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Myanmar Freshwater Fishes |
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Family OSTEOGLOSSIDAE
BONYTONGUES
The family Osteoglossidae can be divided into two sub-families depending on either present mandible (lower jaw) barbels or no barbels at the lower jaw.
Subfamily Heterotidinae, ( Without barbels at the lower jaw) and Subfamily Osteoglossidae, (With barbels at the lower jaw)
Subfamily Heterotidinae
There are two genera in the family Heterotidinae, and each genus has only one species. They are:
1. Arapaima gigas (Cuvier, 1829) (Common name are Pirarucu, and Arapima) 2. Heterotis niloticus (Cuvier,1829) (Common name is African Arowana)
Out of these two species, Arapaima gigas has been introduced to Myanmar. This fish is native to South America and Heterotis nitoticus to Western and central Africa.
Subfamily Osteroglossinae
There are two genera, Osteroglossum and Scleropages and the former has two species and previously the later has three species.
The five species of the subfamily Osteroglossidae for their scientific and common name are:
Scientific Name Common Name
1. Osteroglossum bicirrhosum (Cuvier, 1829) Silver Arowana 2. Osteroglossum ferreirai Kanazawa, 1966 Black Arowana 3. Scleropages formosus (Schlegel & Muller, 1844) Dragon Fish (or) Lucky Fish 4. Scleropages jardinii (Saville-Kent, 1892) Gulf Saratoga 5. Scleropages leichardti Gunther, 1864 Spotted Saratoga
Osteroglossum bicirrhosum and Osteroglossum ferreirai are native to South America. Scleropages jardinii and Scleropages leichaedti are found in Australia. The species of the genus Scleropages are available in Southeast Asia. All these fish have been introduced to Myanmar.
In the year 2003, the varieties of the specie, Scleropage formosus were studied in detail and 3 more different species were identified apart from Scleropages formosus.
Scientific Name Common Name
Scleropages aureus (Pouyad, Sudarto & Teugels, 2003) Red-tailed golden arowana Scleropages legendrei (Pouyad, Sudarto & Teugels, 2003) Red arowana, super red arowana, or chili red arowana, Scleropages macrocephalus (Pouyad, Sudarto Silver Asian arowana & Teugels, 2003)
Except S.jardinii and S.leichardti, all the species of the genus Scleropages are well-known as Asian Arowana in aquarium fish trade.
Scleropages formosus (Schlegel & Muller, 1844)
The Asian Arowana (Myanmar)
Picture by Ye Hein Htet (Hein Aquarium)
There is no firm evidence in scientific literature for Scleropages formosus (Asian Arowana) as an indigenous species of Myanmar. In some ornamental fish book, it is expressed as," There is some doubts regarding the existence of wild population of Scleropages formosus (Asian Arowana) in Myanmar.” Last two years ago, the author got the information that some baby fish of Scleropages formosus, collected in Myanmar were available in the retailer shops in Yangon.
. The opening season of the year, 2005 some collectors of Scleropages formosus (Myanmar) contacted to some aquarium fish retailers from Yangon and distributed these fish to sell all over the local market as the Scleropages formosus, imported from Thailand, Malaysia, or Singapore. This is an illegal trade as our country is the member of countries those signed for CITES. It should take care to protect our valuable underwater treasure. The Department of Fisheries should take action for the illegal collection of this fish along Taninthayi River and drainages immediately; otherwise the valuable species will be extinct soon. Myeik (Formerly known as Mergui) is the capital of Taninthayi Division, and it is quite closed to locality of Scleropages formosus(Myanmar). In Myeik, some aquarium fish hobbyists keep Scleropages formosus (Myanmar) and they name this fish as, "Chaung Phya Lucky Fish" which means "Lucky Fish from head of stream". Asian Arowana (Myanmar) has very distinct color of scales compared to other variety of Asian Arowana. The color of the scales is pinkish and there are floral arabesques on each scale
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