Koi Silver arowana Red tail catfish!!! 10 points!!!!!

Question

I have a silver arowana- about 13cm- and a red tail cat- about 20cm. They are in a 5000gallon indoor heated pond. The temp is not very warm. Can I add a koi fish? I also want to ask what you think I should add. Best list of fish gets 10 points.

Answer 1

As you obviously already know the water temps for these fish are quite different than the koi. I would say get an aro of opposite s*x, as the breeding can be quite lucrative. and maybe a shovelnose cat, and maybe an array of oscars or similar chiclids....

Answer 2

No Koi, they do better in colder temps than the others and may become a target if the RTC outgrows them. Koi are best in Koi-only ponds.

With the RTC in there tankmates are going to be difficult. Once he's full grown smaller fish will become lunch. Consider large robust tropical fish like Pacu.

Believe it or not, big tanks like this are quite easy to overstock with monsters so understocking is best!

Join http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com if you haven't already.

Answer 3

I will agree that with Koi also being cold water fish types, in conjunction with a Red Tailed Catfish, this wouldn't be a good mix.  A South American Arowana tends to grow upwards of 48 inches, and a surface fish that jumps.  The Red Tailed Catfish is a very large fish that grows rather slowly in a set up like this, so there's going to be a challenge putting tank mates in there.  The Red Tailed is going to grow slower in the pond simply because there's more likely to be a lack of a strong food source for it, and it's going to compound the issue by making it more aggressive as well.  While people could give you a list of schooling or fish that grow to a larger size, the problem is unless you address the food source for the Red Tailed, you will have no choice but to get very large fish to start with, otherwise, the Red Tail will target them.

The only advantage you have is that a Red Tail tends to stay on the bottom, but if you don't have enough of a food source for it, that won't last for a long time.  I think in this case the Pacu wouldn't be a bad choice as they tend to get quite a bit of size and bulk to them, and wouldn't mind fighting back if the Red Tail came after them.  I think the key here is getting aggressive large sized fish.

If you do add other Arowana, you'll need to keep that group in at least a group of five and as high as ten.  Arowana's are not truly aggressive fish really, but put another Arowana around, and you'll see one of them fight with the other for the surface.  By keeping Arowana in a group, you divert and break up aggression in the same way you break up aggression in African cichlids.

If you were able to keep this pond in African Rift lake conditions, which might not be so good for the other stock, I'd have the perfect fish for you.  The Emperor Cichlid of Lake Tanyangika.  This is a 3 foot adult fish and will defend it's area against enemies five times larger then itself.  I can show you a video from the actual lake of a spawning pair of Emperor Cichlids defending it's nest against a 15 lb Tortoise.  I think however changing the water conditions would adversely effect your South American Arowana as it needs softer lower PH waters.

I think for now your only options are grouping Arowana in a group of 5-10 or gettting larger sized Pacu really.

Answer 4

its not advisable however in Singapore they manage to put them in the same pond but the arowana and koi are the same size. Then you don't need a heater for your arowana.  Catfish not advisable to be mixed with koi.   But koi is very very nice in pond superb.

kOi keeper & goldfish keeper

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/world...

http://www.geocities.com/koiphilippines/...

Answer 5

get freshwater stingrays they are awesome and pretty cheap. motoro stingrays are about 80$ to 130$ and are the easiest to keep. they also are fine with arowanas too but i dont know about the catfish. but do some research on the fish that you get first

Answer 6

Knifefish

large Plecostomus

Catfish

Ornate Bichirs

Uaru's

Fresh Rays

Pacu's

another arowana

Salmon

Steelhead trout

Although with the pleco, the arowana and a koi, if the koi is larger than the silver technically yes you can keep them together but really I would not.  Koi are passive fish and don't take kindly to aggressive fish.  I would go with another on the list.