fdo528

I Have a arowana- silver and gold in asia and I always taught that it;s illegal here in the US. I have mix reaction from many people and they all said tha's it's illegal. Any thoughts on this?

mathas

Depends on the species.

The "asian arowana" (Scleropages formosus) is illegal to import into the US.

The "silver arowana" (Osteoglossum bicirrhosum) is legal, as far as I know.

bolivianbaby

Welcome to Fishlore Looks like Mathas has the answer to your question.

sirdarksol

The Asian arowana is illegal to transport to or from any country that abides by CITES, due to the fact that it is an endangered species. I think that, if someone were to begin breeding already-captive Asian arowana, this restriction would not exist for the captive-bred fish. However, I don't know what would be involved in proving that they're captive-bred.

As long as the South American arowana remain off of the Endangered Species list, they will not be subject to this restriction.

fdo528

But, isn't it silver arowana are also asian arowana?

mathas

Not in my area, but that's the problem with common names... different places can call the same fish by different names, or different fish by the same name.

If you look at the links I provided yesterday, you'll see that there are (at least) two distinct species people call arowana. While they look similar, and are clearly related, they are not the same scientific species.