180 gallon planted with Crossback

[deepRED]

Hey everyone, just wanted to share a few pictures of one of my setups.

Tank Specs:

180 gallons
Fluval FX5
Eheim Pro 3e with surface skimmer
300 Watt ceramic heater
Koralia 4 Powerhead
2x 96 PC lighting

Current tankmates:

1 - 9" Crossback Asian Arowana from Pang Long Farm
3 - Peacock bass
5 - Geophagus Altifron
1 - L76 "Orange Seam Pleco"
1 - L213
1 - L102 "Snowball"
1 - L177 Gold nugget

Fully planted low tech setup.

You can see the gold starting to break out nicely on his head:

 

[iamfrontosa]

Love the setup. Very nice fish and plants ! 180g seems small.
Just a thought, color is a bit funny. Might wanna try changing the White Balance on your digicam.

 

[deepRED]

Love the setup. Very nice fish and plants ! 180g seems small.
Just a thought, color is a bit funny. Might wanna try changing the White Balance on your digicam.

Yeah, the full tank shots are just quick snaps. Didn't really fiddle too much with the white balance. Free hand, without tripod or additional flash or lighting.
When I have time I'll try to get some proper full tank shots, I have all the gear, just not the time.

The fish shots however are fairly accurate to life.
My lighting is 6700K and has a bit of a yellow tinge to it.

 

[arl]

I don't mean to offend and I may be wrong myself but he looks a little bit on the skinny side. How old is this guy? Also not really a planted aquarium guy but what's the temp of your tank? Colder temp (which I think is what plants want?) may affect the aro's apetite. Really nice aro and setup though!!

 

[Cirrus]

Good to see you here bro.

Years back DeepRed taught me the trick of pumping king worm with carrots, freezing them live in the deep freeze (during which time they poop out whatever they have in their gut), and then thawing them out and using as needed. I found this less hassle than having to deal with the mess of live worms. After a couple months, however, the aros started to lose interest in the thawed worms, meaning they might need to be used before they get too old in the freezer. Anyway, a very interesting approach to feeding aros for sure and one I will try again I think. Next time, however, I will probably pump the king worms on some high grade pellet food, a trick I saw used at an aro farm in Asia.

So, I have to ask...are you still using that old "pump-the-king worm-freeze-them" feeding approach?

Oh, and tank/aro shots look great!

 

[carcrazy]

Pumping up sw with carrots you say? I'm going to try that!

The planted tank looks great! I have a green aro in my planted 165g tank and he eats like crazy! He's still pretty young, though, only 7". I think aros are okay to keep at 78 F but higher would be better. They may grow slower at the lower temp but they should get to size eventually. As long as they stay healthy, all should be well.

 

[glockner99]

I pump mine with cichlid mini pellets and quality flake food...

 

[glockner99]

...Beautiful tank!!

 

[deepRED]

I don't mean to offend and I may be wrong myself but he looks a little bit on the skinny side. How old is this guy? Also not really a planted aquarium guy but what's the temp of your tank? Colder temp (which I think is what plants want?) may affect the aro's apetite. Really nice aro and setup though!!

None taken. The full body shot was taken 1 day after I got him from the shop. That was almost 2 months ago. He wasn't really being fed that much so I had to pump him up.

I'll post some newer pics later on. He is definitely not skinny anymore

My tank sits at 80 degrees. All of my plants are tropical and most plants are pretty versatile in terms of temperature anyways. Only when you get up over 82-84 do you start running into problems with the plants not liking the high temps.

His appetite is not an issue as he almost took a piece of my finger off a couple days ago. hehe

 

[deepRED]

Good to see you here bro.

Years back DeepRed taught me the trick of pumping king worm with carrots, freezing them live in the deep freeze (during which time they poop out whatever they have in their gut), and then thawing them out and using as needed. I found this less hassle than having to deal with the mess of live worms. After a couple months, however, the aros started to lose interest in the thawed worms, meaning they might need to be used before they get too old in the freezer. Anyway, a very interesting approach to feeding aros for sure and one I will try again I think. Next time, however, I will probably pump the king worms on some high grade pellet food, a trick I saw used at an aro farm in Asia.

So, I have to ask...are you still using that old "pump-the-king worm-freeze-them" feeding approach?

Oh, and tank/aro shots look great!

Thanks for the invite.

I have since started feeding the worms on new life spectrum flake food and cyclopeeze pellets. 24 hours of feeding, then straight into an airtight container in the freezer. Use within 2 months and you're laughing. They really begin to degrade after that so don't buy more then you can use in that time frame.
My aro is also feeding on prawn twice a week and he is just starting to show interest in hikari pellet.

 

[homebrewed]

Very nice aquascape and fish combo

 

[MananaP]

can we see what your aro looks like now .