Cheap arowana fish

[Kane]

saw those small size cheap arowana fish selling at around $25-30 at some LFS. ask some questions :

-is it possible to keep a few in a 3 feet tank? they look pretty small but wonder will they grow big like normal arowana

-is it possible to keep those in planted tanks?

thanks

[ranmasatome]

1)NO. They will grow Huge..i had 1... in a 5ft tank..

2)Possible..but really depends on you.

[geezer333]

1. Yes it will grow HUGE
2.Not advisable to keep even 1 in a 3 feet tank let alone 3, minimium a 4x2x2 ft tank if not is like stuffing a turkey into a pigeon hole
3.yes you can keep it in a planted tank , in fact some of the lfs have it

[Kane]

thanks for all the advice. alway thought those are just arowana look-alike and won't grow big, cos everytime i saw them in LFS it's always keep many in one single tank in the shop. but why are these arowana so cheap?

[Shaihulud]

If it is one of those cheap silver arowanna, they grow much longer than our asian arowanna. I have never kept an arowanna, but it is always so torturous to see them cramped up in a small tank. There are many grades for arowanna within the same species, so some are more cheap although they are the same species. There are also arowanna like fish from Australia, Jardini and Silver Arowanna from South America. None are small.

[geezer333]

From what I know this is what they call tee kum leng in hokkien or chwee tee leng (reservoir arowana). These are those they catch from reservoir which breed in the wild and you won't know the parent line thus you won't know what arowana you bought until they grow up that is why they call it TEE KUM LENG