All About Arowana part II

by : roy ganda putra manalu



Australian Arowana

Characteristics:
It can be categorized as either the Northern Barramundi or the Spotted Barramundi. The Spotted Barramundi resembles the Southeast Asian Arowana but it has a different colour. Its figure is smaller, narrower and its barbells are shorter and softer. Its caudal dorsal fins, and anac fin have golden stripes, while its scales are gold and silver in colour. It can lay 50 to 200 eggs each time, with each egg a diameter of 1cm.

Picture 4. Australian Arowana

The Spotted Barramundi and Northern Barramundi are in fact quite the same with the only difference being the Spotted Barramundi having a smaller body with red spots while its anac, dorsal and caudal fins having golden stripes are silvery green with yellow patches. Its side line has 35 scales, its anac fin has 31 hard fin rays while its caudal fin has 21.

African Arowana

Main Places of Origin:
Upper, middle and lower of the Nile River
Around West Africa

Characteristics:

 Picture 6. African Arowana

African Arowana appearance slightly resembles those Arowana of the Southeast Asia, Australia and South America. The greatest difference is its fin is small while its scales are olive green with some grey in colour.

The fish particularly likes to eat plankton and it uses its tongue to eat. It can grow to around 1m long and weigh 6kg. The African Arowana is good at leaping, so reinforced cover should be used on the aquatic tank to prevent it from jumping out of the tank.

This is in fact the only species of Arowana discovered in Africa. The figure of an Africa Arowana is different from those in the Southeast Asia, Australia and South America. Its figure is more oblate in shape and it has a thicker head. The fish is coffee in colour with shade of black, but this will vary with the surroundings it is in to either yellow or creamy colour. The mouth of an Africa Arowana is small and thick. It has no barbell and its pectorac and pelvic fins are of the same size. Its caudal fin is small and round in shape. It has 6 hard fin rays in its pelvic fin, its mini scales are not bright and its side line has 32 to 38 scales. From it gills onwards, it has a row of spotted scales that line up to the tail

.picture 7: african arowana

The eating habit of the Africa Arowana is different from other Arowana as it has no teeth, so it eats only small fish, small worms, beach louse and waterweeds. It can use it gills to eat and filter the food.

The using of its mucus to absorb plankton and microbe into its stomach is its peculiarity. If not through introduction, readers will not know that it is a kind of Arowana too.

During the period of propagating, the fish will look for a round dead branch, twig or waterweeds about 4 sq ft big to build its nest and lay eggs of about 0.25 in diameter. The hatching period is about 2 days and this is taken care of by the male and female Africa Arowana together. It is not very popular in the Southeast Asian markets. However, some fish lovers are still interested in gathering information about it.