aros. Cuz I've been getting quite a few responses about the strong lightings from above for the plants which I dun wan for my Juv Super Red. And if I were to go with topless tank for the planted tank, how am I gonna deal with the tendency of Aros jumping


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## TINNGG (Mar 9, 2005)

Mmmm.. The firstest time I ever heard of an Arowana, it was a tale of woe in one of the fish mags. The fish had the tendency of jumping after his/her dinner when they were feeding it so they were being cautious to make sure they got food there so fish wouldn't jump out. Fish jumped as expected and... hit his head on the canopy (guess it was a wood one) hard enough to kill himself.

Guess what I'm saying is a determined fish will jump. All you can do is try to keep it in the water. Doesn't mean it'll survive the attempt.

Beyond that, I don't see why you couldn't keep one in a planted tank. I'm guessing they're usually kept in bare tanks for maintenance purposes.


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## Lupin (Nov 21, 2006)

An aro will jump if ever it sees you carrying food. I was bitten several times and I now had to distract it from the other side just to allow me to drop its food.:hihi:


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## macclellan (Dec 22, 2006)

my LFS has a brilliant 200ish gallon planted tank with arowanas for disply/jealousy creation. Lots of big sword plants and java fern, if I remember correctly.


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## Steven_Chong (Sep 14, 2004)

sorry to link out but:

Arofanatics.com - Arowana Community for Aro collectors around the World!

Lots of aro-planted tank keepers there. You'll get lots of help. Aros are graceful fish, so living in a planted tank is not hard-- they cause less problems than many cichlids and especially easier than discus from what I've heard. It's just a matter of having a big enough tank, and enough light. :hihi:


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## Blacksunshine (Oct 11, 2006)

I have an arro in my 75 gal planted. let me tell you they act totally different when in a planted. My arrow will sometimes rest and nest in my sword plant and he loves brushing up on my aponge. 
Herehe is in the old scapes
















and the new








Sorry last pic is of both my 75 and 20.

Aside fom resting in the leaves he does not bother the plants at all.


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## filipnoy85 (Dec 10, 2005)

Blacksunshine said:


> I have an arro in my 75 gal planted. let me tell you they act totally different when in a planted.




Totally jealous!


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## triple red (May 27, 2005)

i remember someone here had an arowana in a beautiful plated tank....
the only argument against was that the fish took away from the beauty of the planted tank..(which i think is bull)


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## Steven_Chong (Sep 14, 2004)

I'm almost certain I know exactly which thread you're referring to, and it was probably me arguing that side, and I might have done it a bit over-zealously. :icon_lol: 

But never the less, I made a good argument and it certainly was not as simple as "arowanas take away from the beauty of planted tanks."

The arowana's a beautiful fish-- graceful and sleek. I think one could definitely design a planted aquarium to create a beautiful aquascape.

However, from a compositional perspective, it's not an easy fish to work with. The fish is large, carries a solid feel to it with those big scales, and its swimming habit of usually staying at the top of the water makes it not-so-easy to balance in composition.

I made a viable argument that an aquascape's fish are part of its effectiveness, and fish that balance well with an aquascape should be used.

To balance with the arowana's strong appearence, I thought that a strong hardscape would be best, something that could keep with the solid theme of the fish, and also connect well with its constant upper-level swimming pattern. I thought something like this drawing I did:










A lay out using strong sones to evoke a type of primitive feel to go with the ancient and dragon-like appearence of the arowana. Of course there are other designs that could work well-- like making an intricate scene with riccia covering large pieces of wood that reach up to the surface-- riccia almost everywhere with silver arowanas to give the impression of dragons swimming in the clouds. Of course, there's always a more bio-tope-ish motif with roots dipping into the tank.

The thing to rememeber is not to just do a typical run-of-the-mill layout with stems trimmed into nice bushes (like the tank that was presented). With the typical stems making a landscape in the aquarium, it looks really odd to see a huge fish swimming above this delicate little landscape below. The two don't come together at all, which is really distracting. Moreover, the perspective is off when one has a fish so big and a landscape so much proportionately smaller.

From the perspective of using aros in art, you want a layout that works with the fish.


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## JeremyofAZ (Dec 27, 2006)

Its not heavily planted, but I saw this the other day.

Fish Tank of January '07 at The Age of Aquariums - Tropical Fish


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## Borg (Feb 6, 2007)

Bluebell said:


> An aro will jump if ever it sees you carrying food. I was bitten several times and I now had to distract it from the other side just to allow me to drop its food.:hihi:


Believe me they re real good jumper at any given opportunity...not just during meals. :red_mouth 



Steven_Chong said:


> sorry to link out but:
> 
> Arofanatics.com - Arowana Community for Aro collectors around the World!
> 
> Lots of aro-planted tank keepers there. You'll get lots of help. Aros are graceful fish, so living in a planted tank is not hard-- they cause less problems than many cichlids and especially easier than discus from what I've heard. It's just a matter of having a big enough tank, and enough light. :hihi:


Thks for the Link...yes thats a hugh forum with lots of arowana and related discussions.



Blacksunshine said:


> I have an arro in my 75 gal planted. let me tell you they act totally different when in a planted. My arrow will sometimes rest and nest in my sword plant and he loves brushing up on my aponge.
> Herehe is in the old scapes
> 
> 
> ...


beautiful....it keeps my hope high stillroud: 



Steven_Chong said:


> I'm almost certain I know exactly which thread you're referring to, and it was probably me arguing that side, and I might have done it a bit over-zealously. :icon_lol:
> 
> But never the less, I made a good argument and it certainly was not as simple as "arowanas take away from the beauty of planted tanks."
> 
> ...


thks for the ideas 
but i dun think having any "sharp" object is a good idea..wouldnt want anything missing from its scales :red_mouth 
I might go with the riccia...can already picture how it look like. :icon_bigg 



JeremyofAZ said:


> Its not heavily planted, but I saw this the other day.
> 
> Fish Tank of January '07 at The Age of Aquariums - Tropical Fish


thks for the link 

===========================

thks for the others who had replied \o
below is another link I've attached too...beautiful Malaysian Golden Aro in a planted tank. I managed to contact the owner and asked for few pointer too. *finger crossed*:red_mouth
N1wanRed - showgallery


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## eeng168 (Apr 22, 2005)

Borg said:


> What type u keeping? Golden or SR?
> well i was refering to Juv SR which hasnt crossed their 6th level scales. I know we tan our fish to get the colors out...but that is always best done from the side or bottom..NOT from the top...as it wont do much help to it.



My first one was a green, had it for about 5 years but died. Maybe it had something to do with the water since a penny that I never took out half corroded. Ok, no comments on this, lesson learned. 

My second was a gold red tailed jumped out and dried up on the floor a few years ago. You have to cover your tank!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had a brick on each of the 3 glass lids and it still smashed through it. Don't forget about the little crack in the back of the tank where the tubings and heaters are hanging. 

I now have a chili red or I guess it's the same as a SR.


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## herosipet (Feb 4, 2008)

I noticed that your heater is shiny, I am not sure if it is incased with glass or aluminum. On my planted Jardini I replaced my heaters with those incased with carbon plastic heater because my jardini sometime when it gets surprise it will try to hide and sometimes hits the heaters. I am just taking precaution that when it gets bigger and weight heavier it might brake the heater. Right now my Jardini is ten inches long.
Just for precaution.


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## neilfishguy (Dec 16, 2007)

how big of a tank do they need? like 125 gallons?


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## ikuzo (Jul 11, 2006)

people in my country do crazy things


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