Asian Arowana

Asian arowana (Scleropages formosus) are the most exclusive and often best colored arowana in the whole family. According to many enthusiasts, Asian arowana are among the most beautiful fish money can buy for a freshwater aquarium. The graceful way of swimming, the perfect beauty and the superior charisma make these fish the true kings of any aquarium. Especially in Asia, these fish are in high demand and truly animals which offer prestige to the owner. According to the legend of the Dragon, Phoenix and Tiger, they bring luck to the owner. When kept in the lucky number 9, they should make the owners’ life very pleasant. Asian arowana can grow pretty large. In nature and breeding ponds, specimens of 36” have been reported but in aquaria, they usually don’t grow over 28”.

 Asian arowana are an endangered species and fall under CITES regulations. It is not allowed to import or export these animals without proper paperwork. Every single official Asian arowana is chipped. To sell these animals, a governmental CITES approval is necessary and if you buy an animal from such a farm, you will receive official papers with CITES and chip number. When you want to buy an Asian arowana, make sure the animal has all the required papers as it is illegal to own one without. This being said, not every Asian arowana is chipped and registered. Some farms and people at home breed these animals without any CITES approval. These animals are sold in their own country. There are basically 4 color varieties of Asian arowana: Red, Gold, Green and Silver Asians, which should not be mistaken for South American silvers. In these 4 color varieties, there are many different grades and color schemes. Below, we will discuss all Asian arowana varieties.

What is what on a arowana?

	Some names of different part of the arowana the scale rows gives an idea about the quality of the fish. A high grade RTG can have gold scales up to the 5 th row of scales a lower quality comes to 3 rd or 4 th row
	Pearls stunning little features on a arowana.

Red Arowana, grade 1

Red arowana are, as the name already suggests, the red variety of the Asian arowana.

Red arowana originate from the Kalimantan province in Indonesia. Here we find the river Kapuas and lake Sentarum where the top quality Chili red and Blood red originate from. Lake Sentarum contains many small lakes and is connected to the Kapuas. Water from this system contains many minerals but also the well known Black Water which makes the coloration of animals from this region so powerful. Due to the many little lakes and habitats, there are many varieties in super red arowana. Differences can be noticed in color, body shape and shape of the head. A well know difference in head shape is the so called spoonhead, which will be explained later on.  

Since super red arowana are slightly cheaper than crossback arowana, many farms and breeders in Asia started breeding these fish. This results in high stocks and more reds on the market which in turn results to lower prices. Recently, the prices of super red arowana have dropped quite a bit in Asia lately. Hopefully the rest of the world will soon profit from this drop as well. Super reds are currently bred in all the big production countries in Asia; Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.

Red arowana will develop color with age. When young, good quality fish already have very red fins and red lips and barbels. Besides these characteristics, high grade reds also have a very shiny glow on the side of the body. When the red arowana ages, its gill cover will turn fantastic red and the rim of the scales will become bright red as well. This will give the red arowana its famous red shine! The whole coloring process might take years though so it’s not a short term project for the owner. This does keep things excited and fun; see how your precious fish develops over time.

There are 4 varieties of red arowana: Blood Red, Chili Red, Orange Red and Golden Red. All these varieties are called Super Red or Grade 1 Red. However, when looking at real color, only blood red and super red can really be named super red. Orange red and golden red usually don’t have the quality characteristics of a true super red. Their color is of a lesser grade red and usually even orange instead of red. Due to marketing, many breeders use the term super red for most fish even though quality doesn’t have to be top notch. Furthermore, every breeder or farm has his own names for the different super reds. To give a few examples:

Qian Hu blood red arowana are called ‘Violet Fusion Super Red’ while super red arowana's from Panda Aquatics are called ‘Panda Red’.

The differences in original habitats of red arowana caused differences in the red coloration of the fish. Breeders from Indonesia started making a distinction between the red arowana from these different habitats and came up with the names Chili red and Blood red.

As these names suggest, the difference between the two varieties is based on color. While blood red arowana have the red color of blood, Chili red arowana resemble the color of chili peppers. Blood red arowana usually show their fantastic red color a bit earlier than chili red arowana.These color differences are not always very pronounced and can be hard to notice. A good way to see the difference between both arowana varieties can be found on the scales, where the amount of color can be a good indicator. Blood red arowana usually have a broad red rim on their scales while chili red arowana usually have thinner rims. The scales of a chili red arowana have a greener core and a more metallic shine than those of a blood red arowana.

