Why Dragon Fish Are So Expensive | So Expensive
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- čas přidán 28. 12. 2018
- Dragon fish, or Asian arowana, are some of the most expensive pet fish in the world. It often sells for tens of thousands of dollars, and one was rumored to have sold for $300,000 in 2009. The fish is highly coveted for the red and gold colors, and new color variations that it has been bred for. Emily Voigt, author of The Dragon Behind The Glass, talks about the peculiarities of the arowana trade.
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#DragonFish #BusinessInsider #SoExpensive
Following is a transcript of the video:
Narrator: What would you rather have, a new car, or this fish? Turns out they cost around the same. A single dragon fish can go for tens of thousands of dollars. So, what's so special about it? Well, it might not look it, but this endangered fish is so coveted, people have actually gone to prison over it.The dragon fish gets its nickname for how it resembles a dragon in flight as it swims. However, its real name is the Asian arowana. It's a freshwater fish native to Southeast Asia, and it has taken the aquarium market by storm. Today, these fish are so prized that some have their own motorcades, and breeders protect their stock with layers of concrete walls, complete with guard dogs and watchmen. There's even a market for cosmetic surgery to help subpar fish who need eye lifts or chin tucks. And that may sound like overkill, but it's really not.
Emily Voigt: It's a very valuable commodity, and that had driven a tremendous amount of crime around the areas where it's bred.
Narrator: That's Emily Voigt, who explores this world for her book, "The Dragon Behind the Glass." We're talking murder and midnight fish-napping. This wasn't always the case, however.Up until the second half of the 20th century, these fish weren't flaunted. They were fileted and eaten by locals. Then, in 1967, an aquarium trader traveling through northern Malaysia saw a dead arowana at a food market and found it so attractive that he sought one out to keep as a pet. By the 1980s, arowanas had turned up in Taiwan, and eventually people all over Asia wanted one. In particular, the red and gold varieties of arowana came to symbolize luck and wealth in several Asian cultures.
Voigt: All that has led to a whole mythology about the fish. It's supposed to bring good luck and prosperity, even to jump out of its tank to save its owner.
Narrator: Nowadays, breeding for new color combinations is all the rage. Like this fish, called the chili red, which you can get for around $1,400 each. Or the emerald violet fusion super red, which goes for about $12,000 each. But no fish is more rare and valuable than the albino. In 2009, one of these supposedly set a record, selling for $300,000 to an anonymous high ranking official in the Chinese government. In fact, most people who buy dragon fish are middle-class Chinese men, who'll collect the fish as a status symbol.
Voigt: So keeping this fish is very much a macho hobby. There's not a lot of women that do it. And it's almost like collecting cars or something like that.
Narrator: So in the mid-90s, when dragon fish were successfully bred in captivity on certified farms, it was a big deal, because they were becoming rare in the wild due to overfishing and harvesting for the pet trade. Since then, more demand has led to breeding operations all over Southeast Asia. And while it's perfectly legal to buy a dragon fish in the area, it may not be in other non-Asian countries. In the US, for example, you can only find the Asian arowana on the black market. And in fact, you can't bring it into the country legally, because it's banned by the US Endangered Species Act. People have actually gone to prison for trafficking this fish. So if you have an itch to have a dragon-like pet, maybe you should stick to something safer, like bearded dragons.
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Why Dragon Fish Are So Expensive | So Expensive
“I got 30 years for drunk driving and killing a family. What are you in for?”
“Fish smuggling.”
"Fish? What kind of fish?"
"300k dollar fish guarded by electric fence,hunting dog and watchmen armed with M16"
@@harryharold1049 Prisoner: Blyat Cyca
Dragon smuggling
@@anonymouskid3596 *Cyka, if you decide to not use cyrillic like some kind of spy
I was the 360th like lol. Like meh name lol
My dad owns a 24k golden arowana and he loves it more than me
If you're Asian, that's par for the course. Trust me, everything is worth more to them than you :)
rip
Do you live on the other side of the world?
Random Guy
LOL!
: Zzz
You*
I see these fish every time i go to a Wilcon Depot
"Emerald Violet Fusion Super Red" feels like Yu-Gi-Oh! card name.
Friend: Hey, can you hang out today?
Me: sorry, can’t. Taking my fish in for a face lift
It sounds like one of those excuses like “I need to walk my fish!” Lmao
When you're rich nothing sounds ridiculous
BuzzFeed's next video: *$1 Fish vs $300K Fish*
AHHAHAH 😂🤣😂🤣
Worth it
😆
noice
*Which tastes better?*
At least the car doesn't die
2:45 All are equal but some are more equal than others.
