In light of the recent news that the entire genome of Asian Arowana (Scleropages formosus) was fully sequenced, we thought it would be timely to discuss some of the more interesting developments in their captive breeding.

Wild S.formosus are generally silver in color with hints of red, gold, green, black, and/or blue.  Commercial captive breeders in Asia selectively breed specific specimens to enhance desired pigmentation, resulting in arowanas that are vibrantly red, gold, or exotic combinations of colors.

Recently, beautiful baby/powder blue arowanas are showing up.  As captive breeding continues – soon to be aided by genetics – we are likely to see the development of more exotic variants (and maybe finally the legalization of captive bred arowanas in the USA too).

Here are two examples of blue Asian Arowanas.

(Warning: turn down the volume on the first video)