in some asian culture the dragon fish are actually symbols of good health prosperity
wealth and power and some of them even believe that it'll protect them from some misfortunes
and may even provide them with some good luck some even believe that when this fish dies that it's
died for you giving its life to absorb your misfortune now the dragon fish
is also called the asian arowana now there's three main color varieties of the asian arowana
which is the green the gold as well as the red it was actually the red arowana that earned them the
name dragon fish in the first place a combination of its large plated scales huge mouth lined with
teeth barbells that resemble a forked tongue long tail widespread pectoral fins resembling wings and
red coloration that partly earned them the name dragon fish in some asian cultures they actually
believe the asian arowana is the reincarnation of the dragon now to be fair when game of thrones
came out dragons were my favorite part of that show and then when house of the dragon came out
i smirked delusionally thinking that i actually have a real dragon my first tattoo 21 years ago
was a dragon i've always been seemingly fascinated by dragons and the culture and beliefs surrounding
them and when it comes to my fish i always find myself asking them a question and that's simply
why are you the way that you are like why are you shaped like that why is your color like that why
is your pattern like that why do you act the way you do and today we're gonna deep dive or
at least tell you some of the things that i love about the asian arowana and what makes them a real
dragon look at the asian arowanas barbell similar in appearance to a dragon's forked tongue but
actually used to detect movement at the water's surface but also to draw in prey to think it might
be food not only using those barbells as sensory organs but also to allure prey and at last moment
snatching on them then we have their long slender body with a large tail and pectoral fins that
are all designed for fast reactions and jumping powerfully out of the water to capture prey almost
flying with those dragon wing-like pectoral fins and when not in predatory mode they will mesmerize
you with their graceful and beautifully gliding through the water yet still propelled through
the water almost slithering through it dragon ass with that body and beautiful finish as a
member of the family ostia glossity they are also some of the most primitive fishes living today
some might say they're an ancient living species like a dragon in fact the asian era wanted dates
back to the late crustaceous period which is 60 to 100 million years ago yeah these guys actually
existed when the t-rex did maybe even real dragons were there too you see arowana and arapaima are
both members of the osteoglossity which is also known as the bony tongue which essentially means
that their tongue and the roof of their mouth hold most of their teeth with a large gaping
mouth that reminds me of a drawbridge similar to a dragon that opens up and snatches anything
small enough to fit in it they then use that tongue to not only hold the prey firmly but also
move it quickly into their throat these guys usually eat everything in one bite similar to
similar to me but also a dragon scales nothing short of armor plating like a dragon
that of course aids in defense of the arowana as well as temperature control
with a singular unobstructed lateral line running through the middle of the scales used to detect
movement vibration and pressure changes in the water almost like a sonar system or better yet
incredibly sensitive ears like a dragon was said to have and then of course the cherry on
top that's a good one cherries are red they're coloration red like most dragon depictions but
why are they red and what purpose does that serve well i'm glad you asked cause i think you'll find
this interesting the longest island river in the world is found on bordeaux island and this is
where the red asian arowana hails from this deep and wide river is warm and slightly acidic the
river bottom is actually a fine sandy substrate with very little plant debris or even rocks
yeah that's right the asian arowana does best in a big tank with next to nothing in it now this
water is dark or even slightly red due to the high tannin content from the peat and plants dying and
their remnants and due to that dark and slightly red water we know that the red in the red arowana
is an adaption to the conditions for its survival as opposed to diet breeding or display purposes
in this habitat the red color makes it easier to disguise when hunting prey now the green and the
gold are found in different locations but their diets are virtually the same their breeding habits
and ways they do it nothing changes the only thing that changes from variation of arowana
is the environment what an absolutely phenomenal fish friend and even guardian
of the gallery and that my friends is why the 2000 gallon is the true house of the dragon
sorry i don't know where else i'm gonna go with this the asian arowana obviously is called the
dragon fish for obvious reasons and i truly believe it is the reincarnation of the dragon
regardless of what anybody else thinks i love that side of that hobby keeping asian arowana
is like a hobby within a hobby if you know what i'm talking about let's keep this going though
where can you get an asian arowana can you keep one why do they cost so much and what's the best
arowana you should keep first and foremost let me start off by saying i cannot tell you how
many people tell me from the states and 50 of you guys watching this right now are american
you can't keep them in the united states but we'll get to that and we'll talk about why
i get so many messages so many comments uh you don't know what you're talking about i
see a aero asian arowana in the pet store all the time uh they're not illegal i can buy one
for 50 bucks automatic red flags i already know what you're talking about and here's the fun fact
there's multiple species of arowana they're found all over the world for example in south
america there's the silver as well as the black in australia there's the jardini as well as the
saratoga we can go to africa and find the african arowana what a common name what a great name for
that and then of course the asian arowana that's six species there which is the formosas but now
they've discovered the scriptus so that's seven in total and what you're probably seeing is
probably most likely the silver very common 20 to 100 bucks and you can keep them anywhere in
the world but why can't you keep the asian arowana i'm going to summarize this too long
didn't read you cannot keep the asian arowana in a lot of countries because they're delicious
you see this fish is not only protected by the endangered species act but it's also listed as
appendix one with cities which is the most severe of the three appendices which are ranked based off
of how severe or how much protection that animal or plant requires i think it was like in the early
late 60s early 70s where they started to notice that the asian arowana was declined declining
rapidly in its population and it was simply due to overfishing um as well as uh destruction of their
natural habitat because we love to build bridges and dams and and wharfs and whatever else we can
put in the water to transport our goods but at the cost of the local fauna and sometimes it can
devastate animals within it you see at that point more people were eating the asian arowana than
they were keeping it in the home aquarium anyways the numbers of them were rapidly declining uh
