Enhancement through knowledge

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Parts of an Asian Arowana

I actually co-wrote this with James aka West providing the photographs. It was one of his earliest crossback but god knows where it is now! And I believe the club logo was derived by tracing out the outline of this crossback on photoshop!



The original writeup as below:


Asian arowana (Scleropages Formosus), as the name implies is found exclusive in Asia and has the reputation as being the world's most expensive freshwater aquarium fish.

The reason for this is because of its close resemblance of the oriental dragon and hence highly prized. In Chinese traditions and cultures, the oriental dragon is a symbol of good luck, strength and power and is believed to ward off evil.

Ancient Chinese emperors were also obsessed with dragons and their robes were embroidered with dragons. Dragons were therefore considered auspicious.

Many businessmen also believed that keeping an arowana will make their businesses prosper. In fact, the arowana is commonly known as the Dragon Fish because of the 2 barbels.

When the arowana glides through the water, its pectoral fins often spreads out, resembling a dragon in full flight. While you may have seen a dragon in books or posters, you may wonder what the terms barbels or pectoral fins meant.

The below illustration is specially designed to help you understand the parts of the asian arowana.




Thursday, November 26, 2009

Golden Crossback


Before I had my first asian arowana, I always told myself that my first asian arowana would be a golden crossback. It turned out that my first would be a red arowana that accompanied me for 7years. Now I'm torn between getting a red or a golden crossback. Anyone? Wish I had a crossback that looked like this.



Monday, November 23, 2009

Harvesting

How many of you have actually witnessed this scared ritual? I had the opportunities to witness quite some harvesting. It's quite amazing actually. I found this video on www.dragonfish.com and it shows a DFI crossback being harvested. It looks so simple but mind you, it is actually a very risky activity as the eggs and fries might be damaged or killed by the struggling male.

Watch how DFI does it.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

How old?

A lot of people have differing views on how old can an arowana grow to. My personal experience is only 7years in a tank. How about those living in farms? DFI has a 15year old golden crossback born in 1994 and it is still breeding. Also in the same article from DFI, it was said that there are older arowanas but they have retired from breeding. Amazing, isn't it?

Visit http://www.dragonfish.com/photo136.htms