we could say that the above average size is 38 not neccesarily the maximum. check a bell curve out. if you harvest any pond of fish there will be a splay of sizes. an average and some either side.. there would always be the exception to the "big" rule of 38. and thats shown with the mention of the fish remains on display.
so of course its possible but till we see the pic we are just speculating really.
like with koi, originally they mostly measured about 80cm, some to 1 meter, then people began wanting larger ones and they went about rearing them that way. they did have genetic crossing to help but thats not impossible with arowana either. especially on breeding farms.
for all we know the fish in question may be a cross and have exibited some hybrid vigour. with the koi, they provided a lot of water, like a million litres, a lot of filtration and a lot of water change also. they added new genes to the gene pool, they found extreme sizes of fish from the wild and crossed them in to have big and yet colourful koi.
most people envied these fish and figured they could buy offspring stock from them and they would grow that big too. but for MOST hobbyists the rearing conditions isnt like that at home.
so fish grown with human manipulation "can" outgrow wild stuff, especially in time taken. for example, if i took a young arowana and throw it in a big breeding pond alone and feed it a lot it will likely outgrow others in another pond that is more heavily stocked and likely faster still than the wild.
this can be seen that fish can reach maturity much faster under human control too.
i think in the area they are found naturally the temps dont change so much..so the wild is pretty good but food comes and goes and seasons change things, then theres all the competition for food, shelter, breeding energy etc, fear of predation while young..too cold, too hot..
yet most peoples tanks have something limiting them from reaching genetic potential. this can be seen when a lot of people hold fish that never ever reach near to the average size in the wild and thats why people say use a bigger tank..cause its easier to maintain stable conditions.
if you ran a pond into and through your tank but you had one fish in it with stable temps of say 29 degress and put food in front of it everyday then your going to beat the wild handsdown,by removing any limiting factors which mostly the wild will have at some time or another. wont be long and someone will pay bucks to own the biggest arowana and then the journey will begin. they will come at 1 metre or more one day but who wants to pay that food bill!
id rather average or even miniatures.
so of course its possible but till we see the pic we are just speculating really.
like with koi, originally they mostly measured about 80cm, some to 1 meter, then people began wanting larger ones and they went about rearing them that way. they did have genetic crossing to help but thats not impossible with arowana either. especially on breeding farms.
for all we know the fish in question may be a cross and have exibited some hybrid vigour. with the koi, they provided a lot of water, like a million litres, a lot of filtration and a lot of water change also. they added new genes to the gene pool, they found extreme sizes of fish from the wild and crossed them in to have big and yet colourful koi.
most people envied these fish and figured they could buy offspring stock from them and they would grow that big too. but for MOST hobbyists the rearing conditions isnt like that at home.
so fish grown with human manipulation "can" outgrow wild stuff, especially in time taken. for example, if i took a young arowana and throw it in a big breeding pond alone and feed it a lot it will likely outgrow others in another pond that is more heavily stocked and likely faster still than the wild.
this can be seen that fish can reach maturity much faster under human control too.
i think in the area they are found naturally the temps dont change so much..so the wild is pretty good but food comes and goes and seasons change things, then theres all the competition for food, shelter, breeding energy etc, fear of predation while young..too cold, too hot..
yet most peoples tanks have something limiting them from reaching genetic potential. this can be seen when a lot of people hold fish that never ever reach near to the average size in the wild and thats why people say use a bigger tank..cause its easier to maintain stable conditions.
if you ran a pond into and through your tank but you had one fish in it with stable temps of say 29 degress and put food in front of it everyday then your going to beat the wild handsdown,by removing any limiting factors which mostly the wild will have at some time or another. wont be long and someone will pay bucks to own the biggest arowana and then the journey will begin. they will come at 1 metre or more one day but who wants to pay that food bill!
id rather average or even miniatures.
