• A tank from 135g upwards is ideal for the well being and comfort of your aussie arowana. Length and width are more important than depth. Length should be 3 times the length of your arowana and width about the same as your arowana.
• A good size tank is 6' x 2' x 2' about 650L or 180g. If you can afford bigger then by all means get a bigger tank. Your arowanas will love you for it.
• Gravel or no gravel??? With such a potentially large fish (taking into account tankmates) no gravel would be the prefered choice as this would mean optimal water quality.
• However it has been said the bare bottom produces a reflection and causes the arowana to look downward. Causing drop or bulging eye (in aussies????).
• Decorations such as rocks and driftwood may be used, however make sure these don't obstruct swimming room. Also make sure no sharp edges are present. Decorations are usually only used when the arowana is small. As it grows there will be less room and the fish may injure itself.
• Plants can be used although they may get in the way at feeding time. I have Vallisnera (long grass like) and my jardini sometimes gets it caught in its mouth along with the food. My leichardti rips my Amazon swords to bits. Both arowanas must just love making a mess with the plants for me to clean.

WATER QUALITY

• If new to fish keeping, always cycle your tank before introducing your arowana. I have had many people ask me why their fish isn't eating, only to find out that their tank isn't cycled.
• Water conditions in my area are quite good for keeping fish. Water straight from the tap is pH7 and hardness about 100ppm which means no fiddling with chemicals.
• I just need to dechlorinate, although sometimes for no apparent reason I will get a bad water change. The fish seem to act a little different to normal.
• Fish are kept at 27°C (81°F) except for a few months in summer when the water temperature rises above 30°C from the heat.
• One third of the water is changed 3 times every 2 weeks. Although once a week is fine; depending on how much you feed.
• As long as you keep your water conditions clean and constant (i.e. no rapid change in pH, quick changes in temperature of no more than a couple of degrees), then you should not have any problems.
• Filtration for my 180g is an Eheim 2228 cannister style filter. Because there's quite a few large fish, the filter is mainly biological. I use ehfimech (ceramic tubes) and ehfisubstrat (white type rock which supports bacteria).
• I have also found power filters with sponge inserts work quite well also.

FOOD AND FEEDING

• Generally I feed my fish whenever I see it; about 2-3 times a day. Only small amounts of food are fed at any one time however.
• The following is basically what I use feed my arowanas : Crickets, frozen beefheart mixture, mealworms, earthworms, whole shrimp from markets, frozen bloodworms, Hikari foodsticks, frozen fish (whitebait) obtained from bait shop, very ocasionally goldfish and feeder shrimp and fish.
• However my arowanas generally gets beefheart, frozen fish and shrimp.
• I find the feeding of live foods a little bit expensive and the arowanas have tankmates which also like live foods. Crickets are expensive here in Australia ($5 for about 15-20 large ones). As are goldfish which are about 80c to $1 each.
• Beefheart and is fed frozen, while fish is fed half frozen and shrimp half frozen to thawed. This way the arowanas just swallow it and it is less messy.
• Feeding high protein foods generally means water changes are a must as it does pollute the water more rapidly.

• I have only encountered illness once and it was ick which was easily cured. Usually the fish just cures itself after raising the temperature and adding a little salt.
• Be very careful when using medications. Arowanas are very very sensitive to them...I know I've lost one. Aussie arowanas are very disease resistant when they are healthy. I try to avoid using them at all cost.