The Champion's Story by Roger Ang interview & written by NSK Sin Min Wan Pao 26-5-05 To tell this story, I have to travel back to 1999. Back then, I happened to read an article on arowanas. It was a short and simple article on keeping arowana as well as a short introduction on how this ancient fish can affect the fengshui of its owner. The prospect of improving the fengshui of its owner got me interested since my business back then was not performing to my expectations. Furthermore, I had some experience keeping goldfish for leisure and I thought that keeping an arowana would be almost similar. The normal routines of changing water and regular feeding like what I had done previously for my goldfishes would do just fine for my arowana. Therefore, I decided to purchase my first arowana, an 11 inch long golden crossback arowana. In year 2000, my business did improve significantly. Was it due to the improvement in fengshui brought about by my arowana? I believed it was. More business opportunities soon followed and it was a bountiful year for my business. Having some success in keeping my first arowana, I decided to venture into something more challenging and quite unheard of at that time. In my visits to aquariums, I have not seen a tank housing more than 1 midsize arowana. It seems like keeping a community tank of midsize arowanas was unheard of back then. I decided to take a small gamble and purchased 5 young red arowanas. I soon started to scout around for young arowanas but how to choose? I was also not quite sure how these 5 arowanas would turn out to be as nobody I knew then had any prior experience in community tanks. After an island wide search, I finally made a decision to purchase 5 young arowanas with good shine and big dark fins to form my community tank. I was initially worried about how they would turn out, as arowanas were known to be territorial and aggressive towards their own kind. Fortunately, they got along well and grew rapidly under a “pellets only” diet. My first Community Tank of 5 juvenile red Arowanas in 2000 Under my care, I began to notice the first signs of colour development on their operculum. Orange specks and spots appeared. It was an exciting moment for me as my arowanas were showing signs of becoming red! These orange specks and spots spread out to the scales on the body. Over the next few months, more colour development was observed. The rims on the scales were also turning orangey. 9 months later, got colour already! During this time, my business continued to expand and overseas business opportunities came knocking. Traveling overseas became a norm and I soon found myself away from my arowanas most of the time. This was a time of neglect. Feeding was not regular and my arowanas suffered greatly in my absence. Fights were common and dropped scales and torn fins were a common sight… Ouch… heartache! The thought of giving up my arowanas came to mind every time I saw my neglected arowanas. Moreover, I noticed that the water from the tap often contained a high concentration of chlorine that greatly affected my arowanas. 14 months later, turning pinkishly red Finally, I made a painful decision to sell my all my red arowanas. I was looking for a buyer who could take in all my 5 red arowanas but this was during the Luohan craze. There was nobody who could take in all my red arowanas though there were several buyers who expressed interest in the individual arowanas. I was not keen to sell my arowanas to individual buyers, as I was unwilling to separate them. I wanted someone to continue to keep these 5 arowanas together. Frankly, I was quite reluctant to give up my arowanas. Coupled with the lack of sincere buyer, I decided to keep my arowanas. The young champion at 18 months taken with flash While I tried to make plans to change water and feed my arowanas regularly despite my busy overseas trips, I was still unable to prevent an outbreak of dropsy in my community tank in 2002. The young red arowanas were grasping for air on the water surface and their scales started peeling off! I was unsure of how to cure them. Time was running out. I sought the opinion of the more experienced hobbyists and added 2 powerheads to provide aeration in the water. Salt was added and dirty water in the tank was replaced with fresh clean water. An aquarium heater was also used to raise the temperature in the water to 31C. For 3 days, I kept vigil in front of my tank and reflected on what could have caused the outbreak. The high chlorine content in the tap water and the poor filtration setup coupled with a very high bioload were the likely culprits. My Reservoir for Aging Water With a lot of luck and prayers, my arowanas finally recovered but this was not the end. 2 months later, there was another similar outbreak. After 2 near fatal encounter with dropsy, I decided that prevention was better than cure. Improving the filter was 1 way and the other was to use age water. I started aging tap water by introducing aeration in the water for 1 week before water change coupled some Tetra Aquasafe, just to be on the safe side! w My sump tank, tested and proven to provide clean water for my arowana When my arowanas were about 