I'll stick to my mariwana
Underrated comment AF
Lol
Lmfao
Me 2
🤣
Dragonfish cost > youtube rewind cost.
indonesia my country, is home of super red arowana
Now all of this makes sense after 20 years back when my parents traded me with one
*oh*
Are u ok?
😨
*imagine a fish that is more important you*
Society is very cruel.
More important than you
Not necessarily, your organs can go for more than +2 million
7 billion people+ humans are worthless at this point (if we weren't the apex predators)
My brain exploded
*”I have a $70,000 Fish”*
*_weird flex but ok_*
Not ur best
I like it
_Bob McCoy Lisa Guerrero will investigate the weird flex of the dragon fish
Is that even relevant anymore?
I have a syrian wife I paid $300,000 investing in anthoer country to bring to the US now that's a weird flex
I used to own 2 black arawanas that I bought as juveniles in the mid 90s for $40 a piece and they were legal.
I could have sworn i saw one at petco once, there for a day then gone the next
Lets get back to the 1,800,000 Koi Fish 😋
Yup yup
NANI???
The Koi Partner all of my friends who I tell about my koi lol
That was a tuna that was auctioned off, not koi and definitely not for a pet.
kickyouinhalf Maybe you should watch the latest video of business insider about Koi ;)
" it supposed to bring prosperity " but it cost a house
And spend entire fortune for a fish.. Lols
It brought prosperity to its sellers at least
I guess you need to 'spend money to make money'
Seriously? Its very less priced in my place.
You're prosperous if you can afford it. Lol
Gotta catch em all
$300k for a fish. That sounds crazy.
Me who has tons of these in a nearby lake:
*s t o n k s*
Vince Dreemurr yup S T O N K S
As an AFRICAN, I completely understand this underrated statement 😂😂😂
S T O N K S
StOnKs
Welp the color quality of the fish does have to come to the standards first to have a high price. I've seen many low quality arowanas selling around less than 100 dollars.
You smoking arowana?
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Nah, I'm smoking the "weed" that it swims around in the pond! 🤗
🤣🤣🤣🤣
😂😂😅😆
Of course in Califor n I a
1:25 Midnight fishnapping 🤣
Didnt knew a fish could be this expensive
I live in Malaysia and bout 30 years ago, there’s a fish shop near my school. The shop had a 5 feet long fish which has metallic rainbow color scales and tail. Me and my friend were so fascinated by it and sneaked to the shop after school to watch it swam. It’s so pretty, looks like arowana but have no idea what fish it was. I’ve never seen anything like that till now
It's called 'ikan Laga' if I got it right.
Aripaima or snakehead
@@lanloca7687 thanks both. Now I have some names that I can Google for
@@christ2ce so which one is it? You can’t just leave us in suspense.
@@DSBP1 Lol... None. Both name given above doesn't look like it. It has metallic scales and when it swam around, the scales just look like rainbow color.
was wonder why it was so expensive until i heard the word "endangered"
Could you bring back the old speaker from the "why so expensive" series?
Anything having name dragon is very expensive 😉🙃
Imagine seeing someone in an alley giving another person a fish like it's a drug.
Asian Arowana is different South American Arowana. You also showed an Australian Arowana. Your research is insufficient that's why the presentation is also inaccurate.
NiX aKi I saw that too
Doesn't really matter anyway ... all i wanna know is how does it taste?
NiX aKi im just done setting my tank up and I’m buying a jardini soon lol 😂 this video is incorrect in so many ways
Ahahaha so damn true!. Thats what happens when u get non fish people to talk about fish.
good on you mate
I had 2 of these as a kid and i never knew how to take care of it 🤔
Confirmed that rare fish is a good investment
1988: "Some fields of study have not yet existed, I can only imagine how advanced we will be in 30 years from now"
2019: "I am majoring to become a Dragon fish expert"
Hitado Dota I think you sound even less intelligent than him from how you use your grammar
@@kenji9445 what???
We just proved their point, we discovered a new field for fish! 😂
Lmao she’s a journalist and writes about other things as well, I also laughed when I saw they way they credited her
They're not that expensive for an albino white one, it only costs around 150-300 bucks. The prices go up for a red arowana (up to 70K) or a golden arowana (up to 300K). But they're extremely hard to take care of, you usually need a very big fish tank for just one arowana, their body is usually long so a big fish tank is needed for them to swim freely. Sometimes, they can get really aggressive also and they tend to jump off the water surface.
They mistaken it. It was a platinum arowana. Albino are relatively cheap.
I don’t think you know who Emily Voigt is. She spent years with some of the top ichthyologists in the world in pursuit of this fish. She didn’t mistake the price.
