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Asian Arowanas Breeding Venture - Know The Risk 
By: Steven Yeoh
In recent times, we see that many more individuals have expressed interest in wanting to go into the arowana breeding business. Here we mean the asian arowanas specifically, especially the gold (or cross backs), red and red tail golden (or RTGs) as they are the ones that fetch the highest prices in the market. There is a saying that as long as there are Asians (especially the Chinese), there will always be demands for this magnificent fish. This rise/surge in demand is more pronounced now with the rising affluence of the middle class families in China in recent times.
Because asian arowanas resembles the mythical dragon in asian folklore, they are a much sort after fish in the feng shui realm. Many people keep them at home or in their offices and consider them a 'lucky' fish. Arowanas are considered one of three feng shui fishes, with the other two being koi and goldfish. Luo Han or flowerhorn was at one time also considered a feng shui fish but they have not really stood the test of time and have more or less been dropped from the feng shui list.
What has also driven up the prices for these beautiful asian arowanas are the fact that it is very difficult to breed them. (Again we are talking about the red, gold and RTG arowanas only.) Thus far, they have only been successfully bred commercially in Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. No one has succeeded in breeding them anywhere else which has led to a constant 'short supply' of asian arowanas in the market. Success rates in breeding asian arowanas in tanks are also too few and far between and is just not viable commercially.
Because of the high profit potential stated above, many more parties are becoming interested in investing in arowana breeding projects. However before you do take the plunge, please weight the pros and cons first as there are inherent risk involved.
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.
Article Source: http://www.uberarticles.com/articles
Steven Yeoh is an passionate arowana fish lover who is also involved with an asian arowana breeding farm. If you find his arowana information useful, please sign up for his seven days course for the "New Arowana Hobbyists" at his arowana care site.
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