Tiger oscar or silver arowana?

[stay slam]

As a beginner, do you think the care for either the tiger oscar or the silver arowana is too demanding? What are the care requirements? Key questions:

Ph level?
Temperature?
Feeding?
Tank mates?
Size from baby to adult?

I am also researching some of these care tips on other websites but I always post questions to forums to get some personal, hands-on suggestions that owners have. Any and all tips/suggestions are welcome and encouraged. Thanks in advance for all info!

[Artemille]

I forget the exacts since it's been a few years, but Oscars are delightful animals. You don't really want tank mates for either though Oscars are more forgiving than Arowanas. Arowanas will eat everything; they have to be fed a ton of feeders to be satiated.

I only owned an Oscar before, but they can eat a wide variety of things and will eat shrimp, peas, and Hikari pellets from your hand if you let them with very enthusiastic jumps. You can also put a veggie clip in the tank with greens. They follow you around the tank and beg all day. Both will need to be fed 2-3 times a day as babies.

Oscars can get about 10-12" at the most. Arowanas can be a few feet. An arowana will need a tank much bigger than an oscar.

[Marc from CT]

Silver Arowanas are one of my favs..I had on get up around 2 feet and was eating 3 to 4 large golf fish a week.I kept him in with a few african cichlids and had rock hide for them just in case my arowana was still hungry..

[TheSnakeGuy]

I have no idea how to take care of arowanas but they are super cool fish. Both them and oscars have very few safe tank mates. If you've got room for a big tank then getcha some!

[Shadera]

I love arowanas, but they get much too big for your average home aquarium hobbyist. Unless you've got big bucks for big tanks, stick with the oscars. They still need plenty of room, but nowhere near as much. They're quite personable fish, and are a lot of fun. I had two, and they used to love being "petted".

[TJ_Burton]

Silver arowanas are not for the novice aquarium keeper. Although they are hardy, they often fall victim to a few specific issues in home aquariums.


1) Stunted Growth. These fish get 6 feet long, and they require adequate room to do so. Housing them in smaller aquariums often stunts their growth causing body deformities which eventually lead to premature death


2) Drop Eye. Arowanas are surface feeders and are not designed by nature to hunt fish that swim at their level or below them. Feeding goldfish will eventually lead to one or both of their eyes permanently facing downwards from muscle damage. This can often be severe enough that the fish constantly swims slanted in the direction of its downward facing eye.


3) Gill Curl. Although these fish are hardy, the fleshy gill flaps at the end of the hard gill plate are susceptible to damage from high nitrates or ammonia. If allowed to stay in water with unacceptable nitrate or ammonia levels, the fleshy gill flap will become damaged and curl outwards away from the fish’s body leaving the gills constantly exposed. Although fish can live with this for years without issue, it is still inhumane to allow it to occur. Gill curl is almost always irreversible.

Unless you want to get a 200g+ aquarium to house a fish that will likely outgrow even that size of an aquarium, I'd suggest you stick with the oscars. I am not saying that you are incapable of keeping arowanas; anyone can if you put the effort and money into it. The unfortunate truth is that most people buy them as babies, and by the time they are adults they are extremely ugly and look unwell.

[Cobaltfang]

I'd say just forget arowanas and oscars start small like a community tank or convict cichlids etc etc baby steps you know?.

[ARamos8]

Beta Fish in a cup is more my style ...

Oscar......

[MootWorm]

What size tank do you have? As a beginner, I'd stay away from both of those. If you ever decide to rehome them, it can be a huge pain to find someone with the resources to care for them. If you want an awesome, easy to care for fish, I'd go the other end of the spectrum and get some smaller fish. I highly recommend Endler's livebearers. They're really flashy and a hoot to watch. These guys are very forgiving to husbandry mistakes, and prolific breeders to boot. They're super cool in community tanks, and their fry are good feeders

[E71000]

Oscar should be kept in pairs