Arowana (Asian Arowana to be exact) is considered "King of Ornamental Fish" by many people in Asia. They come in a few different breeds such as Green, Platinum, Super Red, Red, Golden, Crossback, etc etc but all share the same majestic, arrogant look to them that has rendered many adult men head over heels with their beauty despite the often astronomical prices these fish often have.

During my recent trip to my home country of Indonesia, more specifically Jakarta, I had the chance to visit an arowana boutique owned by a farm that specially breed Super Red Arowanas. Here are a few select pics for your enjoyment.

The advertising sign above the boutique


A young Super Red with its reflection


A majestic Super Red adult at least 3 feet long. Notice the intense red colouration on the scales.


A closer look of the fish


Cool head-on shot


This Super Red adult is not as intensely red, but Asians are very auspicious and as this fish got 3 barbels instead of the usual 2, it's considered very special and fetches a high price.


This young Super Red got the desirable "spoonhead" conformation


Too bad Australia doesn't allow Asian Arowana entering it, thus I won't have any chance of owning one , but you guys who live in the USA should be able to import them, if you got the money that is

Wow, they are spectacular! A pet store I live by used to have some silver arowanas, I loved to watch them. Are they freshwater or are there marine varieties? I ask because I went to Jamica last May and I thought I saw something similar swimming around my feet

Let's say this was a "must have" fish for me- What price would I expect to pay in dollars for that bright red one?

Arowana can grow to around 3 feet long so make sure you have a big enough aquarium before getting one.

Wow, they are very pretty fish! Thanks for sharing DG!

Beautiful pics dgolem. Thanks for sharing.

I was gonna ask if you brought one home with you, but then I saw the last line of your post.

oh my goodness! i absolutely LOVE arowanas!!!!! AHHH~! Rizky you're so lucky!!!!! man i would have gone NUTS if i had gotten to see that exhibit!!!!! you lucky duck you!!! thanks for sharing the pictures!!! they are gorgeous!

the reds and super reds are not allowed to be imported into the US i don't think. i've looked them up before. they do find their way to canada and california somehow though.. so go figure.



the super reds are in the thousands... as in like $5000 plus!!! haha hence i could not afford one.



they are also very strong fish and like to jump out of their tanks. in my opinion a minimum sized tank for an arowana would be 100g. most of the reading suggests minimum of 55 or 75, but i think that is WAY too small for such a large fish. these babies require lots of care in order to keep them healthy (ie eyes in the correct orientation etc.) and to protect them from harming themselves.

they are VERY magnificent though. haha another reason i wouldn't be able to keep one is they eat live foods. haha and i am squeamish!

by the way lots of my arowana reading was done long ago, so if i am mistaken in any of my points, please feel free to correct me!

In my opinion an arowana would need the same amount of room as a koi. An adult arowana wouldn't even be able to swim or turn around in a 55 gallon.




In the aquarium arowana like to eat goldfish.

haha another reason i don't have one. not yet at least... maybe when i make more money and stop spending it all on goldfish. they are very beautiful though!!!

Wow they are truely amazing looking fish! Their colour is so bright!

That's just actually a misconception perpetuated by lazy fishkeepers who treat arowanas as low maintenance pets. Arowanas can actually be trained to eat processed pellets if you're patient (and I should know, having owned one which ate floating pellets as greedily as a goldfish years ago before my brother killed it with chlorinated tapwater)

Yikes! No Arowanas for me! If I had 5000 just lying around..I'm Pretty sure I would spend it on a car or something.

hmm interesting... i will have to look into that. i have wanted an arowana for the LONGEST time. maybe one day in the future... *sigh*



you can get a pretty silver for not too expensive. i once saw a 7-8 inch silver at mmm of all places and it was only for $19.99!!! unfortunately i didn't have space for one. never seen that kinda deal again. but they are usually around $40-$80 i think. the silvers that is. not the reds. haha us crazy asians drive up the prices for those reds! =) there are some beautiful golds, greens, and blacks too.

How big was the Arowana? You would need some pretty big pellets to feed an adult Arowana.

It started being only 6 or so inches and was so eager to eat anything at that stage he accepted the pellets right away (young arowanas are apparently less fussy). He continued liking pellets to supplement his diet of fresh market-bought anchovies up till the time he died when he was more than a foot long.

All arowanas & its "bony tongued" family including South America's Giant Arapaima & Australia's Saratoga are freshwater fish.


Hsi Hou, you really know your Arowana, don't you? If I'm not mistaken, the price of the adult Super Red is 50 million rupiah (around 5500 USD) & the 3 barbeled one is 80 million rupiah (around 9000 USD). They do need a huge tank & lots of live food (frogs, prawns, fish, crickets, worms etc etc). Upside is, they're actually easier to care than goldfish, being able to withstand changes in their water & obtain oxygen from air.


Here's a wikipedia link about arowana : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arowana


Too bad I didn't have any chance to visit a Lou Han/Flowerhorn boutique

haha yeah when i first got my 72 gal, i thought about getting an arowana, but after doing all my research i figured it wasn't big enough and i didn't really know how well the live foods would go with my conscience. i still love 'em though!!

those r pretty cool. recently I was looking at the prices of fish on the site of a local lfs that I havent been to yet and they had emporer super red arowanas (I think they were the same kind) and they were $6,000!!!!!!

Thats actually a decent price if it was a super red arowana. They can easily go for a lot more.

when i went to England i saw some there were like around 40 bucks..Nice colors would be cool to own one..but way to exspensive