# Baby arowana wont eat



## lybrian1 (Aug 10, 2010)

ok i got a baby arowana from a buddy at my lfs. its about 2 inches long and doesnt have a sac hanging out. i have a new tank set up for him but its still cycling. but i was assured it could be kept in my 75g community tank until my other tank finishes cycling. what a mistake because when i feed my tank flakes the arowana doesnt eat. it completely ignores the food its swimming around. i isolated him in a flouting basket and fed it blood worms but it also seems to be ignoring it. i am running out of options. tomorrow i will try placing the arowana in a small tank and try feeding him the blood worms again. i am worried because my new baby arowana hasnt eaten anything for 2 days


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## Jackson (Jan 30, 2009)

Feed it feeder guppies for now. I'm not sure if they'll take dead or prepared foods unless you train them.


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## pat3612 (Jan 29, 2008)

You can also try ghost shrimp and small baby crickets though it should eat bloodworms any kind of fish fry that can fit in its mouth


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## lybrian1 (Aug 10, 2010)

Where do I find Frys for it to eat. 
It should go for the bloodworms


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## Jackson (Jan 30, 2009)

No it won't go for the blood worms if they're dead. these things can tell dead from live foods. 

You'll need to fatten it up with live foods and then pellet/frozen food train it.

Or continue to starve it hoping it might go for the frozen foods. If it doesn't eat in the next couple of days you'll have todo live foods and start all over.

Crickets are a great idea


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## Y2KGT (Jul 20, 2009)

Did you ask at the LFS what it was eating there? Or perhaps it just needs time to settle into its new tank. Unfortunately if you keep moving it around it'll never get settled.
Good luck.
--
Paul


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## lybrian1 (Aug 10, 2010)

The reason I had to move it out of the community tank was because Theres so many fast swimming fish that they would eat up all the food in a matter of a few minutes. It scares the baby arowana into a corner where the intakes are.


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## lybrian1 (Aug 10, 2010)

I called the Lfs but the guy that answered was not too sure. He said hikari food sticks. I went to my local big ALS that were also selling baby arowanas and they said they feed blood worms.


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## 1oscar (Apr 14, 2010)

try meal worms the swimming movement they make will attract the Arowanna and hopefully he attacks it


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## bigfishy (Jun 19, 2009)

1oscar said:


> try meal worms the swimming movement they make will attract the Arowanna and hopefully he attacks it


baby arowana will have difficulty of digesting the hard shell on the mealworm, it can lead to problems


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## lybrian1 (Aug 10, 2010)

I moved him back Into the community tank as he seems the most happy there. I will continue to feed bloodworms and tetra flakes and hope he will eat. When I have some free time I will go to the lfs where I got him and ask for the exact same food they feed them.


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## Jackson (Jan 30, 2009)

All these trips yet all you have to do is offer some live foods. 

If it doesn't eat the live foods then the fish is not going to eat any prepared foods.


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

Indeed, Feeder guppies will do it. OR any baby guppy.


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## matti2uude (Jan 10, 2009)

When I had one I fed it feeder guppies from the lfs.


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## lybrian1 (Aug 10, 2010)

Will BA have feeder guppies? I haven't seen them before


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## lybrian1 (Aug 10, 2010)

My arrowana is just a little baby I don't think it can eat a guppy. It's the size of my pinky finger


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## bcarlos (Nov 19, 2009)

Keeping aros this young alive is very difficult. I have, in the past, had success with bloodworm, dried shrimp and floating hikari sticks. You might also want to try lowering the water level and minimizing foot traffic around the tank; this sometimes helps with their comfort level.


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## lybrian1 (Aug 10, 2010)

Good news. My baby arowana is still alive. He seems to be eating my blood worms and flakes. Still swims away into a corner whenever I come near the tank. But he is eating. Not a lot though.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

Have you considered trying microworms ? Though they are very small, they are very good nutrition,and they wriggle and move, which should stimulate his instinct to hunt and eat. Crickets would do that too, btw.

Should be several sources here on the forum for micro worms and they are easy to keep. Stay alive for at least a day in the water too. Try just a tiny dab of them at first, so he can see them moving. There are larger worms you can culture too, but I have not tried them.

