 |
|
|
||||
| NAS - Nonindigenous Aquatic Species |
Translate this page with 
Common Name: arawana, arowana, aruana
Synonyms and Other Names: Common names include: silver aruana, green arowana, aruana, arowhana. Original combination: Ischnosoma bicirrhosum. Synonyms: Osteoglossum arowana, O. minus and O. vandellii.
Taxonomy: available through 
Identification:
The arawana is an elongate fish with large scales, distinctive chin barbels and an irridescent (mother-of-pearl) sheen. Distinguishing characteristics and illustrations were given by Kanazawa (1966) and Goulding (1980). Photographs appeared in Kanazawa (1966) and Axelrod et al. (1985).
The black arawana (Osteoglossum ferreirai Kanazawa 1966) from the Rio Negro is distinctively coloured as a juvenile; however, adults are "nearly identical" in colouration to the arawana (Howells 1992). The two species can be distinguished by meristics (especially fin-ray counts), as follows (from Kanazawa 1966):
O. bicirrhosum Dorsal fin 42-50; Anal fin 49-58; lateral-line scales 30-37; Vert. 84-92.
O. ferreirai Dorsal fin 52-58; Anal fin 61-67; lateral-line scales 37-40; Vert. 96-100.
Size: to 120 cm TL.
Native Range:
Tropical America; northern South America including the Amazon basin and the Guianas (Robins et al. 1991b).
Three specimens have been recorded from California. The first was a single fish taken from Lake Berryessa, Napa County, by an angler ca. 1972 (Shapovalov et al. 1981; Courtenay et al. 1991); a second specimen was netted from Lake Merced, San Francisco County, by anglers in August 1994 (Dill and Cordone 1997); a third specimen was collected from Adobe Creek in Petaluma in July 2000 (D. Logan, personal communication). A single fish was collected from the Denver, Colorado area in 2004 (Walker, pers. comm.). A fish was photographed at Blue Hole on Big Pine Key, Florida in 2003 (Loftus, pers. comm.). An Osteoglossum species was reported from a freshwater reservoir in O'ahu, Hawai'i in 1988-1989, but no specimen was collected and the species was not identified. That sighting is provisionally allocated to O. bicirrhosum as it is more frequently imported than O. ferreirai (Mundy 2005). One individual was taken in Lake George, Indiana in October 2000 (Keller, pers. comm.). The species was unsuccessfully introduced at Forest Spring in Ash Meadows, Nye County , Nevada, during the early 1960s (Soltz and Naiman 1978; Deacon and Williams 1984; Vinyard 2001). One individual was taken in a small pond in Bensalem, Pennsylvania in July 2005 (DeVicaris, personal communication)..
Ecology:
The arawana is a generalist predator, inhabiting shallow, blackwater lagoons and littoral zones of rivers and lakes of Amazonia. It also invades the flooded forest during annual high-water periods (Saint-Paul et al. 2000). This species is a mouthbrooder, with males performing the brooding role. Although the arawana will take fish and other vertebrates, it feeds primarily on insects and other arthropods (Goulding 1980). Arawana may leap from the water to feed on terrestrial or arboreal prey (Goulding 1980; Lowry et al. 2005).
The species is important in local fisheries of Amazonia. Additionally, juveniles and small adults are found in the ornamental fish trade.
Means of Introduction: Aquarium releases in most locations; introduced by an illegal ornamental fish farming operation in Nevada (Soltz and Naiman 1978).
Status: Reported in California, Colorado, Florida and Nevada. Failed in Hawaii.
Impact of Introduction: Unknown.
Remarks:
Conventionally, most arawanas (especially in the aquarium trade) have been referred to as O. bicirrhosum; however, some of these (including our own records) may have actually been O. ferreirai.
Suzuki (1982) gives the karyotype of both Osteoglossum bicirrhosum and O. ferreirai.
