to be honest a...fishes that small, have bigger chances of dying...cause they are not that tough yet...if i were u, i will take banjar red... though the redness level wont be extreme..just slightly..
but still, the whole body up to level 4 scale will be pinkish or reddish....while yellow tail only the tail will be yellowish while the body is like more to white pale...
for a 6-8inch banjar red will cost u around 350-380....that's the display price la...i believe further mark down is possible

You can say experience is most important to increase chances of the fish not dying.......because just say when your fish acting abnormal..... the expert will know wat to do....eg. change 20% water or add salt or certain medication.....and beginner wont notice that until it is too late.....also things like covering your arowana tank.....is another factor..
.or maybe quarantine your feeder fish before feeding to your arowana to reduce chances of diseases...

lol, slowly man,
i oso new into arowana, just got my silver last 2 weeks, and it's grow fast that fella
got pic of the green aro?

A clear example of this is a tank that has been poorly kept for several months. The owner decides to perform a 60% water change with the purest, most perfectly conditioned and correct water. As a result the Arowana becomes unable to swim correctly, starts to rotate in the water and over a week dies. The issue is not the condition of the water but the unexpected change. This same change could be achieved with 10% water changes per week, or even a reduction of the water level and a drip fed increase over several weeks.

very simple, "frequent" is the answer to your question.... regular water changes at least once a week and please dont change more than half.... 

having both planted and bare tank before....in my opinion for arowana while its still small (ie. below 6 inch) is ok to have deco and gravel etc
but when its at 8-9 inch onwards its better to have less deco cuz they might injure themselves when they get scared or jump >.<

With regards to gravel, it depends on you...if you wana be hardworking and vacuum the gravel every week then yeah it shud be ok, if not then bare-tank is easier
If you choose to have gravel and plants there are a few pro's and cons....i'll list out those i've experienced:

Cons:
1) uneated food/dead fish/dirt/poo all can get trapped in the gravel - if left in there too long, it begins to rot and bad bacteria / parasites start to develop causing problems
2) have to vacuum the gravel often ....while you doing so you are also siphoning the water out thus you are performing wc as well...to my experience 20-30% wc is not enuf to vacuum the gravel enuf....last time i did it with 50% wc only was soso for gravel cleanliness (50% wc is not recommended for arowana)
3)you can not have aquarium soil under the gravel for your plants....one swing of the big fish like your arowana/bichir/chillid/any big fish...will cause all your aquarium soil to fly around and make the water muddy cloudy and filter can clog with all that soil...thus only small fish tiny fish (ie. tetras) are usually for planted tanks
4) plants require huge co2 to grow well, you'll be having to invest in co2 system which the equipment is quite pricey and the co2 tank will have to be replaced from time to time depending on the size and flow rate
5) plants also tend to require lower temp (ie 23-25 degrees celcius) which is not good for arowana which pref 28-30 deg. cel..
6) having the aquarium soil (which also acts as fertilizer a bit) and the co2 pumped in will lower PH to acidic levels (ie. 6.0-6.4) which causes issues with water chem buffering which is quite a meticulous balancing act...and costly too...oh ya the wood you put in also helps to drop the ph lower as well
7) when you want to change gravel types or remove them completely due to some reason then it will be a very difficult and tiring task as doing so will likely require you to put your fishes in another quarantine tank while you do so as it will make a real mess of your water.....i know this cuz i've changed 40-50kg's of gravel 3 times in my prior 4ft aquarium.......3 sessions of 2 hour massages also not enuf to cover the pain and exhaustion...i'm not kidding 

Pros:
1) if you are only having gravel no plants.....gravel will make the tank look much nicer
2) dirt is not so easily seen at the bottom as compared to bare-tanks
3) gravel provides more capacity for bb colonization as the gravel themselves provide good surface area for the bb to attach themselves to thus you will have better de-nitrification probably
4) if you are gonna use plants that dont need the aquarium soil to grow well ...you'll most likely be looking at anubias, java ferns, brazillian weed and the likes which can be tied down to a wood piece (found commonly at most lfs)
plz take note this is merely my opinion from my experiences, in the end the choice is yours to make 

hope this helps 
just to show off a bit of my old 4ft semi planted tank ^^
i miss its beauty sometimes

NO. filter very important. DBKL shit a lot and will dirty the tank real quick.... blood worm is ok, but not frozen, it causes digestive problems in small aros... Opt for bigger tank so u do not nid 2 upgrade anymore and it makes ur aro happier

Hey haha

Sooooo cccuuuuuteee!!!! super super cute!!!

yeah some feeder fish is ok...just make sure you quaranteen the feeder fish for like a few days first to see if they die off....those feeder fish that die off from 3 days means they are weak and possibly sick so better not feed those...

Keep the feeder fish in a seperate small aquarium. Do make sure to add some salt to wash off some parasites.

Then take the surviving feeders out and change the water for the feeder fish quaranteen tank and then give your aro eat...
Grats on your first aro!!

hehe is ok wan le, just make sure to do some wc one in a while shud be ok....
if your aro can only eat up to 4 feeders then put in like 6 healthy feeders, therefore the bloodworms will get eaten by the feeder fish lol and also give the aro some playmates  to play with

Usually aro loves bloodworms wan, mine even until now still love it, but since yours is newly brought in, is best to let it settle down first....give it a week and it will have adjusted to its new home and surroundings then will start to eat normally again wan

hahaha yeah, probly its not used to frozen blood worms...

if worried about nutrition then feed the blood worms to the feeder fish loe then just after the feeder fish finish eating then give the little aro eat haha

its like that wan i guess...cuz the aro still very small...cant each much
got pleco is good enuf to do clean up liao haha....your pleco sure will go eat the uneaten food, no worries...
but rule of thumb is that uneaten food is best to take out after 15mins if not eaten

Slowly la...once it grows bigger, you will see it eat more and more wan xD

nah wont wan...just use the small net thingy to take it out. Just do it slowly loe haha....too fast of course will scare the aro 

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Added on June 21, 2010, 2:26 pm
hoho....i think i'll be going

my new mg...

ooh...didnt know that 

something new for me lol...giving me ideas about tiling the bottom to make it look more....shower room style...like...more pleasant to the eye

do you get like dirt being trapped under?

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Added on June 28, 2010, 11:42 am
lol if you are the fish u will also behave like that ma

imagine big giant looking above you....put the hand in and grabbing here and there....scary rite 

hahaha your pic so cute

the water storage u refering to is danki water rite

yeah my experience is for 2 years, i've been using the water directly from the danki water tank to do wc for my fish tanks

my method is remove 30% water, add in ac (just make sure its a good brand like nutrafin etc) then wait for a minute or two...then only pour in water directly from the danki water thru a hose..

but your current method is safer actually....storing the water in a seperate tank and dosing it with ac then next day to do the actual wc....

either way is ok wan in my opinion