Well at least we have gone from mud bottom ponds being required, the temperature in China being wrong, to indoor breeding of reds being potentially possible. lol
china has the wrong temperatures for starters. too cold, fish get sluggish. not keen on breeding. i'll believe it after i see that they are breeding greens first. could be being done indoors with temps up and other things sorted out right too, its possible to breed in alaska like this so if someone wanted to throw enough money at it and knew it all then sure.
FYI - I was the guy that the OP was referring to, I mentioned China in another discussion that had to do with another species of fish that originate in West Kalimantan. Perhaps I spoke out of turn, and perhaps no one in China has yet to succeed in breeding reds in captivity, even still I wouldn't be so quick to rule it out.
The Chinese have been breeding fish for thousands of years, and I have no doubt that they will take what has been learned in Indo & S'pore over the past few decades, and apply it to their location & specific situation. Temperature will be the least of their worries.
Also, I'm not sure how the following comment has anything to do with a large scale commercial attempt at breeding aros, reds, or otherwise?
Consider the sheer number of mature fish community tanks out there, in China and all over the place. does anyone know of tank breedings?
Certainly there are plenty of mature reds out there, but how many of those reds have been kept in anything outside of a small glass box?
I've seen mature reds pair off, and exhibit pre-spawning behaviour, but that's typically as far as it goes in a glass box, even in very large glass boxes that exceed 500 gallons. The overall size & space of a tank/vat/pond is one portion of the equation, large mature brood stock is another part of the equation. I don't know of many people setting up 10,000+ gallon indoor vats, and stocking them with mature male/female red aros. Those
sheer numbers that you spoke of simply don't exist.
It will be interesting to revisit this discussion 5-10 yrs from now, and see if the Chinese were/are able to successfully breed reds in any real numbers. I guess only time will tell.