By now you all know the stocking on my 375 Gallon Aquarium.
If not, you might want to catch up on the last couple of videos I made leading up to this one.
For now, I will quickly recap:
I planned on moving my Asian Arowana from his 370 Gallon Plywood Aquarium,
to the 375 Gallon Acrylic aquarium that I just built.
To fast forward a bit, that 370 Gallon Aquarium is now a goldfish aquarium.
And I'm loving it!
Now back to the 375.
I wanted to get him some new tank mates to go with him in his new home.
To bring you up to speed as to why I chose these tank mates.
I'll replay this clip from the original video:
"Before I show you what I got, it's more important to talk about why I got it.
Now, this guy has had tank mates in the past,
But the bigger he gets, the more aggressive he's gotten.
He won't allow anything to go in any tank with him.
However, you guys know that I've recently built the 375 gallons system, and he's being moved over into it.
I'm hoping that the move and the change will be enough to kind of mix things up for him and accept new tank mates.
It's not going to be that simple though. First and foremost;
I've had this guy for a few years, and we've been through a lot together. I actually like him a lot.
Plus, he's an Asian Arowana which means he's a really expensive fish.
So obviously I can't have tank mates that are going to attack him or potentially put him at risk.
So what can I have? Well,
I do want tank mates for this tank, but I'm not going to have tank mates just to have them,
I actually have to like them as well.
The second thing I'm looking for is; they have to be able to take a beating and bounce right back.
Because I fear that when they're first added together the Arowana will go after them.
And while I don't think he's going to continuously pummel them,
I think that the first few days will be his most aggressive time.
So, I need a fish that can take the abuse, but then go right back to normal.
I also need a fish that's an aggressive eater and will eat almost anything!
This is the most important. They're going to be going into a tank with a big fish that's a big eater.
They need to be equally aggressive when it comes to feeding, if not more aggressive.
I'm even more so looking for an omnivore hoping that they'll eat almost anything that I offer now because the arowana might potentially be
aggressive for the first Few days
I need a fish that will school to help defuse that aggression so that it's not easy to single one out
I also need a fish that actually gets pretty big anything that I can fit in his mouth
He's gonna eat now because I need something big and he's already 22 inches
I need to be able to buy them big I also want something that's active and actually adds to the tank looking for a fish
That would hopefully swim throughout the entire column of the tank so now you can see why he's always had no tank mates
At a smaller size he had discus and stingrays in with him
But the bigger he grew the less tolerant he became and it's truly narrowed it down to what I can keep with him with all
Of that said I did find something, so what did I get?
So obviously I got red hook silver dollars. They matched up with everything
I needed out of them and were available at the time, but what has happened since then well let's start from the beginning
I added them to the
375 Gallon First this would allow me to keep the tank running and
Quarantine them in this tank for at least a month as all fish should upon arrival. They were slightly amass
Luckily they accepted food right away and because of this I was able to directly medicate their food and treat for internal parasites
Which a lot of times wild caught fish simply carry with them luckily these guys didn't have any but boy did they like to eat?
During this month. They put on a lot of weight and fins healed completely
with them in great shape
Settled into their new tank and eating aggressively
I decided it was time to move the Arowana in
now since the water in both Tanks matched
Identically all I had to do is scoop the arowana out of one tank and into the other
Once added to the tank the red hook stayed away from the Arowana as he got used to his new aquarium on
The second day the Era want to chase the red Hook's from time to time
But never actually got any I don't think that was his real intentions anyway
He just wanted to make sure they knew he was boss during feeding the red hook's would eat
But the Arowana did not which is normal
He takes a little longer to settle in usually a week or so on the third day
I noticed the Arowanas dorsal fin was ripped and his tail looked like it might have been nipped on
since I never actually saw it happen that might have been caused by the
Arowana himself probably from jumping and thrashing at the Red Hook's I wasn't sure
It was minor damage though and would heal naturally in time over the next week
I continued feeding and doing larger water changes due to the higher Bio load in the tank at this point
I wanted to give the Bacteria in the filter a chance to catch up
By the end of the week the Arowana was still not eating
even after being offered his favorite foods
He was more concerned with the red
Hook's I tried a few different things in the tank starting with flow I increased the flow in the tank and this helped a lot
My arowana loves to swim in the current at times and this kept him preoccupied while adding a new dynamic to the tank
Which kind of threw all the fish off for a short while I also changed the lighting and this helped a bit as well
seemingly all fighting stopped
Now is time to get him eating again
With him a bump in temperature and some live worms always works
But guess who else likes worms the red Hook's
Probably more so than the arowana the problem with the red
Hook's is that they are an aggressive eater generally attacking food as [it] hits the surface the arowana though likes to take his time
Now typically this would work, but with the red hook's and the arowana. It's not a really good
combination so I resorted to feeding him with tongs
Even then he rarely accepted it to make matters worse the red hook's would gang up and all come after the food at once
