Alf 9 yo 3.5'/105cm alpha male arowana died; Beakerina 1.5 yo 2'/60cm female arowana goes in 4500gal 

Thank you. We've grown thicker skin over years. We have had about a thousand fish for the last 10 years and still do, so there are regular losses. Some hurt more some less of course. This hurts more.

Thank you. We've grown thicker skin over years. We have had about a thousand fish for the last 10 years and still do, so there are regular losses. Some hurt more some less of course. This hurts more.

Thank you. The netting was inconsequential in the big picture. Alf took the netting hard because he was already on his last legs, nearing the end. As I said in the video, arowana in their usual state are barely affected by the netting and handling in our experience.

Thank you, brother. Has Joao M gotten a hold of you? Too many people under the same name on FB.

@@Fish-Story No contact yet. Pass him my email if you will please Viktor

alright

He emailed me already thanks

Thank you. I've never heard of heart attacks in arowana. I am not inclined to believe this. Kinky, the female we used to have, did get injured at early age and had a kink in her spine, hence the nickname. She fought with Alf for dominance at around 6" size and lost. Got a kink.

Thank you. We've grown thicker skin over years. We have had about a thousand fish for the last 10 years and still do, so there are regular losses. Some hurt more some less of course. This hurts more.

I'd say one can count on 3 feet in 4-5 years for sure unless the arowana is badly stunted or deformed from birth, injury, etc. The minimal footprint for a non-stop swimming fish like arowana, I'd guesstimate as 6xL as the length of tank and 3xL as the width of tank, where L = fish total length. So for a 3 ft arowana it comes to an 18ft x 9ft footprint. Perhaps at least 3ft deep. I realize this is way out of league for a normal home fish tank but quite doable with a pond, even a cheap aboveground pool kind of say 12ft diameter. The big plus is one can keep 10+ arowana in such a vessel or other fish compatible with each other and with the vessel construction.

Thank you. You think the dovii is growing? Looks thicker to me a bit.

@@Fish-Story ye agree got thicker and taller how is he in there

Getting more and more comfortable and swims around more. Eats like I've never fed him before.

@@Fish-Story soon be tank boss big respect what you do 👍

We are friends with the OFR. But we never exchange fish. Shipping large fish is very much financially prohibitive. Neither of us are that rich to afford it in such fashion. ... As for color morphs, I am actually a purist. I don't dig any unnatural morphs.

Thank you. Gill the ripsaw catfish is about 35 years old. Lives in the "more peaceful" 4500 gal.

@@Fish-Story wow !

We have 16 tanks.

My homegrown method is to look at the pelvic fin extensions. In females they extend way past the anus while in males they don't reach or barely reach the anus.

@@Fish-Story sir, thanks for the reply....are u available in messenger or Instagram where i can share my arowana pics?

Sorry, no, I don't use either. You can join MFK and share your knowledge and pose your questions any time. You can film a video and post in on RU-vid. Also, our contact info is on our website www.fish-story.com. Are you having a problem evaluating the pelvic fin extensions on your arowana?

@@Fish-Story MFK in FB bro or the website?

Not FB. The original MFK www.monsterfishkeepers.com/

Thank you for the sympathies. We've lost thousands fish over our career. Getting too emotional cannot be afforded.

Yea once ya realize big fish eat lil fish and sometimes they just go before there time it definitely gets easier. Sure has for me thankfully haven't lost much. I've had some tough fishies sticking with me from the begging bought my arrow at like 4 plus inches just cause I thought it be more hardy to care for my first time ever owning one. For a silver the colors on him are ridiculous.

I have a question since it seems you are very involved with this hobby now not that this is my plan its opposite but I have my silver growing out with a awsome Indo tiger datnoid. How much do these fish go for when they hit there peak sizes?

Silver arowana don't have resale value. People sometimes get lucky and sell a 2ft arowana on local classifieds for $100 but often the sold fish goes into the same size tank or smaller. So there is no point. They have no value because very few people can house them and want them. Datnoid perches are a different matter usually. These are often wanted by people who also can house them, so there it depends on the quality - the species, the stripe stability, the rarity, from $100 to many thousands.

@@Fish-Story Man i appreciate your reply thanks. Sweet id luv to send ya a pic of Bumbleebee one day on here maybe gimmie your expertees ty on the silver arrow answer i figured as much but i heard that when they full grown peopl ebuy them cause hard to get that size but im sure alot of people have big silver arrows as well ty so much.