Axelrod, H. R., W. E. Burgess, N. Pronek, and J. G. Walls. 1985. Dr. Axelrod's atlas of freshwater aquarium fishes. Tropical Fish Hobbyist Publications, Inc., Neptune City, NJ.
Courtenay, W. R., Jr., D. P. Jennings, and J. D. Williams. 1991. Appendix 2: exotic fishes. Pages 97-107 in Robins, C. R., R. M. Bailey, C. E. Bond, J. R. Brooker, E. A. Lachner, R. N. Lea, and W. B. Scott. Common and scientific names of fishes from the United States and Canada, 5th edition. American Fisheries Society Special Publication 20. American Fisheries Society, Bethesda, MD.
Deacon, J. E., and J. E. Williams. 1984. Annotated list of the fishes of Nevada. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 97(1):103-118.
Devick, W. S. 1991. Pattern of introductions of aquatic organisms to Hawaii freshwater habitats. Pages 189-213 in: New directions in research, management and conservations of Hawaiian freshwater stream ecosystems. Proceedings of 1990 Symposium on Freshwater Stream Biology and Fisheries.
Dill, W. A. and A. J. Cordone. 1997. History and status of introduced fishes in California, 1871-1996. Fish Bulletin 178: 1-414. California Department of Fish and Game.
Goulding, M. 1980. Fishes of the forest: explorations in Amazonian natural history. University of California Press, Los Angeles, CA.
Howells, G. 1992. Annotated list of non-native fishes, mollusks, crustaceans, and aquatic plants, in Texas water. Texas Parks and Wildlife Management Data Series. 78 pp.
Kanazawa, R. H. 1966. The fishes of the genus Osteoglossum with a description of a new species from the Rio Negro. Aquarium Journal (April): 141-172.
Logan, D.J. - National Marine Fisheries Service, Santa Rosa, CA.
Lowry, D., A. P. Wintzer, M. P. Matott, L. B. Whitenack, D. R. Huber, M. Dean and P. J. Motta. 2005. Aerial and aquatic feeding in the silver arawana, Osteoglossum bicirrhosum. Environmental Biology of Fishes 73: 453-462.
Mundy, B. C. 2005. Checklist of the Fishes of the Hawaiian Archipelago. Bishop Museum Bulletins in Zoology Number 6. 704 pp
Robins, C. R., R. M. Bailey, C. E. Bond, J. R. Brooker, E. A. Lachner, R. N. Lea, and W. B. Scott. 1991b. World fishes important to North Americans exclusive of species from the continental waters of the United States and Canada. American Fisheries Society Special Publication 21. American Fisheries Society, Bethesda, MD. 243 pp.
Saint-Paul, U., J. Zuanon, M. Correa, M. Garcia, N. Fabre, U. Berger and W. Junk. 2000. Fish communities in Amazonian white- and blackwater floodplains. Environmental Biology of Fishes 57: 235-250.
Shapovalov, L., A. J. Cordone, and W. A. Dill. 1981. A list of freshwater and anadromous fishes of California. California Fish and Game 67(1):4-38.
Stoltz, D. L., and R. J. Naiman. 1978. The natural history of the native fishes in the Death Valley system. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Science Series 30:1-76.
Suzuki, A. 1982. Karyotypes of two species of arowana, Osteoglossum bicirrhosum and O. ferreirai. Gyoruigaku zasshi (Japanese Journal of Ichthyology) 29(2): 220-222.
Vinyard, G.L. 2001. Fish Species Recorded from
Walker, P. - Colorado Department of Wildlife, Brush, CO.
Other Resources:
FishBase Fact Sheet
Author: Pamela J. Schofield, Leo G. Nico and Pam Fuller
Revision Date: 4/20/2006 Citation for this information:
Pamela J. Schofield, Leo G. Nico and Pam Fuller. 2009. Osteoglossum bicirrhosum. USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database, Gainesville, FL.
<http://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/FactSheet.asp?speciesID=799> Revision Date: 4/20/2006
| AccessibilityFOIAPrivacyPolicies and Notices | |
  |
|