Read this before you pay a deposit
An arowana is not an impulse purchase, and not only because of the price. Three facts frame everything else:
- The Asian arowana (Scleropages formosus) is CITES Appendix I — the highest level of international protection, the same tier as tigers and rhinos. Wild specimens cannot be traded commercially at all.
- Every legal Asian arowana is captive-bred at a registered farm, individually microchipped, and comes with a CITES certificate. That is not a premium feature. It is the difference between a fish you own and a fish you can have confiscated.
- It will live 15–20 years and reach 60–120 cm. You are choosing an animal that may still be with you when your current lease, car and job are all long gone.
So the buying process has two halves, and most guides only cover the second: verify the paperwork, then inspect the fish. Get the first half wrong and the second does not matter.
Part 1: The paperwork
Asian vs South American — know which you are buying. This matters enormously and the terminology at point of sale can blur it:
| Asian arowana | Silver / South American | |
|---|---|---|
| Species | Scleropages formosus — Red, Golden, Green | Osteoglossum — Silver, Black |
| CITES status | Appendix I | Not Appendix I |
| Microchip + certificate | Required | Not required |
| Price | High to very high | Modest |
If someone offers you a cheap "red arowana" with no documents, one of two things is true: it is not an Asian arowana, or it is not legal. Both are worth knowing before you pay.
What legitimate documentation looks like
For an Asian arowana, expect all of this and treat any gap as a stop sign:
- A CITES certificate naming the source farm, the species, and the individual specimen.
- A microchip (PIT tag) implanted in the fish, with a number that matches the certificate.
- A farm certificate / birth tag from the registered breeding facility, usually with the year and lineage.
- Import documentation showing the fish entered the country legally.
Ask the seller to scan the chip in front of you and show you that the number matches the certificate. A reputable seller will do this without hesitation — they have a scanner, and they are used to the request. Hesitation, excuses, or "the paperwork is coming later" is the moment to walk away.
Verify current UAE requirements before you buy. Rules for importing, keeping and transferring CITES-listed animals are set by the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MOCCAE) and can change. Confirm what permits apply to you as the keeper, not just to the importer — and ask what happens to the documentation if you ever sell or move the fish. Do this before the deposit, not after.
Part 2: Inspecting the fish
You are looking at an animal you will own for two decades. Spend twenty minutes on it. Ask to see it fed, and ask to see it from the front and the side.
What good looks like
- Body: straight spine, symmetrical, no kinks. Scales complete and evenly aligned, none missing or lifted.
- Barbels: both present, equal length, pointing forward and upward. Broken or drooping barbels are a sign of poor handling or a tank that was too small.
- Gill plates: flat against the body and smooth. Curled or flared gill covers are a common, largely permanent defect caused by poor water quality or oxygen problems during growth — check both sides.
- Eyes: clear, equal, and — importantly — not drooping downward. "Drop eye" is common in arowanas and generally does not reverse.
- Fins: complete, no splits or clamping. Pectoral fins held out, not pinned.
- Swimming: level, calm, patrolling near the surface. Not tilted, not sitting on the bottom, not surface-thrashing.
- Feeding: ask them to feed it. A healthy arowana strikes with confidence. A fish that ignores food in front of a prospective buyer is telling you something.
Walk away if
Drooping eye · curled gill plates · missing or asymmetric barbels · a kinked spine · clamped fins · white spots, fungus or reddened patches · lethargy · a seller who will not scan the chip · a price that is far below the market for that grade.
On that last one: in this species, a suspiciously low price is usually not a bargain. It usually means an undocumented fish, a different species than advertised, or a defect you have not spotted yet.
Part 3: Be honest about the tank
The most common arowana tragedy is not a scam. It is a healthy, expensive, legally documented fish bought by someone whose tank was never going to be big enough.
The tank must exist, cycled and running, before the fish arrives. Not "I'll upgrade next year." An arowana grows fast, and a fish kept in a tank it has outgrown develops exactly the deformities listed above — drop eye, curled gills, a bent spine. You will have paid for a perfect specimen and then damaged it yourself over eighteen months.
Two non-negotiables people underestimate:
- Length and width, not depth. This is a surface-cruising fish that needs to turn around. A tall tank is the wrong shape.
- A heavy, secured lid — with no gaps. Arowanas jump, hard, and they do it at night. Jumping is the single most common cause of death in captive arowanas, and it is entirely preventable. The lid must be weighted or latched, not just resting on top.
The full requirements — dimensions, parameters, tank mates, diet — are in our Arowana Care Guide. Read it before you commit, not after.
Part 4: The UAE-specific parts
Your water is already right. Arowanas do fine in the hard, alkaline water that comes out of a Dubai tap. What matters far more than chemistry is stability — and that is where this climate makes things interesting. See Is Dubai tap water safe for fish?
The summer oxygen problem is worse in a big-fish tank. A large, heavily fed predator in warm water is a heavy oxygen demand at exactly the time the water can hold least. Surface agitation is not optional in July: the summer guide.
Placement matters more with a tank this size. A 400-litre-plus tank is around half a tonne filled, and it must be nowhere near direct sunlight or an AC vent — the temperature swings from a vent are especially hard on a large, long-lived fish. Where to put a tank in a Dubai flat.
A power cut is a real risk to a fish this valuable. Have a battery air pump before you need one.
Before you pay: the checklist
- Do I know whether this is an Asian or South American arowana?
- If Asian: have I seen the chip scanned and matched to the certificate?
- Do I have the farm certificate and import documentation, in my name where required?
- Have I confirmed current MOCCAE requirements for keeping and transferring it?
- Have I inspected eyes, barbels, gill plates, spine and fins — both sides?
- Have I watched it eat?
- Is the adult-sized tank already built, cycled and running?
- Is the lid heavy and secured, with no gaps?
- Am I prepared for 15–20 years?
Nine yeses. Anything less is a reason to wait — and with this species, waiting costs you nothing except time.
Common questions
Can I buy an arowana without a CITES certificate? Not an Asian arowana, legally. Silver arowanas are a different species and are not Appendix I. If a seller offers a "red" or "golden" arowana with no documents, ask directly which species it is and get the answer in writing.
What if I buy one and want to sell it later? The documentation travels with the fish, and transfers may need to be recorded. Ask the seller how they handle this at purchase — a fish whose paperwork cannot be transferred is very hard to sell on.
Is the microchip harmful to the fish? No. PIT tags are small, implanted at the farm, and are the standard method of individual identification for CITES specimens worldwide.
Which grade should a first-time buyer get? The one whose tank you have actually built. Grade and colour are the last consideration, not the first — a modest specimen in the right tank will outlive and outshine a premium one in the wrong tank.
What is the single most common mistake? Buying the fish before building the tank. Everything else on this page is recoverable. That one shows up permanently, in the fish's eyes and gills, about a year later.