Well here in my country the red chili cost around 2k to 3k USD. Expensive but not 70k. Hmmmmmmm makes me wanna sell it in the US 😂
Yes,, expert about arwana
You can buy a silver in the US tho
"asian marijuana"
Yes, thank you! That's what I kept hearing too!
And at these prices, that fish better come with its own bong.
@@maxcovfefe maybe the fish itself is a bong
😂🤣👍
Just saying I'd smoke it😂
THATS WHAT I THOUGHT!!😂😂😂
We don't say dragon fish in English lol. Just arowana. And only some are expensive
"some" wadduyumean
I speak english and I call it dragon fish
Yeah i live in indonesia and regular arowana only cost 400$
@@pluggothesluggo5509 most coat between 300 and 600 dollars, the really expensive ones are usually the ones that won a competition or the offspring of a winner
@@mikechrist9699 what ?!?! in north africa , silver arowanas cost 12$
I have one and im not chinese😂
I have a red one at home
I went to a local pet store in my area where they also sell regular juvenile silver arowanas for around P1,200 or $25 each. I noticed that in a separate tank, there is a single arowana which looks almost the same but if you look closer, it radiates golden streaks. I was told it’s a Golden arowana that costs P9,000 or around $180. I badly want it!!!!
Very good price . I had one about 15 years ago paid $200 for it
Why Dragon Fish Are So Expensive? because the Chinese says so. LOL
Lauden Clear you don’t need to be racist.
@@ancient8221 💀
@@ancient8221 bruh how
yuhyun kim you should read it Again 😂
Why koi fish are expensive because the japanese said soo
*looks at my beardie* ..check
"what are you in for"
"fish"
No one calls arowana dragon fish
It's called dragon fish in Chinese
It is also called dragon fish in Vietnamese
In Malaysia "dragon fish" or "ikan naga" refers to arapaima.
The local name for arowana is kelisa and it's use interchangeably.
Yea dragon fish is different from arowana
Yes there are
"only found on the black market in America"
Me: Looks shiftily at my local aquarium store that regularly has a few stocked
Probably south American arowana
definitely not an asian, most likely a silver (south american) or jardini arowana (african). Maybe even a saratoga arowana (asutralian).
Right
@@alexkarasoulos no mate. Jardini is australian aro
@@wansyahir2943 i realized after commenting, thanks though
Arowana ....now where have I heard something similar to that
🌿🌿
That woman literally woke up one day and said: I'm gonna be a Dragon Fish Expert
A fish worth $300,000...... I’m pretty sure I’m not worth that much as a slave.
you nailed it bro bravo!!!
when they are baby's thay cost 300 dollars for one fish.
Because you are not albino maybe 🤣
With the abundant of humans I'm sure people are worth more as parts then a whole lol
You're not
When a fish is a celeb and you're not
I had a dragon fish when I was young
2:13 she looks like a who from the grinch
I knew an auntie who would be so proud of her arawana. She's say how little it was when she first got it. And how she's been able to raise it to the size today. I remember people saying that having an arawana in your house was good luck. And the longer it lived, the bigger the luck you'd get.
When you don't have any money, everything is expensive not just Dragon Fish
Ramen noodles
Yeah so true.
FYI SILVER AND ALBINO AROWANA ARE COMPLETELY LEGAL IN USA
My cousin bought one and he sold it months later saying he got fed up taking care of it lmao.
I’ve never heard Arowana called Dragon Fish.
Because in Chinese language it's called Dragon Fish.
Like word by word. Dragon 龙 fish 鱼。
Not the one that leap over the the dragon gate though.
It's does in south east asia
Asian arowana (dragonfish) is a variety of the arowana species. All dragonfishes are arowanas but not all arowanas are dragonfishes
you guys missed the joke
"so what you in for"
"I tried to get a fish into the U.S."
dragon fish I love it
I was strangely disappointed that there weren’t pictures of actual arowana security :(
My local pet store has these big aquariums instead of a table.. And they have this fish in it. Never knew that it was this rare..
"I can't name my pokemon what I want because the name I chose is too long!"
"Oh, what did you wanna name it?"
*"Emerald Violet Fusion Super Red!"*
3:49-I can't stop thinking that it's actually marijuana not awowana that cause people sent to prison
I use too have an arowana when i was small
I had no idea, I used to see them now and then, small ones, at the pet store here in Canada in the ‘90’s. I wonder if they are still around?
I think the problem back then was you needed a huge tank because they grew fairly fast. That’s why I never got one.
When he said we are talking murders and midnight fish snapping I laughed so hard lololol.
