In my last post I have given an account of arowana fish feeding schedule. In this post I will give a detailed information about the Arowana fish food. You will have a complete list of fresh, frozen and processed commercial arowana fish food and how to administer them to your fish. I will also explain how much food you should give and why. In this article I will also illustrate my own experience with raising different breeds of arowana and how do I prepare arowana fish food.
Please let me know in the comment box below how this article have helped you in raising a healthy and graceful arowana fish.
Also Check: Arowana Fish Feeding || Arowana tank filter setup
Arowana food categories.
Arowana fish food can be classified in a few categories. they are
- commercial foods.
- live fish
- fresh meats and frozen meats.
- fresh fish and frozen fish.
- insects.
- rodents.
- reptiles.
let us now every category separately.
Commercial arowana fish food.
There are a lot of options available in the market if you are looking for the commercially prepared arowana fish food. It is really confusing to pick up a particular brand. What should you do? A lot depends upon what is available near your home. In this situation I really cant specify any brand but let me give you a brief account of the brands that either I have used personally or I have heard good feedback about them.
Hikari tropical food sticks. Of all the arowana fish food I have used so far i have found hikari to be the best. I have not done any laboratory test on this food as for yet but trusting the nutritional details on the pack this arowana fish food contains all macro nutrients in optimum balance and several other micro nutrients that are needed for better overall development of your arowana fish. There are additional bio stimulative added in this food to facilitate digestion.
Must Check: Silver Arowana price || Arowana Fish Introduction
Caution with over feeding
One thing that you should keep in mind that this food contains some of the highest grade ingredients that are having high percentage of proteins and fats. If you will feed them more than what is required then your fish will develop aliments that might or might not be treatable. The biggest problem is that most of the times arowana health issues go unnoticed to even experienced owners. This food mentions highly flavorful additives that will make them devour this food swiftly. As these ingredients deposit in body in excess they will produce dropping eyes, lethargy, slow reaction and other problems. These will be deadly in long term.
Correct method to feed arowana.
Particularly speaking, there is no exact method to feed arowana. There are several factors that need to be considered, for example diet and consumption pattern of an Australian jardini arowana is very different form that of a green arowana so as of a silver arowana. Similarity in habits are observed in Arowana from same genetic pool. So you may observe similarity in food habits, behavior and other parameters in case of Asian arowanas as they belong to same genetic pool and have physical parameters like body length, weight, width, muscle mass etc similar across the whole group.
You May Also Like: 108 Must Know Arowana Facts || Death of a Pet
Arowana fish food will also vary in form, capacity and volume across different life stages of the fish. Feeding habits, needs and likes of a baby arowana are very different form that of a young arowana so as with adult arowana or an aged arowana.
In my previous article I have given a detailed account of frequency of arowana feeding. But there i haven’t provided details of what and how much to feed. Let us here quickly revise that discussion in tips along with details of food that you can give to your fish.
Baby Arowana fish food.
- feed baby arowana 4-5 times a day
- each breed grows at different speed so be cautious is not mixing food habits of different breeds.
- a 3-5 inches arowana is considered a baby arowana.
- food quantity approximately 2/3 of apparent volume of head is enough to feed a baby.
- almost always baby arowana will prefer live feed.
- chasing fishes gives then a good play time and nurture their hunting instincts.
- for baby arowana guppy fish is the best option.
- once you see an appreciable growth in about 45-60 days then introduce other fishes like molly, small barbs, small tetras and others.
- at this point, if available you can introduce insects like meal worms, blood worms etc and other small reptiles like live frogs or other options available at your location.
- still my advice is to limit yourself to properly quarantined small fishes because they are safest option.
- later when you see progress in consumption of live feed by your fish slowly move towards dried foods like sun dried shrimp and blood worm.
- feed your baby arowana a combination of these above mentioned diets for a couple of months more.
- later when there is an appriciable increase in the consumption then introduce specialized arowana fish food that are either pallets or sticks. I personally prefer sticks.
