Agreed they are classic fishermans poses. But they still look to be rather large fish. Especially if you compare them to the mans hands/fingers.Those photos are what anyone familiar with that genus would consider fake news. lol The photos were all taken with the fish held out at arms length, a common deceptive technique used by fisherman who like to give the impression that their fish are MONSTERS, when in reality they are just average mature specimens.
Having said that, the largest aro (Scleropages formosus) that I have personally seen, was 31" TL, and that was taken with a tape measure, so yeah, while that fish could turn around without any issue, even a 550 gallon tank that it was in seemed kinda small.
I could be wrong about this as my experience with silvers is limited, but overall I would say that they are generally more active, and often more skittish, than adult Asian aros. That would/could make a huge difference in tank width and length. I have never seen an adult Asian aro that zooms around the tank at high speeds, even when in massive public display systems. Unless really spooked, they tend to mellow out with age.
I also don't think that a 240 gallon is ideal for an adult S. formosus.
Ive read that scleropages can get between 30 and 40+ inches in the wild. I guess i was comparing how some opinions on general care can differ. The thought that tank raised silvers dont reach the 4ft mark because of the tank size alone could maybe also be applied to their aussie and asian cousins. Ive seen allot of people on here keeping them in tanks that range from 2ft to 30ish inches wide with no mention of them not reaching their wild sized potential because of said tanks.
Basically im saying how can we say silvers jump, die, dont reach their full size, ect ect when we dont say the same about aussie and asians.
Never kept adult aros but seems like pushing genetics aside and using the common tank is too small arguement doesnt make sense to me. Couldnt part of the equation be the cb fish just dont reach the same sizes as their wild relatives. This is common in some polypterus.