Arowanas and their breeding in Malaysia

We saw our first arowana breeding at a beautiful facility in Jakarta, operated by Jeffrey Tan. However, he didn't want photos from his secret corners to be made public. So I'm keeping my promise.

It was very pleasant to meet Paul Ng during our trip along the Johor River. He breeds not only arowanas on a large scale. We first went to see his ingenious network of ponds. Jakub Krčín would be delighted. A sophisticated flow system ensures that good water parameters are maintained in the ponds. Then he took us home. There, with the help of his wife and father-in-law, he took care of a beautiful breeding facility.

In addition to arowanas, he also bred killifish, mainly of the genus Nothobranchius, South American cichlids and a number of bettas on a large scale. He is starting with freshwater stingrays. It was a real paradise for us aquarists.  We watched in silent amazement the breeding of thousands of fish without any energy consumption. Warm water around 28-30 °C flows directly from the taps, light is provided by the sun. Petrol is about a third of what it is here. The only energy expenditure is occasional aeration in some tanks. Most of them are flow-through.

Arowana fry have a remarkably large yolk sac.

Photos (Dr. Vladko Bydžovský):

1. Paul Ng is a relaxed person, he didn't make any secrets in front of us. On the contrary, he tried to explain how he breeds the individual fish.
2. Left part of the land with ponds.
3. Rear and right part of the land with ponds.
4. A branch from the neighboring stream leads to the first pond in the system.
5. The entire fish farm is covered only with a net.
6. 3 (!!) people work here.
7. In the back is the arowana breeding facility. No secrets.
8. The breeding fish are placed in approximately 250 l tanks.
9. Fish intended for further breeding are placed in flow-through tanks.
10. A low water level is maintained initially for small arowanas.
11. There was an awful lot of free space in some aquariums.
12. The number of apistogramma species bred was a surprise. More than 20.
13. I wouldn't look for killifish in Malaysia.
14. Beta macrostoma is a common fish here.
15. Betta coccina is a rarity in Europe, thousands of them were swimming in this fish farm.