Arapaima

[pieman]

I know quite a few people keep Arrowana, but does anyone keep or know anyone who has ever tryed to keep an Arapaima? I was curious as these fish are very similar to Arrowana, apart from the size of course

 

[Paul_MTS]

there' quite a few people over the pond that keep araipaimas in large concrete tanks with glass fronts.

AFAIK there pretty easy fish to keep.

 

[pieman]

I can imagine them being expensive to keep, water changes and a filter than is suitable for a tank capable of housing a 15 foot monster How much do these things eat?

 

[andywg]

The days of 15 feet Arapaima are pretty much gone.

Over fishing has meant that getting 10 feet is lucky out of the amazon. Most of the aquarium kept ones seem to only get to around the 8 feet mark (though this still gives you 3" for each individual scale).

IIRC they are on the CITES list now and are not commonly found in the UK, though in the US they have a little more availability.

 

[guppy_man]

i dont know if you have watched JUNGLE HOOKS on discovery real time, but its about this man from england who wants to catch the biggest freshwater fish in the world "arapaima", he ventures off into the jungle asking people in the town if they know where he can find these amazing fish, he manages to fins a fishing guide who knows where they are but the place wont be easy to get to, they had to cross marsh land, finally when he finds this beast of a fish he doesnt use a fishing rod he uses rope and a shark hook with a massive piece of meat attached, its great to watch

i know that was nothing to do with your question lol but i just wanted to share it
they are ugly fish tho, flatish head green back and red body with 2 little black beady eyes

 

[T1KARMANN]

dont buy them they are way to big for any home tank or pond

water changes dont be silly how the hell would you do a water change on an olympic size swimming pool
even a zoo have trouble keeping them at adult size

i hear you can buy them for about $100 in the US but then its going to cost you $20,000+ to set up a proper tank/pond to home it well and then and aditional $100 per week to feed it

leave them in the wild were they belong

 

[pieman]

At what point did I say i'm buying them?

And the water change was more of a joke, loosen up, sheeesh

 

[T1KARMANN]

At what point did I say i'm buying them?

And the water change was more of a joke, loosen up, sheeesh

this is the main fish that gets to me they should not even be sold most people cant even get a big enought tank for a red tail cat or tiger shovel nose lots of Arapaima gig are sold every year in the US to people who just want them because they want to say they have kept one

i think you would be lucky if 1% of the people who buy them can take care of them or provide a tank big enought for them

 

[fishfishfish]

one of my dads friends is an archuteched and my dad says he has 1.this guy is loaded and my dad said gatting the tank built and all that suff costed around $100,000.i havent seen it yet but i will soon hopefully

 

[smoothvirus]

On another aquarium forum there was a guy up in Canada who had a 50,000 gallon tank built into an addition on his house and he was keeping an Arapaima in it.

 

[andywg]

You can't compare that guy's 50,000 gallon tank to other people.

Nor the way he looks at the hobby.

He has a 50k, a 15k, and at least 5-8 tanks all in excess of 800 gallons.

IIRC he was running over 100 tanks over 100 gallons.

 

[T1KARMANN]

all this talk how many tanks have you seen pics of that can home a giga for life (apart from a zoo or public aquarium)

 

[andywg]

My point exactly T1. Arapaima gigas are best left to the wild really. IMO, the largest fish most aquarists could ever hope to keep would be a fish around the size of an RTC or TSN. And even then, very few actually have the means to do so.

Once you get larger than that then you require some serious investment into the storage and filtration.

 

[diburning]

you can fish a 20 footer out of a lake in thailand lol... Along with 5 foot snakeheads, 10 foot redtail catfish, 200 pound catclocarpio siamensis (siamese carp), and maybe a 20 pound rohu (indian carp) lol

 

[ringham]

i am pretty sure that gigas don't get 20 foot, even in the wild. But i see wot you meen.