pushing them to near extinct extinction so and i think it was 1975 183 countries got together
and signed a treaty uh classifying it as a band or endangered species banned from international trade
now comes along cities which is the convention of international trade and endangered species of wild
fauna and flora now they listed as appendix 1 which is most severe which means that it's a
it's it's listed as threatened with extinction which may or may not be affected by trade
which of course is hobbyist related as well as food consumption anyways translation for all of
that it's not the aquarium hobbies fault but we're certainly not helping but why do i have one and
why do many people in canada have one and other countries all over the world well governments
interpret laws and have their own rules and regulations for everything and when it comes to
canada uh so long as the fish comes from a city's certified farm meaning that this fish is at least
three generations removed from the wild you can have it with the proper permits and imports etc
in the united states no do i think it's necessary i think that you guys should or americans should
at least have the same laws as canada when it comes to this sort of thing but a little piece of
me thinks well i don't want everybody to have them i just want to have them that is entirely selfish
and i don't regret it i think it would just come down to supply and demand and
prices for asian arowana would go up but we wouldn't necessarily affect
the wild population nobody wants to fish them anymore nobody's eating them
and nobody's going to buy wild caught fish we all want them properly and to import them
properly and responsibly because if you don't if you ever seen the video i made before you can face
up to three years in prison i believe or five and a ten thousand dollar fine for importing uh
cities listed appendix one asian arowana that's why you can't have one but why are
they so expensive even if canada there's not many people here there's ten times in the united states
it simply comes down to well let's look at how the asian arowana breeds in the first place and
if you were to get a pair good luck how long is it going to take for you to get viable fry
to sell well in asian arowana takes approximately like four years to sexually mature once the female
does lay eggs and pairs up with a proper male the male's going to fertilize him scoop him up in his
mouth then once in his mouth it's going to take about one month for those eggs to hatch once they
hatch their mouth broders the males actually have the bigger jaws so you can kind of uh
determine their sex at a once they become mature but it takes years with those wigglers i guess in
their mouths it takes about another three months for them to absorb their yolks act before the
male spits them out and then the culling process takes place uh and they're only laying on average
maybe 30 to 50 eggs in the first place so very low yield plus they have to call which means
you take out the undesirables or deformed ones or ones that don't have a long life expectancy
etc you don't want to flood the market with just anything especially when your reputation
is on the line as a firm and there's not that many of them and you're left with what 20 fish
it's kind of like discus discs take a long time to raise the sexual maturity and then their breeding
process and then you have a low yield of fry etc there's a tremendous amount of work that goes
into it but let's say i want to start a farm of course i'm going to have to buy land i'm going to
have to get all the permits i'm going to have to farm that land turn it into ponds that are viable
let them age figure out how i'm going to get asian arowana to stock them when with pears
go you're investing decades and lord knows how much money into this
to one day be able to distribute which isn't that easy either
basically coming down to supply and demand is there a relatively low supply i think a lot
of people think that asian arowana are no longer endangered that's probably the case but the demand
is so high if i told you you can get an asian arowana tomorrow even if they're
three to five thousand dollars i know plenty of people that are going to get them and
we'll just drain those farms dry which is going to drive the prices up so of course asian arowana
costing thousands of dollars each is due to the process that it takes as well as supply and demand
so you can't get an asian arowana what can you get or what do i recommend you get based off
the list i told you earlier i'm going to rank them best to worst in my opinion the
asian arowana is number one i'm a little biased and i know you can't get one so the second best
if you want one that looks like an asian arowana you go for the jardini
or the saratoga they have very similar body shape but they lack the coloration similar scales
similar look to them and it's the closest looking one to the asian arowana but it comes
at a price they are nasty not expensive though instead i would recommend the black arowana from
south america it only gets to about two feet in length the asian arowana can grow up 30 to 36
potentially i'm i'm more in the the uh the class of 30 inches 24 to 30 inches
the silver gets up to four feet develops drop by where its eye sockets almost fall out and look
at the ground uh very susceptible to that but the black is rarely ever gets that plus it says
relatively smaller and as adults they're almost virtually identical to a silver downside is is
they can cost a little bit more usually like one to two hundred dollars maybe even a little bit
more depending on your location so asian arowana black arowana and then i go silver i go silver for
a specific reason i think the silver is going to be more accessible but they do get up to four feet
these guys get absolutely monstrous you're gonna need a massive tank tight fitting lid you can't
keep anything with it that'll fit in its mouth because like you've seen it's going to eat it
but why not the jardini or the saratoga i just think they're too nasty so they rank even lower
and then finally the african arowana one of the more rare arowanas but don't really look like an
arowana if you're kind of into that appearance you can get it but i'm more of a purist than i want it
to look as close to an asian arowana or at least a silver arowana as possible so of course i go
asian black silver probably jardini no saratoga jardini african oh and then you put scriptures
up with the asians but they're not as colorful so maybe right above black or right below it asian
okay that's enough i hope you enjoyed this video i tried to dump as much information as as possible
i've made tons of videos on how to keep them and how to even build their homes and everything else
you could possibly imagine and if you enjoy these videos make sure you comment subscribe
like the video whatever else you're supposed to do but highly recommend checking out the members
only section of this channel so you can not only get a more behind-the-scenes and in-depth look at
everything that i'm doing but also participate at least to an extent but i will warn you i probably
make more videos there that i do there here because they're far more easier to make because it
feels like i'm just making a video for my friend um speaking of friends if you want to be my friend
where is it you should buy my book the ultimate do-it-yourself handbook
for the do-it-yourself aquarist pick this up and truly unlock your hobby
anyways all the links are in the description hope you enjoyed the video i'll see you in the next one