Pet Forum / Aquaria / Cichlids / October 2003

it'll start eating once you put the discus in.... i don't think your discus
will thank yu though ;-)

I have kept a foot-long silver (South American) arowana in with Severums
and Uaru with no problems -- so long as the fish are big enough so that
the arowana cannot fit them in its mouth.  Arowanas can sometimes be a
bit boisterous though.  Do not know much about discus, so you will have
to judge whether this will be a problem.

Regarding eating, arowanas usually have voracious appetites.  However,
small arowanas especially can be a bit sensitive about their environment,
so it may just be getting settled in.  You might want to ask wherever you
got it from what they were feeding it.  Finally, arowanas are designed to
eat from the surface of the water (they eat lots of insects in nature).  
You might try floating things on the water, e.g. crickets or flies.  

Meph

 Well if he doesn't eat by next week, he'll be dead... Discus or no discus.

I'm not sure I would keep and arrowana with discus.  I have raised a couple
of small ones. One was easy and the other was picky to feed.  For the picky
one, I kept it in a small tank, about 15 gallons, heavily planted with
Bananna plants.  The lilly pads provided good cover, without entangling or
hiding the food.  After about 3 or 4 days in the tank (low light also) the
arrowana started eating soaked freeze dried plankton-similar to krill, but
small.  I never had to resort to guppies, I was afraid that once it ate live
food it would not accept any other.  All it ate for a few weeks was the
plankton. Eventually, I let it go a few days without eating, once it looked
plump and like it was doing OK.  After the short starvation it began to eat
soaked Hikari cichlid pellets, the red ones, forget the name.  After that it
did fine.
   The one I had first had been feeding on guppies at the store and
switched over to the plankton without any trouble.  These two were very
small, but not with the yolk sac still attached.   Does your arro nudge the
food or take it in and spit it out? My picky one was easily startled and
would often spit out food and jump if disturbed during feeding.  It
eventually became quite calm and avoracious feeder, but would still jump now
and again. Just their natural instinct.

There is one food that I have never seen any fish refuse, whether it me
marine or fresh water. Try MYSIS... This is a type of frozen food.. It is a
shrimp from freshwater lakes. Supposed to be the ultimate food. I've seen
the guy at the LFS feed marine lion fish w/ it.. Those fish very rarely
accept "dead" foods. Its worth a try, though it can be a bit tricky to find
a supplier.

GL