Red arowana in USA?

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Fishnerd360

Redtail Catfish
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Sep 2, 2018
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I live in the US. And in my local pet store I saw a fish listed as a red arowana for $20. It seems someone has bought it as I didn't see a arowana in the tank. Is this a real Asian arowana, or a color morph of a silver arowana?
 
I live in the US. And in my local pet store I saw a fish listed as a red arowana for $20. It seems someone has bought it as I didn't see a arowana in the tank. Is this a real Asian arowana, or a color morph of a silver arowana?

Yes the price of Asian Aros has gone down over the years, but not THAT much -- no way that was a Red Arowana for that price (legalities aside you'd probably need to add a couple more zeros to that figure :) -- unless someone had Fish & Game hot on their trail and they just dumped it at the shop lol.
 
That is possible, but I think the arowana was a baby cause it was in a ten ish gallon tank with smaller cichlids. So I don't think someone will dump a baby fella.
 
Even at $20, that’s cheap for a normal silver. Does this shop normally stock dyed fish? It could be a silver that has been dyed similar to the “jellybean parrot cichlid”
I think that’s more likely than a true color morph or Asian with a price tag like that.
 
That is possible, but I think the arowana was a baby cause it was in a ten ish gallon tank with smaller cichlids. So I don't think someone will dump a baby fella.

Oh, given your OP omitted such a fact, we were unaware it was a baby in just a 10 gallon, (which sounds like borderline cruelty, even for a baby aro). In any case, incomplete queries will often result in incomplete answers :)

What's most surprising though is that your LFS would even think they got a Red Arowana and label it as such.

Also Asian Red Arowana are not red when they're babies, they're mostly silver until they get quite a bit older.
 
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They may not sell dyed fish very often, but if someone dropped it off or requested it then I'm sure they would get one in, stores will usually get in whatever they can if a customer wants it, a lfs near me a couple years ago got shut down because he illegally got a snakehead in for someone
 
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