Arowana Club.com - Kim Kang Aquaculture

Part 2 - The Harvest

Field Visit by members to Kim Kang Aquaculture - article by NSK & pictures by West

Harvest of the golden arowana

After a thorough inspection by the workers, the brooding males in the pond were soon identified. The first brooder was a 3 year old male arowana with excellent shine on its scale. This male has a big bulging jaw, suggesting that it was carrying numerous fries. This male was quickly transferred to a glass tank where the fries will be harvested.

See the bulging mouth… guess how many fries he has.

Top view of a male arowana with fries.
Notice the sixth level crossing and the bulging mouth area

Despite some initial resistance by the arowana, Mr Goh soon got hold of the male arowana and held it firmly in his hands, ready to pry open the arowana’s tightly locked jaws. This was no easy feat as arowanas do have teeth on their jaws and can pack quite a nasty bite on the fingers. The male arowanas were also strong and jumpy and hence gloves were worn during harvesting to provide a better grip on the slimy and slippery body of the arowanas as well as to protect the handler’s hands. Then in a split second movement, the experienced Mr Goh opened up the arowana’s mouth to release 33 tiny free-swimming fries into the water!

You need a firm grip hold the arowana

Opening a treasure chest…

Being an experienced arowana breeder, Mr Goh held his hands tightly on the male arowana. When all the fries released, the male arowana was quickly removed from the glass tank. If Mr Goh had lost his concentration at the moment the fries were released, the male arowana might slip out of his hands or closed his jaws, injuring or even killing the fries!
A second male brooder was soon identified and this time, 27 fries were obtained. While you might think 20 to 30 fries from 1 male brooder is already an accomplishment for the farm, Mr Goh told us that some of his stronger and more capable male arowanas are producing up to 60 fries in each harvest!
Just when we thought the action was over, one worker informed Mr Goh that when the arowanas were guided into the net, 1 small fry was accidentally released into the water! Fortunately, this fry was recovered and placed in safe hands. These tiny fries will not feed for the first few days since they will feed on the nutrients in the orange egg sags. Once the egg sags are gone, the fries will be fed on a diet of both bloodworms and water insects. Had it been left in the pond, its chances of survival would be very slim.

Tiny arowana fries being released from the father’s mouth

Juvenile XB with egg sags still intact

According to both Mr Yap and Mr Goh, the farm currently has plans to segregate the pure gold base arowanas from the blue base arowanas from its breeding ponds. Thus, all the arowanas in the breeding pond were removed. They will further be segregated according to their base colour. The reason for this was obvious as the farm plans to produce pure breed gold and blue base arowanas from its existing parent stocks. Hence all the arowanas were first placed in a fibreglass tank. This also provides us the opportunity to have an up close and personal view at the arowanas.

A temporary holding tank before they are segregated according to their base colour

Looking at the arowanas in this fiberglass tank, we soon realized that these golden crossback arowanas were quite massive, reaching lengths of up to 26 inches! Mr Goh explained that these golden crossback arowanas kept in ponds are generally bigger than their counterparts that were kept in aquariums. Mr Yap also explained that between a red arowana and a golden crossback arowana, red arowanas are bigger in size. In the wild, red arowanas have been known to reach length of over 1 metre!

Can you see the base colour?

Another beautiful adult crossback with sixth level crossing

A very docile adult arowana

Beautiful sixth level crossing up close

Amazingly, these crossback arowanas are extremely tame and do not jump or swim about frantically after being removed from their ponds. To illustrate how tame these arowanas were, Mr Yap caught hold of a few arowanas with his bare hands and the arowanas hardly struggled much to free themselves. Each arowana displayed beautifully craved out shiny golden scales.

We were further ushered to another big pond at the far side of the farm. This pond houses the biggest freshwater fish in the world. It is the gigantic Arapaima!

Part 1 - Kim Kang Aquaculture <<< || >>> Part 3 - The Showroom