My working hypothesis this is natural lifespan, on the short end, somewhat shortened by our rough husbandry and yearly fighting with other males for mating rights. Other keepers report their silver arowana lived 10 years for them, some say 15, few say up to 20.

I've buried it under a mango tree.

@@Fish-Story what a shame beautiful fish sad to see it die at least you were able to see him breed and watch him grow from the size of your finger must’ve of been great to see that

Sure, it was fun and a great firsthand learning and witnessing experience.

100% water change every week. Nitrates are around 20 ppm by an API liquid test kit. Not the problem. Stress - yes, a factor always.

Thank you. Natural causes. The tail fin and all other features are in balanced and expected proportion.

Thank you. We've grown thicker skin over years. We have had about a thousand fish for the last 10 years and still do, so there are regular losses. Some hurt more some less of course. This hurts more.

@@Fish-Story I understand completely I’m just kinda getting started in the hobby so every loss hurts lol but everytime I learn from my mistakes guess that’s the only way to learn

Welcome to the choice of our poison :) I'd say far from the only but indeed one of the most effective ways for most people, myself included.

Thank you. I should have weighed it to calibrate my eye.

Right. No doubt in my mind that my husbandry leaves much to be desired and has contributed to this and many other fish's demise.

Do you do the taxidermy? Sending corpses by mail is not easy, often impossible through common carriers, and expensive! Alf has been buried anyway. Just asking for the future. I need to find a local taxidermist in SW Florida.

@@Fish-Story Yea, I've done fish taxidermy. You can buy fish taxidermy kits from a taxidermy supplier & do it yourself if you want. Its not that hard & the result is pretty professional. I've done a largemouth bass, walleye & a bowfin. No one can tell an amateur did them. I know a fish & bird taxidermist that has fish & birds sent to him all the time through the mail. I was thinking shipping dead fish is a lot easier & cheaper than shipping live fish through the mail, but I don't know I've never done it before. You might want to consider digging Alf up after a while to recover his skeleton. That would make a pretty cool skeletal display. I 🤔 think they have tutorials on RU-vid that show you how. At least they use too.

Wow. Never occurred to me that this can be doable at home and kits are available. Still probably many hours of work? I will watch the tutorials. Thank you! Love learning from peers. I checked thoroughly with UPS, FedEx, and USPS - none allow shipping dead, frozen anything. Biohazard, I guess. ... The skeleton has hundreds of bones to be carefully collected, labeled and glued together. It's a LOT of work! But I will watch these tutorials also. Thank you.

Wow. Never occurred to me that this can be doable at home and kits are available. Still probably many hours of work? I will watch the tutorials. Thank you! Love learning from peers. I checked thoroughly with UPS, FedEx, and USPS - none allow shipping dead, frozen anything. Biohazard, I guess. ... The skeleton has hundreds of bones to be carefully collected, labeled and glued together. It's a LOT of work! But I will watch these tutorials also. Thank you.

@@Fish-Story I'll ask my friend how people ship dead fish & birds to him. I know people ship to him at times, or at least they use too? They must have changed some of the shipping regulations do to new restrictions they have in place now? The taxidermy kits today are really good & come with great instructions, plus there are lots of instructional videos available that will teach you everything you need to know. Good luck!

Good idea. Too much work for me but I wish I knew a good taxidermist locally...

Thank you. I wish. Asian arowana are federally prohibited in the USA. And in Florida, all arowana species (!) are prohibited but silver is the only one.

@@Fish-Story well, even here in Indonesia and Malaysia they are considered as endangered fish and and 10 to 100++ times more expensive than silver red, but they are so beautiful. I hope you can own it some day.

I hear you. We prefer animals looking naturally and in general dislike line-bred and in-bred animals, be it for color and other things (for one these animals pay for the "improvements" by their health, etc.). You are right though, it is very tempting. Like koi are hard to resist. Still, given a choice, in theory we'd rather have natural, wild carp. We dislike manmade "nature". The nature was, is, and will always be beautiful as it is, without man's experimentation. A matter of belief, I guess.

@@Fish-Story did you have "men made fish" in your country? Super red in my country are certified and guarantee to have a good lineage and they are 100% natural, but it's the keeper choice to keep it natural or not ( by cutting or any other method) but if you buy from a legal cultivator you will get 100% natural fish. And if you are interested in super red you can look for suk eng pang he is one of the oldest and famous arowana super red breeder.

Thank you bro. Always happy to hear a couple of words from you.