The arowana has grown to sixteen inches when we measured her two weeks ago. She has outgrown the current four-foot aquarium. We decided to get a 5-foot aquarium to give her more space to swim around. The seamless curved glass aquarium from Xian Leng at Shah Alam will be delivered some time this month. This aquarium cost RM1,988 and comes with an internal and external pumps respectively together with a cover and lamps.
\We were advised to let the water mature in the new aquarium for three days before moving the arowana. Due to space constraints and the difficulty in disposing the aquarium, we decided to move the arowana on the same day the aquarium is delivered. Hopefully, the arowana will be minimally affected by the move. We are keeping our fingers crossed.
Arowanas have this veil of mystery over them. My first encounter with an arowana was more than two decades ago. It was at a clinic near my home. The waiting room had a large aquarium housing an arowana. As I sat there waiting for my turn, I watched the fish as she circled nonchalantly in the aquarium. I have been fascinated by that sight since.
On November 18, 2006, Wuan and I visited the Aquafair Malaysia 2006 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre with our good friends William and Cynthia. We took home a Red-Tailed Golden Arowana exhibited by King Kong Aquarium from Melaka. At that time, the fish was only six inches in length and cost RM650 after some hard bargaining.
She has since grown to nine inches. In the initial weeks after we brought her back, she subsisted mostly on shrimps. We noticed that her anal fin and the bottom portion of her caudal fin sport a pleasant shade of red whenever she goes on a shrimp diet. Shrimps are her favourite food. Apart from shrimps, she eats mealworms and crickets.
I have grown fond of her. During the week days when Wuan is at work, she is my only companion. Her aquarium is just behind where I spend almost the entire day with the laptop. Whenever my nerves are frazzled, I would just turn back and watch her. The sight of her unhurried swimming is therapeutic indeed.
In this blog, we hope to chronicle our journeys with her. It would be interesting to see if we can learn anything from this fish that they call the dragon. Arowanas can live up to anywhere from ten to twenty years. We hope that she will be with us for many years to come. This is the beginning of our yet unnamed arowana’s story.
Side Note: This is an awesome update post we got from this tank owner. His personal blog is arowanatales.com and this is where this great story came from. Feel free to submit some updates from your tanks and aquariums setups. We are always looking for cool info on what tank owners are doing to their pet Aro’s. It’s not necessarily the best learning guide is some instances but for more experienced fish keepers.. we can really see what everyone is up to.