Diet and Quantity
The type and amount of food fed to the fishes should be
varied and just right, like in the case for humans. Food can be classified
into "live" food and "non-live" food. Live foods are small frogs,
centipede, roaches, crickets, grasshoppers, shrimps, fishes and worms.
Non-live foods are frozen bloodworms, frozen prawns, frozen fishes and
commercial pellets. Arowana's are fishes with character and they are
habitual by nature. Once they are too used to live food, for instance, it
would be rather difficult to accustom them to non-live foods.
Live
foods are often the cause for the introduction of parasites into a tank,
otherwise, free from parasites. Anchor worms and fish lice are often
introduced into the tank by goldfish, guppies and other small prey fishes
and thus, cause a parasitic outbreak in an Arowana tank. The sources from
which the whole seller collects live worms and small frogs are also
questionable, sometimes from dirty drains or polluted ponds. These are
then sold to the pet shops, which in turn sell it to the hobbyists.
If you like and must feed live fishes, for instance, keep them in
a separate tank and treat with salt and Acriflavine for at least one week
before feeding. Discard the sick fishes and fishes with parasites. Feed
only those that appear healthy and lively. Likewise, live worms may be
treated with high salt content water before being feed to the Arowana's.
Crickets and grasshoppers are a safer alternative, as these are
land creatures. Vitamins may be injected into their bodies and in turn,
feed it to the Arowana's. Or you may keep a small population of crickets
(if you cant mind the noise) or mealworms. Feed them on raw carrots, which
will enhance the red color on your Arowana's due to the beta carotenoid,
which carrots contain.
Another good alternative is to feed
non-live foods such as thawed prawns. There are fresh prawns that we would
normally buy from the supermarket and eat it ourselves. Choose the smaller
4-6cm ones and buy a quantity that will last for about two weeks. Decide
on the number of prawns to be consumed per day and wrap those prawns into
say, 14 packets with a plastic wrapper.
Next, freeze it and taw
one packet per day, just before feeding. Trim off and discard the head and
the sharp pointing tail. These are hazardous as it might pierce through
the stomach and intestines of the fish, thus, killing the fish. Cut the
body into 4-5-bite size that is suitable for your fish, with the shell
still attached. Feed it to your fish and over time, you will see the red
color on the scales and fins being enhanced. Like carrots, prawns carry
the red pigment, beta carotenoid.
Generally speaking, young fishes
of 12-25cm may be fed 2-3 times a day. Only small amounts should be given
at each feeding. Once the fishes are 30cm or larger, one feeding a day
would be suffice. Do not overfeed and pollute the water, as ammonia would
rise, hence, creating health problems for the fish.
Adopt good
habits like removing uneaten food after 15 min. During water changes, make
it a point to use a net to scoop out the feces. This is very important
especially if you are too busy and would like to delay the water change a
few days later.
Of course I feed Black Tiger Shrimps to my Dragons
and freshwater Stingrays. Once in a while I stuff some pellets inside the
shrimps to enhance more color of my Dragons.
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