The Best Food for Arowana for 2022

The Arowana is one of the most popular freshwater aquarium fish in the world. Many people keep this fish because they believe it brings them good luck, but many more do so because it is a beautiful fish.

Arowanas come in many different sizes and colors, but they do share one quality, they’re all very expensive and they are not suitable for beginners. Because of that, they deserve the best food for Arowana that you can find.

Arowana food has quite a diverse lineup of products, which is what to expect considering the popularity of the fish. However, not all Arowana foods are equal. Some are always better than others.

Also, just because a product is expensive, that does not mean it is of superior quality compared to lower-priced options.

This article will try to teach you what qualities you need to look for when you are shopping for Arowana’s food. Not only will you be getting a simple buying guide, but you will also be receiving a couple of insightful product recommendations.

You no longer need to worry about your prized fish not getting enough nutrition from its food once you know how to choose the best Arowana food.

Best Food for Arowana Reviews

1. Hikari Tropical Arowana Sticks Fish Food

My Arowana was first fed using live bloodworms, but after a couple of months, I found that this practice was getting quite expensive. I tried a couple of different products, but my picky eater would not even get close to them.

This product, on the other hand, took a bit of convincing to make my fish eat it. My Arowana now loves it and it can’t seem to get enough of the food.

One of the things that I think made the transition easier for my fish is that this looks just like bloodworms, or at least it does to fish. One of the reasons why bloodworms are expensive is that they need to undergo a lot of quality control so sellers do not accidentally send out batches containing harmful bacteria and/or parasites.

I would not dare use the cheap bloodworms from shady sellers because they don’t guarantee safety. This fish food does not carry any of those risks. However, I noticed that they do have the same, if not more, benefits.

One benefit that my red chili Arowana got from this Arowana fish food is the high number of carotenoids. Carotenoids is a naturally-occurring coloring agent commonly found in fruits and vegetables, typically in carrots and beets.

When ingested by Arowanas, this can drastically increase their coloration. My Arowana was a bit orange-red before I started feeding it with this fish food. Now, it is bright red.

Aside from carotenoids, this product also comes with a lot of other beneficial vitamins and nutrients. One vitamin that it has in abundance is Vitamin C. Just like carotenoids, Vitamin C also improves the color of the Arowana.

Aside from that, this vitamin also greatly improves the fish’s immune system. This is good as when you are taking care of an expensive fish, you will want it to be as healthy as it can be.

The only issue that I have with this fish food is that it contains quite a lot of extender ingredients, like starches and fish meal. This means that I still need to supplement my Arowana with a bit more protein in the form of mealworms every other day. On the other hand, I do understand that these are essential to reduce costs.

2. Tetra JumboKrill Freeze Dired Jumbo Shrimp

This product contains real jumbo shrimp, which is one of the best sources of protein for fish that need it. These include Arowanas and other large aquarium fish. These freeze-dried shrimps float on the water, which makes them ideal for Arowanas who are top feeders.

I have been feeding this to my Arowana for a couple of months and all that protein made it grow quite fast. Also, because this food acts as an appetite enhancer, it turned my fish into a voracious eater.

Another nice thing about these freeze-dried shrimps is that they come complete with their heads and shells. This is important because they contain a lot of nutrients, like calcium and Vitamin E.

In addition, the shells contain fiber. This can help make the fish’s digestive system even more efficient. It can help Arowanas absorb more nutrients from the food it eats. It also means that the fish would produce less waste.

These shrimps also contain a natural chemical called astaxanthin, which helps make the fish’s colors brighter. My Arowana is now a brighter red color than it was just a couple of months ago.

Astaxanthin also makes Arowanas scales and skin stronger and healthier. If your fish has a couple of scratches or gashes, this will help it heal faster and prevent excessive scarring.

Aside from the vitamins and nutrients that are naturally in the shrimp, this product is further fortified with Vitamin E. Just like in humans, Vitamin E helps to make the Arowana’s skin and scales healthier.

