Jardini Arowana Grooming

[Damascus]

Cheers to all-

Recently have lost my last Jardini and I am looking to start over.

I have recently come to terms with the fact that I will never be able to own an Asian Arowana, and that I will probably not ever see CITIES changed in the US within my lifetime, meaning the closest I can get to these fish are the Australian species. Jardini is the easiest to acquire so I'd like to start with them again.

Does anyone have experience with attempting to groom a jardini in the similar fashion that Asia grooms their Asian arowana? I know that they will never compare, but I'd like to promote as much gold coloring in a jardini as possible and am wondering if anyone else has thought of this as well.

Would it be of benefit to treat it as a gold arowana and attempt the same grooming techniques to see if any additional gold-ish coloration can be promoted?

 

[Damascus]

As an add on to this, how to select the best juvenile fish to attempt this?

I have attached a link below to a fishkeeper on YT that has a specimen I am keen to replicate and would like to mimic this individual fish as closely as possible. My guess is this is done with carotene containing foods and a special light?

 

[Damascus]

Bump- also looking for best viewing lights for this fish. Any recs?

 

[tetroid]

You can bring out the yellow in just about any creature by feeding it foods containing carotenoids. There's even a (harmless) condition called carotenemia where parents accidentally bring out the gold colouration in their baby by feeding it too many strained carrots/sweet potatoes etc.

I don't know how you'd get carrots into a jardini, but I do know that discus keepers use a supplement called yellow carophyll to bring out the yellow in their fish. The same stuff is used in the poultry industry to make egg yolks more yellow. If you can find some of that, you could stuff it into market shrimp or something similar to get the jardini to eat it. Would be an interesting experiment.

 

[Damascus]

You can bring out the yellow in just about any creature by feeding it foods containing carotenoids. There's even a (harmless) condition called carotenemia where parents accidentally bring out the gold colouration in their baby by feeding it too many strained carrots/sweet potatoes etc.

I don't know how you'd get carrots into a jardini, but I do know that discus keepers use a supplement called yellow carophyll to bring out the yellow in their fish. The same stuff is used in the poultry industry to make egg yolks more yellow. If you can find some of that, you could stuff it into market shrimp or something similar to get the jardini to eat it. Would be an interesting experiment.

I was planning to get a few different individuals, 1 to use as a control, and the other 2 to use various methods to increase coloration (within reason and without harm to the fish- will be mainly vitamin, food and lighting) and see which method best influences the gold tendencies within the jars natural coloring.


Aro keepers outside the US- what brand/model light are you using for your gold arowanas?

I'd be inclined to believe a jardini may have some benefit from a viewing standpoint considering the similarities from these types of lights.

 

[Hao]

Personally, I've only had darker jardinis (probably because my tanks are generally darker). But keeping a jardini on a lighter environment similiar to the youtube video you posted should keep it lighter looking (seems like thats what you want). Although it probably depends on the individual fish's genetic too. Some will be lighter than others but care/diet/environment/lighting definitely goes a long way. If you want a natural looking lighting then I'd probably suggest warmer lighting to give it a more "golden" look maybe look into 4000k-5000k white lights (shoplights,LED, anything). You could also go as far as getting an adjustable RGB LED and set it too yellowish color (imo would look a bit unnatural).

 

[thiswasgone]

Both Australian species are more bronze than they are gold with Jardini becoming a deep/dark bronze as they age and leichardti being more silver. In either case, both species will produce a brighter red pigmentation in their scales if you feed food with more carotenoids but it's virtually impossible to turn a Jardini's scale "gold" especially since most are wild-caught. At most, IMO, you can get bright lights, white backgrounds, and light gravel/sand if not barebottom. Even then it will not look "gold" but rather a bright/light bronze.

It is theoretically possible to produce a true gold Jardini IMO but that would require the same techniques used to produced farmed in xanthic RTC & Aligator Gar or some sort of genetic mapping and breeding program AKA be filthy rich.

 

[Damascus]

Personally, I've only had darker jardinis (probably because my tanks are generally darker). But keeping a jardini on a lighter environment similiar to the youtube video you posted should keep it lighter looking (seems like thats what you want). Although it probably depends on the individual fish's genetic too. Some will be lighter than others but care/diet/environment/lighting definitely goes a long way. If you want a natural looking lighting then I'd probably suggest warmer lighting to give it a more "golden" look maybe look into 4000k-5000k white lights (shoplights,LED, anything). You could also go as far as getting an adjustable RGB LED and set it too yellowish color (imo would look a bit unnatural).