Could also try fruit flies, if his mouth is large enough to fit a cricket, surely a fruit fly would be ok..he'd probably love 'em.. they stay on the surface 'til eaten if you provide a few floating plants for them to walk on. Also not too hard to keep alive. You get the kind that can't fly.. Al's has them. If you make food for the flies, you can feed some of the larvae to your fish.. all of mine adore fly larvae, as well as feed some of the flies. If you hold back about fifty flies, you can keep a breeding population going.. just make sure they can't ever cross breed with normal fruit flies or the new generation WILL be able to fly away. Lots of info on line how to keep flies and Scotmando sometimes has them on the forum too. My little fish seem to adore flies and get very excited when flies are on the menu.

And Igor Kanshyn, on the forum, has live dapnia. A type of crustacean related to shrimp, they jerk and swim in a funny way that most fish find irresistible, and you can get some from him. Any the fish does not eat will survive 'til he finds them. Also not too too hard to keep alive though they need a wee tank of their own if you want an ongoing supply.. they eat dissolved yeast or greenwater.. I think greenwater likely gives you the best nutrient load but they are good food regardless and provide stimulation to the hunting instincts too. And crickets are certainly easy to get.. any store that sells reptiles will have them too, like Al's. No disrespect to the store, but Al's is very busy feeding alot of animals, so they tend to feed whatever is quick and cheap, for the most part. The fact they put any kind of food in for this fish is no guarantee the arowana actually was eating it. I've seen them feed fan shrimp and clams finely crushed flakes, [ and so they themselves have told me they do ], and neither of those species can eat crushed flakes. But it's way easier than feeding the greenwater the fan shrimp prefer, and much cheaper than the coral food the clams need.

I've even got scuds in some of my tanks, and I'm sure the loaches eat some of them, but they're hell to catch and I don't have that many. They hide really well and tend to stay on the bottom.. I think Arowana prefer closer to the surface feeding, don't they ?

I'd get him going on live food first and then gradually get him used to the idea that dry, or dead things are edible too. Right now you want to beef up his nutrition as much as you can so he grows and is healthy and living food items are going to give you that. If you persist with dry foods he either won't eat or won't eat enough of, he could starve to death, and I'm sure you would be very unhappy if this were to happen.

If you are going to keep a fish like Arowana, ideally, one would like to see that you had prepared for his feeding needs before you brought him home. I don't mean to be unkind, but there's more than one sort of fish with special needs for various things, including foods. If you don't have them ready, the animals will end up going without. This is, sadly, too often because they are purchased first without enough research being done ahead of time. You really need to know what they need, so you'll have it ready for them when they arrive. If you don't, when you get them home, instead of being able to enjoy your new pet, you're feeling horrible because the fish won't eat and worrying about him all the time.

Get him what he needs. Live food. And consider how large he will become and what he will need when he does.. a much larger tank, perhaps, and other fish to eat along with his staple diet. I firmly believe all fish need some live food in their diet to maintain optimal health and it also is stimulating for them, and I think that is also very good for them.

Then hopefully you will have a nice big fat Arowana to enjoy for years to come and you'll both feel good. I wish you the very best of success.


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## Tropicana (Feb 15, 2009)

You can go to a reptile store and get pin head crickets. They are so tiny. And they float.


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## lybrian1 (Aug 10, 2010)

My arrowana I'd eating well it's eating blood worms as well as flakes. It's actually eating a lot too. I guess it was just nervous before.

By the way I just picked up a 150 gal tank for him. I'll set it up when my arrowana is bigger.


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## pat3612 (Jan 29, 2008)

Glad he is eating bloodworms and flakes are not ideal food for him when he gets a little bigger you should get him some live food. You could even get afew guppies and breed them or anything easy mollys platys etc


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## lybrian1 (Aug 10, 2010)

I never had much luck with breeding mollies and platies but I am willing to try


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## chen (Jun 4, 2006)

My advice is to stop moving him. Fish in general when not use to their new homes need time to get comfortable before they start eating. Lots of great advice so far on what to feed him so try that instead of moving him.


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