Legal Arowana In The Us?

so. Is silver basically my only choice here?
I know america isn’t at its peak right now but I mean come on. I feel like I should have more than one choice (asking a lot of America I know) in arowana. My question is, does anybody know which aros are legal here? If it’s a state by state deal, I’m in Florida.

 

I know that jardinI and silvers are legal.
In my area, I've seen both for sale.

 

being that its Florida you live in, I'd check with local wildlife officials or law enforcement or something. Florida seems to have a lot of problems with invasive fish from people releasing them into the wild there. Snakeheads being a big one. As well as several central America cichlid species.

 

I've heard that you need a permit to have silver arowana in Florida.

 

I know the Asians are illegal in most of the world since being placed on the endangered species list. There are a few places trying to breed them in captivity so once they get that figured out it might change. I'm sure if will have to have paperwork and all that nonsense to own as well as being insanely expensive since people have actually killed to own them.

 

Wow. my lfs has red asian arowana and others all the time

 

WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE SO HARD TO HAVE A PRETTY FISHY

 

I believe that C.I.T.E.S. need to be reviewed.

All Asian arowana are farmed raised nowadays and those farms have sustainable numbers in them.

I believe that the US should let Asian arowana be legal if there is a license.

 

I would check you local fish and game restrictions to see what you can have, what you can have with permit, and what you can't. Asian arowana are a no go unless you can prove they are US bred and raised, which means paperwork and permits and certifications. There are several color types though, silver just happens to be the most common sold that I have seen.

 

Silver Arowana (Osteoglossum bicirrhosum) is a SA species, and is quite common in the wild. There is also the Black Arowana (Osteoglossum ferreirai) from SA, but it is only black as a youngster. Adults aren't significantly more colorful than the Silver species, but are less common in the wild, though not threatened or endangered. It is much less common in the hobby. Both fish can reach close to 3 feet. Both of these species might be restricted by state, or even local laws. However, they are not federally banned from normal import.

The true Asian Arowana are in the Genus Scleropages. Used to all be species formosus, but multiple species have been described from different locations. These are highly endangered in the wild, but are farm bred for the Eastern market. They can sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars for special traits, such as gold or red color. They are illegal to import to the USA. HOWEVER, S. jardini is NOT from Asia proper, it is from Australia and New Guinea. These are the "Asian" Arowanas that one might see in US stores. True Asian Arowanas that are farm raised usually are chipped for ID.