So yea. Remember how I said last night I was full. Fully full full with the fullness of being oh so very full?

Would the smart thing be to, knowing how very full you are, to take in a 16" rainbow arowana that's missing one eye, so it doesn't become chum for a giant salt water shark?

Wanna guess what happened at the former Big Al's store tonite? I apparently thought it was the smart thing to do. Which is a sure sign I have brain worms. Also his beat to hell tank mate Uwaru buddy.

I know! It's a new definition of full!

Or something.

I must have had a severe case of the brain worms too, because I agreed to find another home for a 16" pacu and another 18" red tailed cat shovelnose combination.

Wow. Even though you are FULL it was the right thing to do.

Where is the line between wright and wrong? If you are truely too full to take on more fish there is a thin line as to if you are really saving the fish and putting it in a better situation,

True. IMO I think it would be better than being chum.

I know some things need to eat live things, and I'm okay with that as that's what the animals do in the wild. But, to take in people's fish that outgrew their tanks only to turn them into food for some big ass shark is wrong in my book. Even more so if the fish is just going to be chopped up and then frozen for later. There's a food store in the same shopping center, go buy some cheap fish there or find somewhere to get bulk frozen shark food. At the very least, don't put the beat up fish in a tank that the store manager "jokingly" calls the chum tank.

It's apparently a very common thing at the store tho, since the one sales guy who helped bag the arowana went and got one of the other sales guys who was desperate to find someone to take his pacu and rtc. Dude had to "help" carry stuff to the car so the store manager wouldn't bitch him out if he heard I was going to help him.

As for the arowana I called in a favor and the fishy manager at the petsmart hooked me up with some hardcore pond filter. A Laguna something or other, and I managed to free up a 150g livestock tub. Tub needs to cycle for a few days and seriously warm up, hose water is *COLD* but I got some comets on the ready to help with that too.

Right now I had some sliders in a 55g that got pulled out and into one of the kiddy pools, he's in the 55 now. He's at that stage where it's bordering on just too big but isn't yet. The way the kids were feeding him shrimp tho, that will change in a week or two for sure.

Rainbow Aro?? Theres no such thing. If your in the uk then he may be a asian but if your in the U.S.A then hes probably a silver, african, jardini, or leo.
Pics please

Big Severum Fan wrote:

Rainbow Aro?? Theres no such thing. If your in the uk then he may be a asian but if your in the U.S.A then hes probably a silver, african, jardini, or leo.
Pics please

LOL, don't be so quick to make snap statements, my young padawan. Over the years, one thing I've found is locally used common or trade names can be very different from one area to the next, and are apt to cause much confusion. Have really seen it since it dawned on me that aquarium forums might exist a few months ago (duuuuuh). Never heard of a rainbow aro either, but bet I probably know it as somethin' else.

WYite

This is my first time dealing with aros, and that's what I was told it was. They had a few others in tanks that were 4in labeled the same with the same coloration.

Since I couldn't find anything specific about rainbow anywhere I was figuring it was either a poorly colored blue an oddly colored silver, or (if it's possible) offspring from a silver and a blue.

Since Mike asked for pics of him for the potm contest I'm gonna hold off till then, but his coloration doesn't match up with the pics I've seen online and in the books I have. The blues are much darker, the silvers much more silvery.

Heck, it may even just be the diet he was on before I got him.

Hes probably a jardini

saint_felony wrote:

This is my first time dealing with aros, and that's what I was told it was. They had a few others in tanks that were 4in labeled the same with the same coloration.

Since I couldn't find anything specific about rainbow anywhere I was figuring it was either a poorly colored blue an oddly colored silver, or (if it's possible) offspring from a silver and a blue.

Since Mike asked for pics of him for the potm contest I'm gonna hold off till then, but his coloration doesn't match up with the pics I've seen online and in the books I have. The blues are much darker, the silvers much more silvery.

Heck, it may even just be the diet he was on before I got him.

Since you're comparin' it to a blue or silver, I'm guessing ya already ruled out one of the Scleropages species? Did a little research on my own after I posted the reply to Bigfishkeeper. Found references to a color morph of the silver (O. bicirrhosum) with a pinkish tinge and blue iridescence on the scales, sometimes called a "rainbow" aro. Couldn't find any pics, though, and only the reference in the one article. Once I started lookin' though, I was surprised how many color variations there are of the silver. The colors are much more subtle than they are in Asian aros, though.

Don't know if Osteoglossum species can hybridize or not. I'd guess they probably can, but since the basic colors are so similar between them only reason I could see to do so would be to say "I did it". Not much of an aesthetic gain, and there'd probably be more money in breeding straight blacks or blues than in the hybrids.

Awaiting the picture.

WYite

PICS

Pics yes I agree wy!

None of the eyes matched up in the Scleropages which is why I skipped them.

The color morph you found is very similar to this one, just has more of a green than blue.

Here's the scales.


Here's the good side:


Here's why he was gonna end up as chum:

Its a very nice female silver arowana. Your lucky to get one like that.

Nice fish and a good save from the chum bucket. Maybe they make small eye patches...

Arrr! I be a pirate! Arrrr!

