I can tell you that if you buy a fish that is going to grow between three to four feet long, you will probably want to better prepare yourself on what size tank you will need as well as what kind of food to feed the fish. Surely a fish that grows this size will require some special nutritional requirements.
What do you feed an Arowana? An Arowana fish is carnivorous and should be fed a wide variety of foods. These include both live and frozen foods. Arowana fish food includes (but is not limited to) pellets for surface feeding carnivores, worms, grasshoppers, crickets, mealworms, smaller frogs, feeder fish, shrimp either mysis or brine including shrimp that humans would eat. Small pieces of beef and chicken heart and liver can be fed to an Arowana as well.
Feeding a larger Arowana compared to a younger, smaller one means a larger quantity of food. When Arowana are smaller, you can feed the fish things like pellets and other mainstream fish foods. I would consider feeding your baby Arowana larger chunks of food like chicken hearts when the fish is approximately 10” long. To learn more on what and how much to feed your Arowana, then please continue reading…
How Many Times a Day, Should I Feed My Arowana?
When your fish is young it will need more feedings to sustain its growth keeping it healthy and strong.
As with feeding all aquarium fish, always make sure you only feed enough that the fish can consume at feeding time. Anything extra that floats to the bottom should be taken out before it affects your water parameters negatively.
- A young Arowana up to six inches long can be fed twice a day with no problems. When you feed this often, it’s a great opportunity to switch up what you feed to provide varied nutrients to your fish.
- If your Arowana is between six and twelve inches long you could ween it down to a once a day feeding. As your fish is now getting larger and older, it will survive just fine with the one feeding per day. To provide nutritional variety, just mix the food choices up each day.
- After your Arowana gets to 12 inches or larger you can cut back on feeding a bit more. Once a day might be fine once in a while, yet you could get by with only feeding every two days. The larger Arowana will eat more volume so will last longer meaning you can skip a day once in a while. After saying this, if you have other fish in the same tank, I would feed the Arowana smaller amounts each day to make sure it doesn’t get hungry and start nipping at a tank mate.
Of course, each fish is unique and yours might require more or less food. You should also consider the amount of waste your fish produces as well. If it seems like there is an excessive amount of excrement, then there probably is. If the fish poop is not cleaned out of the tank on a regular basis, your nitrates and ammonia will rise which is bad for the fish. You can have less poop in the tank if you cut back on the amount of food you’re feeding the fish.
The amount of feedings you offer your fish will always depend on the size of the Arowana.
Arowana are Surface Feeders
Something else to consider is that an Arowana is a surface feeder. Meaning, it will eat the food from the top of the tank. Sometimes when feeding an Arowana the food disappears so fast you might not even see it vanish.
Remember that when you feed that you should feed right to the fish to make sure it gets food. If not and the food sinks, unless there are other fish, the food will just sit at the bottom of the tank. That would be a waste.
Where to Buy Chicken and Beef Hearts for Feeding Arowana? [As well as the live foods]
Chances are your local fish store does not carry fresh chicken or beef hearts. This will depend on what part of the world you are in. Where I live, you will not find chicken or beef hearts at a local fish store.
- The obvious place to look for hearts is a grocery store. If you don’t see any out for sale, make sure to ask the butcher.
- Speaking of butchers, that’s where I would head next. Your local butcher shop.
- Your local fish store might have live crickets for sale, especially if they also carry snakes and lizards.
- Feeder fish can be found 99% of the time at a local fish store. If they don’t have any, just ask them to bring some in. Feeder fish are very cheap to purchase so I am sure the store would be more than happy to help you out.
- If you want to try live worms, you could go digging up rocks or check out a fishing store. Fishing stores usually carry live bait for serious fishermen.
Arowana Feeding Time
It doesn’t really matter what time of the day you feed your fish. What does matter is you stay consistent when you start feeding. If you tend to feed in mornings or evenings, stick with that schedule.
You would be surprised at how much your Arowana will get used to eating at a certain time. To keep the fish happy, just stay consistent with those times.
How expensive are Arowana? I have an article on the topic HERE.
Baby Arowana Food Considerations
I feel this is worth mentioning, even though we have already covered most of this above. The reason is because an Arowana is such a large investment of a very majestic fish, we have to make sure we care for them the best way possible.
The most important part of your fish’s life is when it is young and growing. Making sure you provide a constant variety of foods. Maximize the nutrition provided to give your fish the best opportunity possible to grow into the three to four foot Dragon fish it can become.
Want to find out if owning an Arowana is legal? I have an article on the topic HERE.
Conclusion
In conclusion:
The important points to remember in this article include the types of food you can or should feed an Arowana. Some of these foods are mealworm, feeder fish, chicken and beef heart, shrimp, worms, crickets, grasshoppers and other insects. Acceptable food formats are frozen, raw and live foods.
The amount of food you offer is important for the growth of your fish as well as the health of the tank. The more you feed, the more you will need to clean the tank and perform water changes.
