Arowanas Aquaculture Farms in Bukit Merah.

Bukit Merah located near Taiping, long known as a place where you can find the famous Golden Dragon (Golden Arowana) lurking in its natural lake has sprouted quite a few commercial breeding farms for Arowanas.

I had the pleasure of visiting a few of the farms with a close friend who has taken the risk to make some investment in it and I was amaze how vibrant the trade of commercially bred Arowanas is.

Thousands of ringgits changes hand literally on a weekly basis, as an investment it has proven to be quite lucrative for my friend. The Arowanas he had invested in and put under the care of one of the farms has bred, producing 34 baby arowanas.The gentlemen agreements would allow the farm operator to keep half the total produce, leaving 17 for my friend. Now this 17 baby arowanas can either be sold back to the farm owner (at about RM400 each) or retained and kept to adult size in the farm to further increase the value of the investment along with all the associated risk of course.

A good adult size Golden Arowana about 18 inches or more would cost about RM4000 each at current prices, takers I am told will be plenty with demand outstripping supply.


The modus operandi of this farms works through a unique system of risk and profit sharing and most of the time, these agreements are make on nothing more than a handshake.

The expertise shown by the breeders would put to shame anyone who had say that the commercial breeding of Arowanas is difficult if not downright impossible.

During my visit, I chance upon a rare occurence, a "Siamese Twin" was produced. Unfortunately, it is not expected to survive for long.