Besides this difference in color, we can see some other minor differences between the 2 varieties.

-          The biggest difference can be found in body shape of the fish. Chili reds are usually broader and higher with a pointy head and bigger fins while blood reds have a slimmer and longer body shape, rounder head and slightly smaller fins. This       causes a chili red to look much more massive. Body shape is obviously highly dependant on feeding regime so this is not always a good indicator.

-          Chili red arowana usually have big red eyes where blood red arowana have smaller eyes which are lighter in color.

-          The shape of the tailfin is a good indicator of whether you have a chili or blood red arowana. The first has a diamond shaped tailfin while the latter has a more fan shaped tailfin.

There are crossbreeds between Super red arowana and RTG arowana. This variety is called Amber Red.

 

	Blood Red Arowana
	Chili Red Arowana

Red Arowana, grade 1.5 and 2

Besides the superior quality of Super red arowana, we can also distinguish a lesser grade red. These so called grade 1.5 or grade 2 red arowana are hybrids of super red and banjar red or green arowana. Some breeders try to enhance the colors of lower grade arowana by treating these fish with hormones. Hormone treatments enhance the red color on the fish’s body. Lower grade red arowana usually have a rounder head and lesser shine over their body. The base color of the scales is also less bright and usually a bit greenish or yellowish.

Crossback Arowana

As we’ve mentioned before, super red arowana are one of the most expensive arowana species money can buy. The other highly priced species are the Crossback arowana, or Xback or XB arowana (this is how I will call it in the rest of this article). Due to relative low offer and high demand, this species of arowana has a high price. At the moment, the only official CITES farms which breed XB are found in Malaysia and Singapore.  

There are many names for XB arowana; Cross Back Golden, Pahang Gold, Malayan Bonytongue, Bukit Merah Blue, Taiping Golden and Malaysian Gold but in the end they are all golden arowana. These many names originate from the many natural habitats in Malaysia where these fish were originally found. The golden arowana thanks its name to the golden scales which run fully over the fish’s back, hence the name crossback. The process where the scales on the back of the fish become more and more golden and finally fully cross over is called 6^th level crossing (due to the scales on the back being called 6^th level scales). As young animals usually do not possess much color on their 6^th level scales, full crossing is something which has to develop with age. There are also lower grades XB which do not fully cross. They might get some golden color and shine on the bottom of the 6^th level scales but won’t fully cross. These are animals with a genetically lower potential.

XB can be divided into many different color varieties which all represent the base color of the scales of the fish. We can distinguish Silver based, Gold based, Green based, Blue based and Purple based. The last 2 are sometimes mixed up as they look quite alike. Besides these different color varieties, every farm also uses its own names for the different types of XB: Blue based XB from Qian Hu farm are called ‘Electric Blue Crossback’ and the Blue based XB from Panda Aquatics are called ‘Panda Blue XB’.

Nowadays, many breeders try to cross the above varieties to create fish which look even more spectacular. One of these varieties is the the 24K golden arowana. This fish is like a swimming gold-bar. This golden based variety shows superior colors even at very young age and is the dream of many arowana enthusiast. 

XB arowana differ from their cheaper nephew, the RTG, in color on the 6^th row of scales, shine and intensity of coloration. Furthermore, young XB usually have “pearlies”. These pearl scales are the small scales near the anal and dorsal fin. This can be seen on the picture here. These pearlies indicate the possibility to full 6^th level crossing at a later age.

Super red arowana are actually also crossbacks as many have a red shine fully crossed over their backs. This red variety got its own name though, due to the very different coloration and origin.

A difference between XB and super red arowana is the size of the fins. Where XB have relatively short pectoral fins, these fins might stretch as far as the vent for super red arowana. XB do have a bigger head than its red nephew.  There is also a crossbreed between super red and XB arowana: Tong Yan arowana (TY). This fish is also called Red Splendour XB

	Young Electric Blue Xback
Golden Xback	Nathan Chiang
	Superiour quality XB

Red Tail Golden Arowana

The Red Tail Golden (RTG) arowana or Indonesian Golden arowana belongs to the same variety as the previously mentioned golden arowana; the XB. The RTG however, originates from the same country as the super red arowana, namely Indonesia.

