Arowana – The Lucky Fish

Today, I want to talk about a very interesting fish named Arowana, which is very popular all over the world as pet fish because of its beauty, variety and easy maintenance.

In South East Asia, this fish is considered as lucky fengshui fish.

Types: There are 4 super types of arowana in aquarium trade: Asian, Australian, Amazonian, African.

The Australian jardini Arowana (5k INR) is considered as the most aggressive variety and it is recommended to keep it alone in a single aquarium. You can mix Amazonian silver Arowana (500 INR) but with caution and in a stage of juvenile.

Next, the most beautiful arowanas are found in Asia.

Types: Green Arowana (2k INR), Batik green Arowana (20k INR), Banjar red2 (5k INR), red tail gold (7.5k INR), high back gold (10k INR), crossback gold (21k INR), blue base crossback (25k INR), 24k gold(30k INR), chilli red (30k INR), super red (50k INR), albino crossback (50k INR).

Aquarium size and Food: The minimum tank size is 4x2x2 ft for a single or at most two arowanas.

You can give a variety of food like chicken liver, market fresh/ frozen prawns, live worms, small frogs etc.

The water temperature should be 25-30℃ and high quality filtration is needed.

You can mix Asian arowanas but you need to add them at the same time in a tank or you can add them at juvenile stage. You must provide them regular food and wave maker is a much-needed product for your aquarium setup.

You can buy tanning lights for red Arowanas for better scale intensity but tanning light is not required for gold Arowana. You can also make your tank background white to wash the scale.

Basic check-list before buying Arowana:

Make sure the arowana is feeding well and please check all the scales. Discuss with the shopkeeper regarding the diet of the fish. Please do not offer your arowana live feeder fish because these fish can carry parasites.

There is a misconception about Asian gold arowana which must be clarified before buying, and that is the concept of scale shine and scale wash. If the scales are washed upto the 4th scale then that is a Red tail gold. If the scale is washed upto 4.5 scales, then hbg.
If washed upto the 5th scale then super high back.

Now, for crossback, all of the scales shall be glittery and shining like metalic colours. The price differs based on the farm and grade.  If you see that the 5th or 6th scales are both washed and shined, then that must be a crossback. If the 5th scale is washed but all the scales are shining like metalic gold and has gold patch on the head, then it is a crossback.

Crossback does not mean that the gold colour must be cover the back. It is a name of a specific Arowana variety.

At the end, I would like to share a photo of my own tank’s crossback Arowana.