Selecting The Right Arowana For You

good post man, nice read for those still making up their mind on what to get, especially first timers on the arowana. but, a few comments....

i think on the verdict for the silver, IT SHOULD BE ENSURED THAT THE FISH AINT WILD CAUGHT...should be captively bred, we dont want the wild population to deplete, right? local indians collecting them uncontrolled from the wild is bad enough as it is. the answer to this should be more responsible captive breeding. as fish hobbyists, i think we should pay some responsibility on this. and yes, jardinis and leichardtis are different species.

as far as the wild population of silvers goes, its not in a very bad shape,the local indians have been collecting them unregulated scince the beggining of time, and it hasnt killed them yet, i think insted of more responsible captive breedding we should turn to highly regulated importation and exportation at the cost of putting a higher price on a resulting higher quality arowana. theyre very resiliant and quite common (right now at least) in theyere native waters. However, when weighed agaisnt the many problems the shallow captive bred gene pool poses i would , go with the wild one. this is beceause i watched a brood of about 20 baby silvers grow up and 15 of them had either a crooked back, missing or deformed eyes, or were just very sickly looking. i am normaly on the side of captive breeding but in the case of the arowana it has really weakended the fihs availiable to the hobbiest. as for the jardini and leicharti, i myself am aware of the genetic differences, but theyre personality,size, and other requirements are generally the same(correct me if im wrong), thus i inclued them together.

Thanks for making this a sticky and providing other newbies to the arowana world some permanent information to base there choice on.

grmanrocks;476396; said:

3) Jardini/Leichardti: Hailing from down-under these 2 fish are included together due to much debate as to if they are really a different fish at all. These fish are very attractive and quite the addition to a tank...... until they bring the demise af every fish that shares their tank. Keeping these fish in a community can be done but not without risk and sometimes proves impossible. The Verdict: If you can enjoy a tank with one resident then this fish is great for you. However if you enjoy a collection of impressive specimines and just one large, respected, and beautiful arowana then I suggest you look elsewhere.

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Is there really a debate to whether they are different fish? Ive never heard this.
I have/had both and they look nothing alike. Nor do they act or swim alike.

in a few locations from witch i gathered my information there were thoughts of these fish being just a drastic morph of eachother. i dont think so, and it may be old hap but its safe to say now that the Jardini and Leicharti are a totaly different species and are regognised seperatly by all forms of fish record keepeing and classification. they are however like the silver and black arowana in the way that they are quite similar in many ways.

kriztu;476617; said:

... IT SHOULD BE ENSURED THAT THE FISH AINT WILD CAUGHT...should be captively bred, we dont want the wild population to deplete, right? ...

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I totally agree, there was once mass population of the asian aro too. And I'm not sure if there was any problems with the first captive bred Asians, but they were bred near their homeland.

grmanasrocks said:

...as far as the wild population of silvers goes, its not in a very bad shape,the local indians have been collecting them unregulated scince the beggining of time, and it hasnt killed them yet, i think insted of more responsible captive breedding we should turn to highly regulated importation and exportation at the cost of putting a higher price on a resulting higher quality arowana. theyre very resiliant and quite common (right now at least) in theyere native waters.

However, when weighed agaisnt the many problems the shallow captive bred gene pool poses i would , go with the wild one.

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You make for a great argument there, but in that same argument, I belive there is yet another message.
"YET" and "RIGHT NOW AT LEAST" tells us that the inevitable is going to happen...without regulation the possibility exist.
And what better time to "deepen" the captive bred gene pool, than now when there is a decent wild animal available...
We need stricter regulation on the wild stock of Silvers, while also financing the captive bred programs as well and that is up to us as the fish keepers, through sales of captive bred stock.
Without looking to the future will repeat history and just like the Asian Aro, the wild stock will be gone.
True the natives have taken Wild silvers for along time , but if regulated and there was a limited commercial market, they would use them for subsistance only, and they might just have a chance...Just my 2.5cents

i totaly agree, and hope there is never a repeat of the asian arows status, but as for right now, with the current gene pool that is avaliable in captive bred specimines a hobiest looking for the best possible aro and they want a silver i still recommend a wild caught one, and yes i do hope that the captive gene pool is deepened and that regs are placed on the wild caught silvers but even through much deepening of the captive asian gene pool there are still freak deformities that would not occur in the wild(short bodied asians, eyeless arownanas and the like ) i think as of instead of producing freak fish form captive breeding we should put our time and money into regulating the trade of wild fish, then we can focus on the captive situation. we all want a bright future for these majestic fish that have survived for millions of years and we can only hope that will a little help they will live and thrive on our planet for a million more at least!

i still dont think that wild populations of an ancient fish like the silver arowana just be harvested without regulations. from harvesting to selling to keeping these fishes, its a free for all. there should be some sort of responsibility here, dont you think? in a few years, we'll be looking at another "asian arowana" phenomenon in south america, i just hope it wont be too late. and putting it on an advisory baord for beginners to get wild caught specimens is just not contributing to that sense of responsibility. even if the wild population is stable right now. the right thing to say is ....because captive breeding sucks these days, make sure you get your fish from a reputable breeder, or something like that. not make sure that newbies get their silvers from the wild....im sorry man, it just doesnt sound right for me

i understand what u r trying to say so ill correct myself here and say,

in the case of silver arowanas, due to a lack of regulations and with our captive breeding producing "freak fish" and otherwise deformed fish, either be sure your fish comes from an exelent breeder with an exelent culling system and selective breeding or this fish may be one that should be left out of our tanks all together. either our captive stock collapses due to an extremley shallow gene pool or we depelte the wild population causing an asian arowana type phenomenon. im my veiw this fish is in the same class as the black and i just couldnt in good conscience keep one in a tank and contribute to the extinction of a population or raise a grossley mass produced fish.

sorry for the miss representation of informantion i in no way wished to come across as i neglegent for the saftey of the wild species.

Are we asuuming that majority of silver aros available in US are captive bred due to their drop eyes? I've heard the opposite from those who are in the trade business that actually majority of silvers being sold in north america are wild caught.