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It seems like there is a surge in interest of people who are interested in investing in an arowana breeding farm. These investors are of course only interested in the pricier asian arowanas which consist mostly of the reds, cross back golds and the red tail golden. (or more popularly known as RTGs) As the countries in Asia continues to grow in stature and wealth, we will see a growing demand for asian arowanas especially in China.

The asian arowana’s resemblance to the mythical dragon has made them a much sort after ‘feng shui’ fish. They are considered a ‘good luck’ fish and many people swear by this! Many feng shui masters have considered them to be one of the three ‘lucky’ fishes, the other two being goldfish and koi. There was a ‘fourth’ one which is the flowerhorn or ‘Luo Han’ but I think this is passe now and has not really stood the test of time.

The prices of these magnificient asian arowanas (red, gold and RTGs) has also been consistently high because they are difficult to breed. As of today, only Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore have successfully bred them commercially. No other country has been able to breed them thus far which makes asian arowanas always in short supply in the market. Some have tried breeding them in tanks but the success rates here are just too low to speak off and is therefore not commercially viable.

As mentioned earlier, many more parties are seeing the potential of this very lucrative business and are therefore seriously considering investing into it. But before you do so, you need to know some of the risks and issues before you do take the plunge.

1) The initial investment into this can be quite substantial because you have to purchase many adult arowanas of breeding age. You will also need many ponds of about 20-40 adult arowanas each if this is to succeed as a business because not all ponds will be producing from day one. Each adult arowana will cost between $5000 - $10,000 so you will need to work out your sums. And this cost is on top of the investment you have put in for the farm itself!

2) Your job is not done even if you have managed to build a top notch farm with many ponds of adult arowanas. You still need a very important component which is an experience person to run it! We, as amateurs, will not know how and when to harvest arowana fry in the ponds. You would need a person who is knowledgeable and experience. This person can help you spot pairing arowanas and decide when best to harvest the fry from the arowana male’s mouth. We need to be able catch as many of these pairing arowanas as possible because even the professional and experience breeders get it wrong sometimes.

3) I want to repeat the following facts again. Asian arowanas has only been successfully bred commercially in three countries so far, namely Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. If you are contemplating investing in a breeding farm in some other country, please be very sure this is what you want to try. The climate and soil might be similar in some other countries but obviously they are not the same. Asian arowanas will only breed in the ‘optimal’ mix of climate, soil and water in the mud ponds. However, does this mean that it will never be able to breed elsewhere? No one knows! In this day and age, never say never but just know the risks you are taking.

Tags: Pets

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