https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3wpLPQPfoI&t=11s
I pet fish. But affordable one. Not like those fish cost
tens of thousands of dollars. Today I am
going to tell you a story regarding dragon fish which is so much coveted in
Asian market.
What would you rather have, a new car or this fish? Turns out
they cost around the same. What are so special about this fish? People have
gone to prison over it. Its real name is Asian Arowana. The fish gets its
nickname for how it resembles a dragon in flight as it swim.
It is valuable commodity and that had driven tremendous amount
of crime around the areas where its bred. Let’s me show a book called ‘The
Dragon Behind the Glass’. Until the second half of 20th century,
these fish weren’t flaunted. They were fileted and eaten by locals.
In 1967, an aquarium trader travel through northern
Malaysia saw a dead Arowana at a food market and found it so attractive that he
sought one out to keep as pet. By the 1980s, Arowana turned up in Taiwan and
eventually all people in Asia wanted one.
Keeping this fish is very much macho hobby. There’s not a
lot of women that do it. It is almost like collecting car or something like
that. People have gone to prison for trafficking this fish. Because it is
banned by the US Endangered Species Act. So don’t think off keeping a dragon-like
pet, ever.