The big difference between XB and RTG is the coloration. RTG will never fully cross. Usually RTG have coloration on the 4^th or 5^th level of scales. Some high quality RTG have a (fully) colored 5^th row and sometimes even some coloration on the 6^th level scales. These animals are called High Back RTG. The difference in color between RTG and XB is the reason for a big difference in price as RTG can be bought for a small fraction of the price of a XB. RTG come, just like XB, in different base colors. There are Blue based, Green Based en Golden based varieties. As previously mentioned, XB have less color but usually also a less bright coloration than XB arowana. The lips and fins of both species do look quite alike.

Red Tail Golden arowana are the biggest of all the Golden arowana. They are usually also more aggressive and are know to be the most aggressive Asian arowana

	A High Back RTG
Red tail Golden

	Nami Green arowana

Silver Asian Arowana

Silver Asian arowana, not to be mistaken for South American Silver arowana, are another cheap variety of Asian arowana. As the name suggests, these fish are grey. There are 2 varieties: the Greytail and Yellowtail arowana. The original Yellowtail from Indonesia is also called Banjar Red. At a young age, these fish actually look like super red arowana but this changes with age and their tailfin becomes yellow.

Greytail arowana look quite like green arowana. According to some people, these 2 species are actually one and the same.

Silver Asian arowana originate from Borneo, Indonesia.

Yellowtail arowana

Some names, given to special Asian arowana

Spoonhead

The term Spoonhead indicates a slope of the back behind the head, which gives the fish some sort of spoon like look. The back of the arowana is higher than the head.

This effect can be created by power feeding but in Asia, these fish are also bred.  

	Emperor Red spoonhead

King of Arowana

King of Arowana, or Fa Fu Long (FFL) arowana are like spoonheads but with a more extreme slope behind the head. The slope of the back behind the head is very high and the body of the fish is very short. This is a mutation which has a high value in Asia.

A picture of FFL will follow shortly.

American Arowana

South America is home of many of the worlds’ animal species and contains the largest rain forest in world. In this part of the world, we can also find 2 arowana species: the Silver arowana and the Black arowana. Both species look quite alike and have a similar body shape.

 The Silver arowana (Osteoglossum bicirrhosum) is probably the most commonly found arowana in the pet industry. It is also the cheapest arowana we can buy.

Silver arowana are the largest of the arowana species. In the wild, specimens of 60” have been caught but in most aquariums they will normally top around 44”. Silver arowana originate from the Amazon river, the Rupununi, the Oyapock and the standing waters in Guyana. The arowana live there in flooded forests, swamps and shallow water. 

As the name suggests, the silver arowana’s body is completely silver. The animals have a very bright silver shine over their body and sometimes a blue-ish or reddish tint on their scales. The fins are the same color as the rest of the body.

At a young age, silver arowana have a lot of red on their fins. Some people use this as an extra sales argument although the color will fade with age till there is no red left. Due to the very high demand, silver arowana are bred in high numbers. With all this breeding some defects have surfaced: nowadays, many silver arowana have hanging eyes, the so called Drop Eye (DE).

	Silver arowana (Osteoglossum bicirrhosum)
	Black arowana  (Osteoglossum ferreirai)

The Black arowana (Osteoglossum ferreirai) looks a lot like its silver cousin, the silver arowana. Its body however is grey-ish instead of silver. Young black arowana have a blue shine which is why they are sometimes sold as blue arowana. With age, this blue coloration fades until there is nothing left but a dull grey color.

When compared to the silver arowana, the black arowana has a more slender bodyshape. The tail is more pointy and the body less high. This gives the animal a completely different look. Black arowana also stay smaller in size than the silver arowana. In their natural habitat they can reach over 40” but in captivity they usually max out around 32”.

Australian Arowana

In Australia we can find 2 species of arowana: the Jardini and the Leichardti arowana.

The Jardini (Scleropages jardini) is one of the most common species of arowana. The fish is known by many different names: Northern Saratoga, Jardine Saratoga, Gulf Saratoga, Australian Gold or Pearl Arowana and Jardini Saratoga.  

The jardini belongs to the same family as the Asian arowana and has quite similar looks. The big difference is the size and number of scales and coloration. Jardini arowana have more but smaller scales compared to Asian arowana. The color of the scales is brown/bronze and each scale has a red dot which gives the animal an overall reddish shine. The fins of the jardini are darker than its body and have a dark red shine with lighter spots. The operculum shows loads of red spots and stripes and looks fantastic.

Jardini arowana are relatively small max out around 22-25” in captivity. This makes them suitable for smaller aquariums. The downside is its behaviour. Due to their aggressive nature, they can best be kept alone. This species of arowana is known to be most aggressive.                                              

	The head of a Jardini