What do you feed your Arowana?

JML1997

New Member
What do you feed your arowana, that gives the best result. Any ideas for a high quality pellet? Thanks, -Justin
 

Cirrus

Arowana blogger
I personally feed my arowana cut up pieces of raw uncooked market shrimp; I buy it with shell on, thaw it, remove the shell,cut it up, then feed the aro. You can try pressing pellets into the pieces of shrimp; most keepers would recommend either Hikari or NLS pellets.

If you are lucky, your fish will take to pellets, and then you can skip the shrimp. Otherwise you will have to try starving it to eat pellets and that can be stressful.

If you are unlucky, you could get a picky eater. Sometimes crickets/meal worms/king worms can spoil a fish and it will only eat these live foods.

I am guessing your fish is already on cut up prawn. Ask the previous owner what he was feeding it.

Good luck and congratulations on your new fish. :)
 

JML1997

New Member
I personally feed my arowana cut up pieces of raw uncooked market shrimp; I buy it with shell on, thaw it, remove the shell,cut it up, then feed the aro. You can try pressing pellets into the pieces of shrimp; most keepers would recommend either Hikari or NLS pellets.

If you are lucky, your fish will take to pellets, and then you can skip the shrimp. Otherwise you will have to try starving it to eat pellets and that can be stressful.

If you are unlucky, you could get a picky eater. Sometimes crickets/meal worms/king worms can spoil a fish and it will only eat these live foods.

I am guessing your fish is already on cut up prawn. Ask the previous owner what he was feeding it.

Good luck and congratulations on your new fish. :)

Thanks. Yes the aro is eating shrimp, and worms. I'll leave it be for a while before attempting to starve it.
 

Boydo

New Member
Chopped fish fillet and prawns are easy and economical. Talk to your local seafood shop about there old food. I get all kinds of food this way at $3-5/lbs salmon, trout, tuna, catfish, etc...It is perfectly fine food just not good enough for them to sell to the public they called this pet grade food.
 

JML1997

New Member
Chopped fish fillet and prawns are easy and economical. Talk to your local seafood shop about there old food. I get all kinds of food this way at $3-5/lbs salmon, trout, tuna, catfish, etc...It is perfectly fine food just not good enough for them to sell to the public they called this pet grade food.

Is there any type of seafood that shouldn't be fed?
 

Boydo

New Member
Is there any type of seafood that shouldn't be fed?

Just the stuff they wont eat;). I find that Salmon and trout be have the best results however you can expect an oil film on the water after feeding that will last a couple hours. In smaller systems consider white fleshed fish like prawns, tilapia, haddock, etc...less oily food made be better. Try some things and see what works for you and your fish best.
 

JML1997

New Member
Just the stuff they wont eat;). I find that Salmon and trout be have the best results however you can expect an oil film on the water after feeding that will last a couple hours. In smaller systems consider white fleshed fish like prawns, tilapia, haddock, etc...less oily food made be better. Try some things and see what works for you and your fish best.

Thanks!
 

tman

Super Moderator
Mine eats the following....Hikari sticks,smelt,shrimp,massivore pellets,carnivore pellets. Super worms,minnows,crickets as treats once in a blue moon. I was lucky and didn't have a picky eater. Even eats my finger once in a while. LOL. Varied diets are the best for their health! Just a pain in the arse keeping everything on hand. Couldn't imagine having more then one. Just as expensive as feeding my pbass.
 

bcarlos

Member
I feed all my aros Hikari Massivore. It's clean, easy and produces good results.

To Theo's point, every fish is different. My SR was on mealworms and prawn for over a year before I decided to move him to pellets. It took just over five months of starving before he made the switch. Patience and persistence are key!
 

tomuhs

New Member
Thats awesome guys!

I'm feeding mine massivore in the morning (didn't even need to starve!) and MP and super worms at night. To get my aro on massivore, I just made a MP sandwhich and started weening off MP. I also did some positive reinforcement whereby I gave the aro some SW after it took the massivore.
 

Cirrus

Arowana blogger
A bit more detail on how to feed shrimp to your new aro:

Get (Pacific) white shrimp; you can buy it shell on at Safeway for about $10 a bag. You can also get it at T&T Market unfrozen, which you take home and then freeze. It is important to get the shell on kind of white shrimp because the shell off kind has a lot more salt in it and not all arows appreciate that. Also, I recommend white shrimp over market prawn as the prawn seems to be a lot more chewy and some arows don't like that either. Assuming you get the frozen kind, thaw it a bit under warm running tap water, take off the shell, cut shrimp into small bite size pieces. Target feed. Once the aro gets used to your tank and your feeding him, he will eat it right away when it hits the water. For the first while he may watch it sink and then attack it mid way down or else pick it up off the bottom. You can try a piece or two in morning and night. Don't leave any food on the bottom of the tank for more than about 30 minutes. This method will work for sure.
 
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