Asian Arowanas Breeding Venture – Know The Risk
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.
Feng shui considers the asian arowanas as one of their three ‘lucky’ fishes because it resembles the mythical dragon in asian folklore and is therefore much sort after by feng shui practitioners. The other 2 fishes in the feng shui realm are koi and goldfish. There used to be another fish, flowerhorn (or Luo Han), which was also popular in feng shui but have actually not been featured much nowadays.
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 is evident above, the arowana breeding business can be highly profitable when done on a commercial basis. This has driven up the interest of people wanting to get into this business. But please be aware of some of the inherent risks before you do take the plunge into it.
1) The barrier to entry can be quite steep because of the high initial investments needed. For this business to be viable, you will need many ponds with a minimum of 20-40 adult asian arowanas in them to breed as not all ponds will be productive from the start unless you already have some producing ones. With each adult arowana being between $5,000 to $10,000 each, you do the math. Bear in mind that these cost does not include the investment you have put up to build the farm!
2) Even if you have completed the farm and populated all the ponds with your adult arowanas, this does not mean that you can sit down and relax because you need an experienced individual to run the farm for you. This person must have the intuition and experience to be able to spot pairing arowanas that are carrying fry in their mouth (Only the male carries fry in their mouth) and know when best to harvest those fry. You will miss a lot of potential arowana fry if you don’t have such a person helping. Bear in mind that even the professional breeders do not get it right all the time, let alone amateurs like us!
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.
