Arowana Legal Issues....

Theyre illegal cause us law prevents selling importing or owning endangered animals

yes, asian aros are an endangered species...not only because of the aquarium industry but also habitat destruction.

Asian arowanas are specifically listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) Therefore, even if you have all of the necessary CITES paperwork, you still can't get past the ESA issue.

once again Icthyophile hits the nail right on the head!

Some of us have been lobbying the us goverment for years to lift the ban on farmed/chip'd asian aro's.

Unfortunately half my friends involved in this have been arrested

yuppa said:

Some of us have been lobbying the us goverment for years to lift the ban on farmed/chip'd asian aro's.

Click to expand...

Well, the splitting of S. formosus into four species may give you another angle. In the past arguing that the sale of captive bred Asian arows doesn't harm the wild-caught population has been rebuked by USFWS responding that it doesn't promote the WC population either. However, the recent splitting of S. formosus, as discussed in the pinned thread, allows you to argue that S. aureus (RTG), S. legendrei (Super Red), and S. macrocephalus ("silver" varieties, including those w/ yellow and grey tails) are not even subject to the Endangered Species Act, because the ESA expressly lists only S. formosus.

If anything I would think that the three new forms would be listed, and the S. Formosus, or green Asians would be lifted, becuase of how common they are. I suspect that the three new types have already been listed.

That would require that the USFWS formally promulgate such regs through Administrative Procedure Act and the Federal Register comment process. Thus far, the only ESA listing is the original 1976 listing of Scleropages formosus:

USFWS profile - Asian bonytongue