I am thankful that I took a lot of pictures of my Arowana because I could tell how much it improved since I started feeding it with this product. It has a brighter red color now, and it seems that the scales are also a lot shinier than they were before.

I do have a somewhat serious complaint about this product. When I checked the contents of the bag, I noticed that almost a quarter of the contents were crushed shells and heads of the shrimp.

If I were keeping small fish, they might eat this stuff, but my Arowana won’t. In addition, putting this in the tank will only make the water cloudy. For the price I paid for this stuff, I expected to at least feed all the contents to my Arowana.

3. Jacksuper Aquarium arowana Fish Food

These are some of the largest freeze-dried shrimps that I have bought so far. These shrimps are around two inches long on average, so I only need to feed a couple of pieces for my fish to feel full.

Since this is a large jar and it contains a lot of shrimp, it can last my fish easily for a month or two. I only feed this to my Arowana maybe two or three times a week so it will still eat its regular food.

Another nice thing I liked about this most suitable food for Arowana growth is that the shrimp still have their shells and heads. People tend to not eat the heads and shells of shrimp, but they are quite beneficial for large fish like Arowanas.

The heads and shells contain a lot of calcium, so it helps strengthen the bones and skin of the fish. Those parts also help improve the digestion of the Arowana by cleaning the digestive tract.

The best thing about feeding Arowanas with these freeze-dried shrimps is that they contain a lot of protein. If you have a young Arowana, then you would want to feed it with this food every day if you can. This will help your fish reach its potential size quicker.

The protein also helps injured or sick fish recover faster as well. My Arowana tore its fin a couple of months ago, but it got better quickly after I fed it with dried shrimp.

Aside from protein, freeze-dried shrimp also contains color-enhancing ingredients. Shrimp naturally contains astaxanthin, which is a color-enhancing substance, particularly the color red.

When I first got my chili Arowana, it was a bit on the orange-red side of the spectrum. Fortunately, after a couple of months of eating this food, it turned bright red and looks healthier than ever.

A word of warning about this food – it stinks to high heavens. So, you should close the lid tightly after feeding your fish, or else your entire living room will smell like the beach at low tide.

Aside from the smell, another thing I did not like is that the label is in Chinese. One of the annoying things about this is that the amount printed on the label is wrong, which must be a translation error.

4. Northfin Arowana Fish Food

One of the things that I appreciate about this product is that it holds its shape even after soaking in the water for almost an hour. This makes cleaning up the tank after feeding that much easier. It also keeps the water clear.

This food does not sink, so fishing leftovers out of the tank is much easier. I have used other fish food that would almost immediately disintegrate in the water and they clogged up my filter quickly.

Do not be surprised when you read the ingredients list and you find montmorillonite clay. This is quite beneficial. Montmorillonite clay helps get rid of the toxins that have accumulated inside the Arowana.

It also helps clean the digestive tract. This will make your fish more efficient at absorbing nutrients from its food. In addition, it can make it produce less waste than before. This means that your fish becomes healthier while keeping the ammonia level in the water low to none.

Another nice thing about this fish food is that it does not contain any artificial colors and preservatives. The color of this fish food might not look appetizing to us humans, but fish do not seem to mind how it looks though.

It also does not contain any artificial preservatives. It is just completely dehydrated to keep the food good for a long time. Arowanas are not quite as fragile as other fish but it is still better to not feed them with unnecessary chemicals.

I also like how these pellets keep their shape even when they have been in the water for a long time. I have used other pellet foods that would easily break apart once they got wet, and they resulted in the water in my tank getting cloudy.

This is helpful, especially when I was still conditioning my Arowana to eat this food. It made cleaning up afterward easy.

As mentioned earlier, I had to train my Arowana to eat this food, which took a couple of weeks. I had to make my Arowana quite famished to make it eat this food; otherwise, it will not even look at the pellets.