1.5 years old, fights were very frequent. I was worried as I was often away overseas and there was nobody who could take care of my arowanas which were often injured due to the frequent fights. This was when I decided to break up the community tank for fear of casualty. Of the 5 arowanas, I decided to keep only 1 red arowana in the tank. Question was which 1 should I keep? Of the 5 arowanas in the tank, I was particularly fond of 2 arowanas.1 of them was deep orange in colour. In fact, this was the arowana that stood out among the other arowanas in the tank in terms of colour development. The other arowana that I was fond of was however more responsive to my presence. While many would prefer an arowana that showed great potential and great colour development, I personally believed that an arowana that displayed good colour development in its young age might not turn out to be the reddest. With this belief in mind, I decided to keep the more active and responsive arowana with me. The remaining 4 arowanas were sent to a pond. This arowana was a green base red arowana. It had great shine on its body but colour on its scales was only light orange. Whenever I was in front of the tank, this arowana would swim out to greet me. There was some form of emotional attachment between this arowana and myself. I made the right choice in keeping it! Aquarama 2003 After the community tank was broken up, this arowana refused to take in pellets and it started to take in market prawns and frogs, which I believed would help build up its body mass. Feeding was done only in the morning for 6 days. Water change was performed when my arowana was not fed, each time using aged water and was limited to about 20% weekly. Blackwater was used in small amount to calm the arowana. During each water change, I would rinse the cotton wool with the tank water so as not to destroy the resident nitrifying bacteria colonies. The cotton wool was only replaced once every 2 months. Many hobbyists believed in tanning their red arowanas but I only switched on the lights at night for a mere 4 hours for my viewing pleasure only. As the arowana continued to grow, I soon realized that the colour on its scales had deepened from light orange to deep orange to some tones of red. At this time, I was also contemplating if I should send this arowana to Aquarama 2003. I was not confident of winning anything but I thought the experience gained from Aquarama 2003 would be of use in the years to come… I was right! Qian Hu Arowana Competition 2004 Although my red arowana did not win any awards in 2003, I continued to groom my arowana. It was fed on a diet of live fresh water prawns for colour development. I also made an effort to visit a local kelong to purchase prawns caught by the local fishermen for my red arowana. These prawns were important in improving the colour. When my red arowana came in third in the Qian Hu Arowana Competition in 2004, I was overwhelmed! I was now motivated for the bigger trophy, Aquarama 2005. A veteran of 2 major competitions, I decided to send my arowana for 1 more competition, Aquarama 2005. I was not quite sure how it would fare against the other arowanas in the competitions and thus when I was informed that my arowana won the adult red arowana category as well as the overall grand-champion of the competition, I was overwhelmed! This was 1 of the greatest moments in my life and a major highlight in my years of keeping arowanas! My beloved red arowana had done me proud! Aquarama Grand Champion 2005. Pic by ArowanaClub.com Aquarama Grand Champion 2005. Pic by ArowanaClub.com Close-up of the Grand Champion. Pic by ArowanaClub.com Indeed, I was so proud of my arowana’s achievement that I refused to sell my arowana despite being offered a huge sum of money. While many people told me that I could buy more arowanas with that sum of money, I am emotionally attached to this arowana. For 4 years, I watched it grow from a shiny little arowana to a championship winning adult red arowana. How do you expect me to part with this arowana? Selling it to a stranger would be unthinkable! VIPs admiring the Grand Champion   Champion Back Home Thinking back, I believed I made the right choice in keeping arowanas. I had never regretted keeping arowanas although it can be quite a big challenge at times. I believe strongly that my arowanas have brought me success in my business and in my personal life. I have never felt happier after my red arowana won a major competition. If you were to ask me, I would surely tell you that nothing beats keeping a red arowana! Athough the colour do fade occasionally, the colour will also come back, often with an improvement and a major surprise! Trust me, keeping an arowana especially a red arowana is simply a joy to behold! Be it improving your feng shui or improving your business or bringing personal satisfaction as a hobby, I hope I have somehow managed to motivate you into keeping an arowana in your house. There is no end to learning how to groom this majestic and mystic fish and in fact, I am now on a new learning route as I embark on my new project. Of course, this project is arowana related! Stay tuned if you want to know more!