arowana species reclassified!

[hwchoy]

Ho say liaoz! some scientist has gone and reclassified the various colour variants of the Malayan Bonytongues (arowana)... Vinz, your fish is now Scleropages aureus.

New Arowana species!

[Sky Devil]

Never mention cross backs?

[hwchoy]

could be a hybrid.

[MrTree]

i thought it's from Lake Bukit Merah??? and Used to be somewhere near KL but extinct in 1970s?

[vinz]

Read in a ST report about local scientist who is researching arowana that the x-back is a mutant.

[crandf]

LOL! Its an X-back, of course its a mutant! I wonder what powers it has?

[hwchoy]

OK, petfrd is finally up and here's the info…

[quote:e2a3114a0f="Bagrus Dude"]
Some color varieties of the Asian arowana (Scleropages formosus) are now recognized as distinct species. The reference is:
Pouyaud, L., Sudarto & G.G. Teugels, 2004. The different colour varieties of the asian arowana Scleropages formosus (Osteoglossidae) are distinct species: morphologic and genetic evidences. Cybium 27: 287-305, and the new species are:

S. macrocephalus: Silver Indonesian Arowana
S. aureus: Red Tail Golden Arowana
S. legendrei: Super Red, Chili or Blood Indonesian Arowana

[/quote:e2a3114a0f]

[MrTree]

Sungai Keirian..north shore of Tasek Bukit Merah

all the while I read Fish Magazine, AquaLife, AWAVE, cross back are found from this area.

[vinz]

I think the golden arowana is naturally occuring, but the x-back is a mutant strain that breeders have managed to isolate and cultivate in numbers via selective breeding.

When I was young, I always hear about golden arowanas, but never about x-backs. X-back is a term I've only heard or seen in recent years.

[Sky Devil]

I was thinking, X Backs are more rare and harder hence the price. And it originated from Lake Bukit Merah in Malaysia. Could the dark top be something to blend with the water so that birds will not eat them?

And Sliver Indonesian Arowana? Never hear before

[hwchoy]

It make sense for the bonytongues to have a dark back since they dwell near the surface and it would have been a camouflage.

X-back means the scales on the back are coloured as well right? This would be rather odd since it would make the fish visible against the dark lake bottom. Since X-back appears to be rare and to have been produced through selective breeding, it would appear that it is a variety whose genes are selected against in Nature. But through human breeding efforts, the trait is selected for to produce the X-back that we see. As such it is not a mutant but a trait inherent in the gene pool which is naturally selected against. This doesn't there is anything wrong, just that the genes does not help the fish in Nature. Now the genes IS helping the fish because those fishes bearing such traits would have a better breeding rate because humans are selecting for it.

Mr Tree, where is Tasek Bukit Merah?

[MrTree]

hmm..

The japanese seperates the arowana into....

Red Arowana - from area across Upper Stream of Sungai Kapuas, Sintang..

Guo Bei Jing Long (I assume it's Cross back as the Chinese says so) from Malaysia(above mentioned places). Only the fishermen from Kampong Alor Ponsu have the liscense to catch the fish from Sungai Kerian.

Hong Wei Jing Long (Red Tail Gold), from Pekanbaru, Sumatra.

Green Arowana - Through out South East Asia.

Yellow Arowana - from Banjarmasin of South Kalimantan.

Tasek(Tasik) = lake

[hwchoy]

Banjarmasin is on the Sungai Barito, which is the type locality of the asian bonytongue. Let's wait for the paper and see what it says. Looks like the new species definition matches fairly well with the Jap groupings. The omission of the crossback could simply mean a lack of study, or lack of funds to buy specimens

[Sky Devil]

[quote:da17bbbcfe="hwchoy"]
Mr Tree, where is Tasek Bukit Merah?[/quote:da17bbbcfe]

Drive all the way up. Its Just before Penang