Its reaching upto 500,000 2021
Vẻ đẹp
For any of you living near the Amazon River, there's a Silver Arowana. It's quite a nice fish too.
And I think this version is LEGAL to own in the U.S.
*when you have a pond full of these fish*
S T O N K S
Black market: it's free real estate
lol if people found out your house would be stormed
When u can breed the fish
E V E N M O R E S T O N K S
Make a video on why boer goats are so expensive
1;42 saya bangga betul.. Aku bru tau ni.. Tiber!!
Hey, you should do a video on aquacultured corals. They carry various trade names and can sell for thousands a quarter inch
My family had one, it lived for about 12 years, when my dad bought it, it was the size of a finger and in its final years, it was giant.
I had one too. I was on junior high. I can't understand why my dad's collagues asking me to sell Vegeta (my dragon fish) in riddicilous high price (I was an idiot, I thought it'd just a fish)
My dragon fish didn't look like that....
I remember a documentary in Papua about the local kids spearfishing on the river and grilled this fish.
He said it tastes good.
Funny how many of the fish featured in this video are the much cheaper, far more commonly available Silver and Black Arowana from South America, great to see they do their research. 👍🏼
Imagine going through training to be a security guard, just to guard a fish worth more than you make in a year
Mantap
I had alot of Albino Arowana.
like hundred of them
sold them for 100$ each
didnt know it was that expensive
I remember when my uncle had an arowana and he had a huge tank for it. It was so fascinating to look at. My uncle used to have two but the stronger, bigger arowana killed it’s own brother. My uncle had that fish for about three months or so, and it was healthy and big. My auntie who was living in the same house as my uncle heard a loud thumping noise, like there was something bumping onto the floor rapidly one night. She went to check it out and saw the arowana dead. It had stopped moving. It has jumped out of its tank even though the roof of it was open a slight bit, and that thing was about 5-6 centimetres thick.
The fish suicided?
Probably the tank doesnt fit for him, when fish jump out of the tank, there is 2 reason for it
The tank size too small or the fish has too much excited for they water, they think they live on they natural environment and wanted to explore it out of the glass
Arowana in wild eat insects from the tree branches which are close to water surface by jumping out of the water .......it could have happen
my uncle has a silver one in his 500gal tank he wants an Asian but they arent legal
@@mikesmith-wk7vy ya I know it! asian arowana are so much better looking than a reg arrowana
People don’t call them dragon fish. They call them Arawana. Plus it’s not a albino that sells for 300k, it’s the platinum cause at any pet store a albino cost $200
Azim Ninja asian people does call them dragon fish
@@greenbean1169 I won't trust what your saying as fact. You can't even have basic Grammer in a 3rd grade level sentence
So this is all false
@@comeonmanagain3313 we *do* call them dragon fish
@@toantruonghuu2833 no we don't
me: buys 40000$ fish
my mom: FISH IS ON THE DISH
I could imagine a robber mistakenly braking in into these please thinking it was like a bank only to be confused by all “worthless” fish
So that's why they're worth so many bells in Animal Crossing!
*Hotel server* : what fish fry you want to order sir ?
*BILL GATES* : YES
Dragon fish is pretty tasty
Asian arowana pliss and make sure the red one
@@woowwoow6543 what you mean
@@sssbznzn for Asian arowana, more red the colour more high the price
@@woowwoow6543 oh if that fish is more red colour it is more costly ? Oh ok but millionaires don't worry for miney
That bearded dragon joke was so fuking deaddd
My neighbor has alot of those
and my friend’s dad owns one, and one time my friend was threatening her dad by saying she will fry that fish and eat it if he wouldn’t let her go for a vacation to macau.
"And thts how the bearded dragon started going endangered".
I would buy that fish if i had the money
I bought a baby Golden arowana back in 2007 for 1200 bucks,now its almost as tall as me and countless people offered me 100,000 for the fish which is way more than my yearly income.But i wont sell him as he knows me very well and actually communicates with me very nicely and I love him 🙃🙃🙃😁
Tom Nook isn't paying me enough for the ones I catch
This is the only fish I know that perpetually looks like a sadface emoji trying to kiss you.
Marc Shanahan yeah the trapdoor style mouth makes them look grumpy all the time, lol. Kind of like bettas.
The video: this fish is really expensive
My grandpa: HAVE THREE BIG DRAGON FISH.
That fish's life is probably worth more than mine
0:42 that's my neighbour lmao poking the aquarium
😂
He forgot to mention that only the Silver and Jardini Arowana are allowed in the US.
Like the Tulip craze madness?
It's pretty much common in SEA