This may not be that appealing for Arowanas, but I had to make my fish eat this because it is nutritious and a lot more economical. Also, if your Arowana is not mature yet, this food might be too hard and big for it.

5. San Francisco Bay Asf71340 Freeze Dried Krill

I do not recommend that you feed your Arowana with just this product, but you do have to treat this more like an appetizer. I give my fish maybe one or two dried shrimp just to whet its appetite, thus making it easier to feed it with its regular, more nutritious fish food.

The only time when I would give to a fish daily instead of two or three times a week is when it is sick or recovering from injuries.

One thing I liked about this product is that even finicky eaters cannot resist this food. My Arowana is quite stubborn and would not eat a lot of other fish food but it immediately liked this food.

For me, this product provided a way to make Arowanas eat a diverse selection of food. However, you should be careful not to feed your fish with this stuff too often as it will cause difficulties in making it eat other food.

Shrimps naturally contain astaxanthin, which is a substance that helps enhance the color of fish. If you have a red tail golden, chili red, or golden Arowana, they can benefit a lot from the astaxanthin in shrimp.

I have been feeding this product to my red Arowana two to three times a week for around three months now. I have noticed a significant improvement in its color.

Shrimps are also excellent sources of protein. If you have a young/juvenile Arowana, you should supplement its diet with this product so it can achieve its maximum growth potential in just a couple of months.

Other vitamins and nutrients also further enhance this product. The presence of such nutrients improves the health of Arowanas and makes them more energetic.

I sincerely would like to give higher marks for this product, but the manufacturers seem to have problems with quality control. It seemed like 1 out of every 5 jars that I get comes from a bad batch.

The shrimps are noticeably darker, they smell bad, and my Arowana would not even touch them. For something this expensive, I expected that there would be better quality control.

6. Aquatic Foods Inc Arowana Dried Arctic Krill

This product is just straight-up, freeze-dried krill. There are no other ingredients added. If you are finicky with what your precious Arowana eats, you can trust this product.

Unlike other brands I’ve tried, it does not contain artificial colors to make the shrimp look more orange or red. These shrimps may look like they are pale orange but that is how dried shrimp is supposed to look.

Another reason why I like this product is that it is much cheaper than other brands. For the same price as a 100-gram jar of shrimp from a known brand, you can get a half-pound bag from this brand. This means you can provide your fish with more protein without breaking the bank.

Aside from protein, these freeze-dried shrimps come with their heads and shells still attached. What does this mean for your Arowana? Well, because they are harder to digest, the heads and shells of shrimp provide fiber.

This fiber can improve the digestion of your fish. By cleaning the digestive tract, your Arowana will become more efficient at absorbing vitamins and nutrients from its food.

Also, krill and shrimp naturally contain astaxanthin, a chemical that enhances the color of fish. If your Arowana’s colors look a bit dull and its scales are not as shiny as you want them to be, supplement its regular diet with this freeze-dried krill.

If you do so, you can make it look much better than it used to be. Mine looked just fine before I fed it with this fish food and I did not know that it could look a whole lot better.

However, for the price of this fish food, do not be surprised if there are some issues. One is that it seems like it is not as tasty as other brands. I had to convince my Arowana to eat this, unlike other brands that it would immediately gobble up.

Also, almost a quarter of the bag’s contents is just heads of shrimp, which my Arowana refuses to eat on its own. However, I find that the heads of shrimp make a great fertilizer.

7. Sequoia Freeze Dried Bloodworms Fish Food

The thing I liked the most about this product is that it contains 100% real bloodworms that have protein. Bloodworms contain more protein per pound compared to beef, so your Arowana will surely benefit from it.

If you have a juvenile fish, it can use all the protein in this product as it will help it grow bigger and healthier. Adult Arowana can benefit from this food too because protein helps in retaining mass.