I know a lot of these methods are a rather large stretch for a very small change in coloration, but it can't hurt to try. I have noticed a fair amount of color variance in juvenile fish, so I am hoping with a careful selection of a juvenile fish, I can encourage as much of a golden color as genetically possible

 

[Damascus]

Both Australian species are more bronze than they are gold with Jardini becoming a deep/dark bronze as they age and leichardti being more silver. In either case, both species will produce a brighter red pigmentation in their scales if you feed food with more carotenoids but it's virtually impossible to turn a Jardini's scale "gold" especially since most are wild-caught. At most, IMO, you can get bright lights, white backgrounds, and light gravel/sand if not barebottom. Even then it will not look "gold" but rather a bright/light bronze.

It is theoretically possible to produce a true gold Jardini IMO but that would require the same techniques used to produced farmed in xanthic RTC & Aligator Gar or some sort of genetic mapping and breeding program AKA be filthy rich.

Perhaps you misunderstood...
I am not going for the "gold" like now seen with color morphs, but rather enhancing what is already possible. Please see the video above, as that fish will be used as a target specimen for what I aim to replicate as previously described. I would describe the fish in that video as more of a golden coloration, rather than a bronze. I am aware this fish will never be "golden" or yellow like a color morph. This is also not what I am aiming to achieve.

I am aware of the standard characteristics of jardini, and also know this fish to have a variance in coloration. Some are lighter, some are darker, some are more copper color, and others are more of a tarnished gold color. I am aiming to select juvenile fish with signs of being more in the color that I want to influence and building on that. This fish seems receptive enough to environmental changes to influence color.

I don't want to accuse, however when predatory fins sold "platinum" jardini, they appeared to be nothing more than WTT jars. This was also what reported by many individuals that bought them and many of them turned back to a normal color after purchase.

So this shows me than with a proper combination of diet, lighting, and environment, I can influence the natural coloration of this fish to more of a shade that I would like.

 

[thiswasgone]

Perhaps you misunderstood...
I am not going for the "gold" like now seen with color morphs, but rather enhancing what is already possible. Please see the video above, as that fish will be used as a target specimen for what I aim to replicate as previously described. I would describe the fish in that video as more of a golden coloration, rather than a bronze. I am aware this fish will never be "golden" or yellow like a color morph. This is also not what I am aiming to achieve.

I am aware of the standard characteristics of jardini, and also know this fish to have a variance in coloration. Some are lighter, some are darker, some are more copper color, and others are more of a tarnished gold color. I am aiming to select juvenile fish with signs of being more in the color that I want to influence and building on that. This fish seems receptive enough to environmental changes to influence color.

I don't want to accuse, however when predatory fins sold "platinum" jardini, they appeared to be nothing more than WTT jars. This was also what reported by many individuals that bought them and many of them turned back to a normal color after purchase.

So this shows me than with a proper combination of diet, lighting, and environment, I can influence the natural coloration of this fish to more of a shade that I would like.

And i'm telling you outside of a 1 in a million genetic luck out or a lab grown specimen you will only get a variation of bronze coloration; most likely a deep and dark bronze if you don't go down a WTT type route (even then this is will last only as long as the fish remains in the WTT environment). The video above is using a gold/dark yellow light but if you look closely the jardini looks like every other healthy jar in a light colored tank; a light bronze.

Now IF you do get lucky with the genetic lottery then there is a chance to develop your fish into something similar to this:

(credit https://www.fishingcairns.com.au/target-species/gulf-saratoga/)

but even this looks like either an edited image (increased coloration not added pixels) and/or the perfect light angle.

The only thing you can do as in the home aquarium to achieve similar true coloration is to feed high quality pellets and maybe infuse more carotenoids with the pellets and hope your fish's chromatophores are more light/gold yellow than bronze. Outside of that, once again, you'll have to go with a WTT kind of route which is temporary and will at most last 2 months if you change to a darker environment. However, even in a genetic luck out like in the image above, you can still see the deep rooted bronze at the top scales.