Arowana fish happen to be paternal mouth-brooders. This fish produces small broods of fry. They take longer time to mature. Due to this, arowana fish fell prey to traders and are considered an endangered species.

Different countries, whose waters have arowana fish in them, have rules and regulations related to engaging in arowana fish trade. Some authoritative bodies even go to the extent of placing microchips in the body of each arowana fish in the fishing farms. This tagging helps them monitor the fish and make sure that fish was not taken from the open waters.


Arowana fish breeding



Arowana fish breeding and farming is a ripe industry. Trade of arowana fish pays well. Arowana breeders and farmers keep the adult arowana in large shoals and huge mud ponds. Time after time, teams of farm labour use a seine net and walk through the ponds, collecting male arowana fish, which brood eggs or fry.

Great deal of care is taken in the handling of arowana fish. The male fish gets to get larger aquariums. Their mouth is praised open to increase the possibility of fry dropping out. Later, the male fish is taken to pond so that it could fatten up.

There are between 10-20 eggs in each clutch dropping out of their mouths. The average diameter of eggs is 15 millimeters. Male arowana brooding eggs and fry can be spotted easily. The reason behind this is that their buccal cavities are quite apart.

It takes about a week or so for the eggs to hatch. Upon hatching, a 1 centimeter long fry shows up on each egg and remains attached to its ground base(i.e., the yolk sac).

Another month passes by, and you find the fish reached a size of 2-3 centimeters. By now, they start using nutrients from within the yolk sac. After another week or two and the yolk sac becomes much smaller. The fish start taking shape and make attempts of swimming. Two months after that, they are released by the male and are free to swim.

To avoid the risk of predators, farmers take away the offspring and rear the fry in separate tanks. From this moment on, it takes the fish about another year before they become of the size which can be sold.