baby arowana

[Sly]

my gf got me a baby black arowana for 2 bucks from a friend i can tell by the black stripe on it that its a black arowana and my boss who is the best willingly let me use 1 tank to keep him in at the pet store i work at ..he still has his yolk sac which is almost gone but i have a 4inch shovel nose and he is currently 2 and a half inches would it be ok to keep them together once his yolk is all gone

[shari2]

How big is the shovelnose's mouth and is he eating live foods?

[Sly]

shovel nose is 4inches eating frozen blood worms in a 300 gallon in wall tank he is kept with chinese hi fin banded shark and royal pleco and clown pleco and leopard pleco

[shari2]

Might be wiser to let him grow on a bit first.

[andyroo]

exposed yolk is a problem with fish like tetras, barbs and maybe loaches- things that will pick at it. They are also very delicate at this stage re: water quality, getting startled etc... The cat is a different problem. If he finds it he will swallow it. I don't advise trusting the cat.

Is it a tiger shovel or a black/white "duck-bill" type?

[Sly]

he is 4 inches long and brown with white line going down his entire length and black verticle stripes the arowana is 2inches long and egg sac gone

[andyroo]

Duck-bill cat. Max-size is about as foot. Put it in the 55 before it makes a meal of your arawana. Put it back into the 300 once they are about the same size- 6 to 8 months.
NB: with south american arawana, use a lot of floating live foods (crickets, froglets and cockroaches) as they sometimes develop a drooping-eye condition from always looking down for food in deep tanks. Also have floating plants to generate a surface-oriented habitat.