Eventually the arowana got hungry enough to start eating until one night while feeding him one of the red hook's mistook one of his
Barbells for a worm and bid it in half if
You're not familiar with an air [wannas] barbells in the wild they use them to feel the surface of the water basically
Skimming it and waiting for any movement which would tell them that something dropped into the water
So it goes without saying that there are a ton of nerve endings in the barbells once bit the [arowana] jumped into flight mode
Lashing around the tank and completely freaking out
so now to make matters worse not only with the red hook's eat everything that was added to the tank before the arowana had a
Chance to get [any] he now associated me with danger. I should back up a bit and explain
What goes on during feeding when food is added the red Hook's go crazy for it this excites the air
Wanna and instead of eating he chases the red hook's who slip out of the way and go back to eating
Now the red hook's will eat until they can no longer fit anything else in their bellies
So they will literally pick food up and carry it around like little
Chipmunks until they can by the time feeding is done the arowana has no interest in eating anymore
And the water is polluted by the sheer amount of food
I have to feed to keep these guys happy
I've tried feeding them up to eight meals a day or feeding them several massive meals a day
The Arowana will still not eat with this incredible amount of food being offered
I installed the drip system changing out a hundred gallons a day and still did water changes every second day of fifty percent
This tank became a full-time job
Obviously the red Hook's do not need anything close to the amount of food
I was offering but it was the only way to get the arowana some food
But because [of] this the tank was slowly getting at a hand
While I could stay on top of water quality if I skipped a day things would go downhill fast
Two months into this the arowana has lost a lot [of] weight is now getting weaker and the tables are turning
The red Hook started to pester him and beat him up at night at this point
It seems like there is no real light at the end of this tunnel the red hook's were barely half grown
So I pictured what things were like now and what they would be like in a few short months when these guys grow to massive
proportions
Enough was enough. I had to make a choice the red hook's or the Arowana
Obviously you guys know which way I would go, but to put this into perspective
I have a bunch of $35 fish beating up a two-thousand-dollar fish
Not that value of a fish is what is most important to me?
But it's not something that is easy to watch happen without considering it
Obviously the Arowana is my favorite fish is well
and has been with me for a few years and is even arguably the mascot of my channel if I were to have one but
What to do with the red hook's they need a massive tank. I didn't have an extra [one]
I don't have room for another one
And I certainly can't afford to just build big tanks as I please I could divide the tank
They are in and two but how long would I have to do that and would it actually work in the long term?
Even if I divided the tank it also wouldn't be big
Enough on either side for these fish not to mention would completely ruin the look of the aquarium
Decorations like wood and some fake plants do nothing for them since none of the fish in this tank
Actively hide or need anything for comfort in the tank the wood
I did try just serve to be a point of injury for all fish when the [arowana] would start chasing the red
Hook's they would dash about the tank and slam into the wood making matters worse
After the Arowana lost a couple scales on the first day from it
I removed it now you remind to begin why I don't do decorations with my arowana luckily
I show people how to build a lot of things for their aquariums on this channel
Even the aquarium's themselves now back when I consulted a bit. I had a client that built a huge tank
We became good friends and talk on a weekly basis since during the entire process of this situation. I'm in now. He knew
What was going on and ensured me that he would take the red hook's if there was no other [option] or if things didn't improve
So I took him up on that offer and ship them out to him earlier in the week
They're now happily settled into his 400-gallon aquarium
Perhaps someday I can convince him to send me a video or some pictures for an update and if he does I'll post them on
my Facebook page
Unfortunately not everyone wants to be in the limelight though
And I respect his wishes to remain private so now the arowana has the tank to himself for now
We'll come back to that in a minute some of you might have your own thoughts or questions on this situation
And I would be happy to hear them in the comments below
I'm sure I missed something in this video and [don't]
Mind clarifying them in the comments with that said I should add that while I feel like I made a big mistake here
This should have worked out red. Hook's or other large silver dollar species are classic tank mates for Arowana
easily in the Top ten
Rarely does this not work out once again this [just] shows [that]
Every Arowana has its own personality
I guess I picked a fish that met my specific needs that were simply available at the time. I started looking
Instead of simply being patient and getting what I'm really after I jumped at the chance to get them as a fish keeper
I think you can all relate to getting excited about the possibility of getting a new fish. I am not exempt from that
It sure was an awesome sight to see that wasn't it now
It's only been a couple days, but the arowana is visibly happier more active and begging to eat again
It won't be long until he's back to his normal self although
I think is going to take time for him to forgive me and don't worry that barbell will grow back with time now
What will I do for tank mates at this point? I?
Want you to think about this
Maybe all this not working out happen for a reason
maybe [I] could have gotten it to work or tried harder to make it work, but
Subconsciously didn't want it to I guess this is going to have to end with me simply stating
I think it's time to get back into some rays