What's the defining characteristics for the females? I couldn't find specifics on sexing them and the 4yr old started calling him a him, which is why it stuck.

saint_felony wrote:

Arrr! I be a pirate! Arrrr!

What's the defining characteristics for the females? I couldn't find specifics on sexing them and the 4yr old started calling him a him, which is why it stuck.

Well the reason its a female is because of all the color/orange. Males are just silver in silvers.

No. Osteoglossum bicirrhosum exhibits no reliable sexual dichromatism or sexual dimorphism. Claims of sexual dichromatism have never been substantiated. Females may be heavier through the body, and males may have a wider jaw when viewed head on, due to the fact they incubate the eggs. Both methods are unreliable. Other indications are subject to debate with no way to prove one way or another. It has been suggested that males may have a longer anal fin, longer ventral fins, and that the lower jaw of males may protude above the upper jaw (protruding lower jaw), but the first two "indicators" are subject to error and the "PLJ" theory has never been confirmed. There's even a theory now that PLJ may simply be a genetic variation, like a Roman nose or curly hair in humans.

Coloring is a product of diet, genetics and water quality, and AFAIK coloring has never been conclusively linked to gender. I've seen pictures of nice looking silver (or "salmon") males (confirmed) with a beautiful orange/pink coloring enhanced on a diet of krill.

The only reliable way to sex silvers is when they pair up and mate, seeing which one lays the eggs and which one incubates them. I believe it's the same for blacks/blues. Don't remember the details, but the Scleropages species can be sexed by experienced keepers based on morphometrics of the head area, but its something the average hobbyist is not gonna be able to do.

Pretty fish, Saint, too bad somebody thought the lost eye made it unacceptable.

WYite

I agree beautiful Aro! And yes I too believe sex can not be 100% by color alone. In fact they are very hard to sex as a single species.

What Wyite said was in far far more detail than what's in my one book that has aros in it. Very awesome. Where are you finding such detailed info so quickly? Fish books or online somewhere?

I figured diet was a good part of it, especially since so far his favorite food has been shrimp (freeze dried or cooked) he has no interest whatsoever in the official arowana pellets I got, but also likes koi pellets.

Odds are I'll never really know the gender, since there's no way I'm getting enough of them to find out.

Would ya believe from memory?

I have an obsession with fish and cats. Except for an occasional sci-fi or fantasy novel, I mostly read scientific journal articles and fish/animal related literature for pleasure. And I rarely watch TV, I read. Mrs. WYite thinks I'm a tad bit strange, but I remind her she didn't have to marry me. As an alumnus of the University of Wyoming, I still have access to the science library, and just about any aquatic related scientific journal I want. Sometimes I make copies for future reference, other times I just commit it to memory and call it good. Regardless, given a little time, I can find the source of anything I post.

Anyways, 25 years ago when I made my first and last mistake of buying a fish I couldn't care for properly (an oscar when I was 15 that I still feel guilty about), I decided that I would learn as much about fish as I possibly could and that it would never happen again. With little interest in saltwater, I've focused on freshwater species in general and more specifically further on fish that interest me: mainly cichlids/other Perciformes and catfish esp. Pimelodids as far as regular aquarium species go, but also Salmoniformes, Acipenseriformes and a number of "oddballs" such as the Osteoglossidae, brackish Scorpaeniformes and the Muraenidae. There are also a number of individual species or genera in other orders and families that I've accumulated a fair knowledge of as well.

Once I've read numerous articles or books about a species or group, I mentally cross reference all the material, weed out the unverified and scientifically unsound material, and commit a mental profile to my "database". I do occasionally verify that no new information has been published that I may not be aware of via internet, usually with a quick search of Google Scholar. IME, the website Fishbase is also a reliable source as well. I also try to stay up to date on information about groups that interest me.

I have a couple of log books that are packed away in one of my boxes with fish stuff. I started the first when I was 18. In them are notes on water parameters, behavioral observations, breeding patterns, social behavior, eating habits, etc. of every species I've ever kept. I hope vermin haven't destoyed 'em. I've kept around 250 species of fish. I've bred and raised 50 or 60 species of cichlid and another 3 or 4 dozen species from other groups.

So in short, its 25 years of accumulated knowledge and experience.



I hope this post doesn't sound conceited. I try to not be overbearing or come across as a know-it-all. At the same time, I don't want people to make mistakes or assumptions based on misinterpreted or bad information. Thats the quickest way I've ever seen to run somebody outta the hobby.

Sincerely,

Ivan

Not at all Ivan! Glad to have someone like you around the forum for sure...thanks for giving the good sound advise!

w.o.w. Ivan.

That's freakin' *awesome*

I wish I had that sort of access to fish journals. With some of the fish I've taken in there are times when I'm totally just winging it, and hoping I'm doing it right.

Like that Aro, thankfully there was enough info online that I was covered with him, but I'm definitely jealous.

You know anything else I should be watching out for with this guy? Anything I'm missing diet or otherwise?

It was good talking to you in chat last night, Ivan. Now after rereading your post from the other day I understand better why you are very knowledgeable about fish. It's good to have you around. You are far from conceited.

Lets see some more pics of that lovely aro.