22/02/2022
Meet the World's Most Expensive Pet Fish
One woman risked terrorists, headhunters, and the 'fish mafia' to see an Asian arowana in the wild.
BYSIMON WORRALL
PUBLISHED JULY 18, 2016
14 MIN READ
Emily Voigt had no idea that she would be pulled into a world of shady deals and smuggling when she began investigating the Asian arowana, the world’s most expensive aquarium fish. Traveling to 15 countries, she braved headhunters and civil war to follow the trail of a fish that is often transported under armed guard. On the way, she discovered the lure of the wild—and the dangers of obsession, as she reveals in her book The Dragon Behind the Glass: A True Story of Power, Obsession, and the World’s Most Coveted Fish.
When National Geographic caught up with her by phone at her home in New York, she explained how a well-meaning conservation effort to protect the arowana paradoxically increased its attractiveness to collectors; how her search for the arowana took over her life; and why putting a fish in a tank is part of our innate desire to connect with other species.
At the center of your story is a fish most of us aren't familiar with. Tell us about the arowana—aka the dragon fish—and why it has become so valuable.
The Asian arowana is the world’s most expensive aquarium fish. It is a tropical freshwater fish from Southeast Asia that grows three feet long in the wild. That’s roughly the size of a snowshoe. [Laughs.] It is a fierce predator dating back to the age of the dinosaurs. It has large, metallic scales, like coins; whiskers that jut from its chin; and it undulates like the paper dragons you see in a Chinese New Year’s parade. That resemblance has spawned the belief that the fish brings good luck and prosperity, which is why it has become a highly sought-after aquarium fish.
When I attended the Aquarama International Fish Competition, which is a bit like the Westminster dog show for fish, these 10 rare, albino arowana showed up with a police motorcade, protected by armed guards, to prevent anyone adding poison to the tanks. The highest price I have heard [for a single fish] is $300,000, which supposedly sold to a high-ranking member of the Chinese Communist Party.
You say, “The dragon fish is the most dramatic example of a uniquely modern paradox—the mass-produced endangered species.” Unpack that idea for us.
This took me a while to understand. It is illegal to import arowana into the U.S., but in recent years almost two million of them have been moved across international borders. The farms in Southeast Asia where they are produced are like high-security prisons with concrete walls protected by guard dogs, watchtowers, and barbed wire. All for a fish! [Laughs.]
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/dragon-fish-most-expensive-arowana-emily-voigt
One woman risked terrorists, headhunters, and the 'fish mafia' to see an Asian arowana in the wild.
