Arowana is a highly priced fish, so when you are choosing a fish to purchase, it is important to know that you are getting the best fish.
The first thing you need to consider is the fish health. A healthy active should swim swiftly with all fins (including pectorial) opened. The fish should be friendly and feed readily. The whole fish should be in porportion, giving you a mafestic and elegant feel. Eyes should be clear and proportional, mouth and jaw should fit perfectly, barbles should be long, straight and symmertical, curbature between the head and body gradual. The body should be board and long, scale neatly arranged and symmetrical, and fins large and fully opened. Color should be intense regardless of the strain. Never buy a fish that is hiding in the corner, swimming abnormally or has skin lesions. Other signs of sickness in arownas includes clamed pectial fins, protruding scales, protruding anus, rapid breathing and unproportionally large eyes and head (stunted fish). This is a list that you should check for a healthy arowana.
- Bodyshape:Sufficienly broad and long, with each fin complete and in place.
- Color: According to species, colour should be bright and lustrous.
- Eyes: Even in shape and size, not droopy, not protruding, must be clear and not misty.
- Fins: Big and widespread. Each fin should have smooth hard-fin rays.
- Gill covers: Compact and close to the head and body. Gills cover must be shiny and not scarred
- Mandibular: Long and straight, equal in length, and matching barbels with body-color of fish
- Mouth: Tightly closed, and jaws not protruding out.
- Scales: Neatly arranged, shiny, evenly shaped and big
- Swimming style: Graceful and often swimming in the upper part of the water in the aquarium.
- Teeth: Neatly arranged and in-line with the jaw-line
- Vent: not protruding, flat on pelvic region.
Since most of arowana hobbiests like to keep red arowana I would like to cocentrate more on how to choose red arowana. There are two types of red arowana, Blood red and Chilli red. The main difference between them are: Blood red has pulletshape head, fanshaped tail, smaller eyes and slimbody. Chilli red has a spoonhead, diamondshaped tail, large red eyes, and a high body with a core that is pure green. Both bood red and chilli red are shiny but the shines of chilli red is more metallic(grayish blue) and more prominent and not as radiant as that of bood red. Blood red shines are not as thick or as eaasily noticeable but much more shiny, reflective or glittering than it's chilli red counterpart. Another difference is that chilli red's shines tend to cover most part of the scales while blood red is more on the rims. Both types of red arowana will turned red when the fish grow up. Blood red will turn red faster than Chilli red, but the red colour of the Chilli red much deeper red and nicer. This is list that the real red arwona must have regarless blood red or chilli red.
- Hardrays of all fins and tails must not have a single clear cut of geen gray (danger of hybrid with geen arowana)
- Lips must be red, or even pinkish and reddish orange is accetable(without lights), or at least brown
- Red tail, red finage even for a young arowna (Red meaning really red, not orangy red or pinkish red (not pure), but not too much purplish red (hormones)
- Scales (specially 3rd, 4th rows of scales) must have shine color: browdish green. And, not very light green and obvious yellow.
- Scales colour, apart from pt 3, must not have un-matching color,e.g overly silverish or too white
-Tail portion must have dark markings, the portion of tailt fingage joining the body must not have yellow
- Young red arowanas(6-7in) with an overly metallic shines right on 5 row or even crossing over is disastrosus as well