Aside from the naturally-occurring protein in the bloodworm, Sequoia made them even more beneficial by enhancing them with vitamins and minerals. This product is so full of good stuff that you can use this as a nutritional supplement for your Arowana.

I don’t exclusively feed this to my Arowana. I just give this to my fish no more than four times a week just so it would eat other foods, too.

Aside from the vitamins and mineral enhancers, this product does not contain any other ingredients. The bright red color is the natural color of the bloodworms. There are no artificial colors.

There are also no preservatives used in this product. The freeze-drying process is enough to keep the bloodworms from spoiling. If you are worried about feeding your Arowana with too many chemicals, you can trust this product.

Speaking of the freeze-drying process, it also kills all traces of bacteria and parasites from the bloodworms. The bloodworms are almost completely dehydrated so bacteria and other microorganisms cannot survive in them.

This is one of my concerns when feeding bloodworms to my Arowana. If you do not get your live bloodworms from a reputable source, there is a chance that nasty stuff contaminated them.

I like this product quite a lot but some areas can use a lot of improvement. I have no complaints about the contents but the packaging could have been a lot better. A couple of jars I ordered in the past year did not survive the delivery. They arrive with the seal already broken or the jar cracked and the contents have spilled all over.

What to Look For When Buying a Food for Arowana

You need to be very particular when you are shopping for your Arowana’s food, not because they have sensitive constitutions, but because it deserves the best. If you feed your Arowana with the top food that you can find, it will look the best that it could.

Here are some of the things that you need to look out for when shopping for your Arowana:

Floating

Arowanas are top-feeders. This means that they have mouths that turn upwards. The best pellet food for Arowana is, therefore, one that floats on top of the water. In the wild, Arowanas would usually eat insects that fall on top of the water. The larger ones can even eat frogs and birds.

It is important to buy food for your Arowana that can float on top of the water. Also, they should be able to hold their shape even after soaking for a while. This will make it easier for the fish to eat the food. This also makes cleaning up later much easier.

Protein Content

Large fishes like Arowanas need a lot of protein because they are natural carnivores. Baby Arowana food needs to contain a lot more protein than adults because they are in the stage in life where they will experience very rapid growth.

It would be best to feed young Arowanas with live worms, small fish, or insects. After that, gradually change their diets to high-protein pellets or freeze-dried worms or shrimps.

Color Enhancers

You will be surprised at how much your fish color will be if you feed it the right food for Arowana. Look for foods that contain carotenoids and/or astaxanthin. These are naturally occurring chemicals that help improve the color of all fish.

Shrimp and krill naturally contain a lot of astaxanthin while orange and yellow vegetables contain carotenoids. You can feed your Arowana with freeze-dried shrimps occasionally. You can also try feeding it with bits of carrots.

The easier method is to just look for the most common food for Arowana color. They are the ones that contain carotenoids, astaxanthin, or both. After a couple of months, your Arowana will have much brighter colors than before.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Pellet Food Good for Arowana?

It depends on the ingredients the Arowana food pellets contain. The pellet food should contain a lot of proteins and fats to mimic the natural diet of the carnivorous Arowana. Also, you should choose floating fish food pellets because Arowanas are top feeders.

How often Should you Feed Arowana?

Juvenile Arowanas will need to eat up to three times a day while adults will only need one time. Also, do not just dump the food in the tank and leave. You should only give enough food that your fish can eat within two minutes. Any food left floating after two minutes should be fished out as it will only foul the water.

Conclusion

Arowanas are among the most expensive aquarium fishes that you can own. Depending on the breed, a single Arowana can be worth more than a high-end car. Even if you are keeping one of the common Arowana species, it is still a large investment on your part, so you should do your best to keep your fish happy and healthy.

Since you made it this far, you already learned how to choose the best food for Arowana. You will be quite impressed at how much your precious scaly friend’s appearance improves after just a couple of months of eating the right food. This will also ensure that you and your Arowana will be together for many more years to come.