- break down sticks into multi[le pieces for small baby fishes.
- by the time they are 5 inches long they will start to eat complete sticks.
- remember to always feed different food in cycle one after another with appropriate gap so that your arowana wont develop a habit or liking towards a particular diet.
Also Check: Red Eared slider turtle ban in India || Arowana Fish Feeding.
Food for young arowana fish
- an arowana is considered young when they are 8-12 inches long of course depending upon breed.
- a young arowana must be fed 2 times a day in early stages.
- once they are close to a feet in breeds like silver and black arowana and around 8 inches in most Asian arowana lines and Australian arowana lines then this frequency must be reduced to once a day.
- again breeds need to differentiated. a silver arowana will be young when they are close to 15 inches in length and an Asian arowana or an Australian arowana will be young when they are about 8-10 inches in length.
- At this point they will be in need of high amount of protein but small amounts of carbs and fats.
- feeding a single diet like just commercial foods or just meats or even just live feed there will be an increased risk of developing nutritional deficiency diseases.
- there is no sure shot way to determine underlying nutritional deficiency diseases.
- best remedy is to provide your arowana with a varied diet. there should always be a combination and balance between meats, live food and sticks or pallets.
- providing them with live feed will supply with some very essintial amino acids.
- meats like fish fillet, chicken breast, lamb meat, chicken and lamb organs will satisfy their need of proteins, iron and calcium.
- commercial food sticks will provide micro nutrients that are scarcely in all the home made diet.
- that is why it is of great importance that a combination of all available diets must be provided.
- I personally provide chunks of chicken breast, kidney, liver and heart to my fishes at one time , then with a gap of couple of days feed them hikari tropical sticks.
Old English Mastiff : Origin, Size, Health, Grooming, Training and Diet
Adult Arowana fish food.
- requirements for adult arowana are different than that of baby and young counterparts.
- an arowana is considered adult when they reach a length of 30-36 inches depending upon the breed.
- silver arowana and black arowana will be considered adult when they reach a length of approximately 36 inches.
- An adult arowana will be required to feed a lesser fat and higher percentage of protein.
- gap between each feed must be increased to five to seven days.
- quantity of feed will also be increased since the gap has been increased.
- approximate amount of feed to be provided is again proportionate to the size of head of your fish.
- some breeds with higher muscle density like Australian jardini arowana will consume a little more than other breeds.
- to adults also you have to feed a combination of all possible diets whether meats, sticks or live feed.
- rest you will be familiar with and will be able to figure out on your own when you will have an arowana that will be the grace of your aquarium for more than three years.
Must Check: Owning A Doberman And a St. Bernard
My experience.
When I started keeping fish fifteen years back there were not many options available at pet stores near me. At that time I started with silver arowana. With my fishes the shopkeeper gave me dried shrimps. I used to crush them into very small fragments and then feed them. At that time I remember that I was not having any concept of hand feeding the fish or feeding live fishes to arowana. Because of my lack of knowledge and experience I was not able to keep my fishes alive for a long time. My first arowana did not make it to even a month. Now I have a few flipping for over 3 years now. At that time I remember we were not familiar with online shops like amazon or snapdeal. So, anything that we have to lift off the shelf as arowana fish food was either dried shrimp or blood worms. There was an option of live feed available to us in the form of various small fishes like guppies, molly and gold fish. It is just recently in past 4-5 years I have started using commercially prepared dry arowana fish food. Still i have not fed reptiles, insects and rodents to my fishes but I am now giving my fishes a combination of chicken meat, lamb organs, de-frost fish fillets, live fishes and dry packaged feed.
I sincerely hope that this article have helped you in your quest of raising a healthy arowana. Please comment below to let us know about your views regarding this presentation. thank you so much for dropping by and spending some of your valuable time here. See you soon.
The post Arowana Fish Food : Best Food, Fish Food, Price appeared first on Kaivalaya's Ani-Mall - Blog.