Recently, the giant arowana – the world’s largest freshwater “monster” – has been sought after by many Vietnamese hobbyists to raise at home.

According to Vietnamnet, for over a year, many diners coming to a restaurant in Ward 5, My Tho City (Tien Giang Province) were delighted to see the giant arowana swimming around in the lake and being very friendly, willing to lie still for everyone to pet and cuddle.

Mr. Le Thanh Hoai (owner of the restaurant) said that he bought this giant arowana, nearly 2m long and weighing more than 130kg, from a resident in Tan Phuoc District for 100 million VND.

Mr. Hoai said that in a short time, the fish became friendly with everyone in the restaurant and loved to be petted, even strangers could reach into the water and pet it comfortably. Every month, Mr. Hoai has to buy 6 million VND worth of fish, mainly catfish, to feed it. Before eating, the restaurant staff must cut off the catfish’s head and spines and feed it to its mouth before the fish will eat it.

Anh Hung – a tycoon in District 8, Ho Chi Minh City, confided on GĐ&XH: Although arowana fish can live in low-oxygen environments, to have a pond of arowana fish in the living room, the owner must have billions of dong because this fish grows quickly, up to several meters long, so the tank must be long, wide and made of tempered glass.

Moreover, raising arowana fish is very expensive, the most expensive is food because the fish only eat clean animals. If spoiled, the arapaima will swim slowly and die after a few days. On average, a 1.5m arapaima eats nearly 5kg of fish every day.

Mr. Nguyen Van Lang, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Ornamental Fish Association, who is known as “the number one ornamental fish player in Saigon”, said that this fish is not suitable for aquatic life, so one must have a lot of money like the tycoons to invest in a multi-colored lighting system, and even hire experts to design lighting to create colors for the fish, which is very expensive.

The arapaima is one of the largest freshwater fish on the planet. They originate from the Amazon River basin, South America.

This fish is also called Arapaima – a freshwater “monster”. When fully grown, their average weight is about 100-200kg, about 2m long. The world has recorded an arapaima up to 4m long, weighing 300kg. This is a rare fish species listed in the World Red Book.

In Vietnam, for about 15 years now, this fish has been imported for breeding, and there is no breeding facility.

To satisfy the hobby of raising ornamental fish and to show their class, many tycoons have spent hundreds of millions, even billions of dong to play with this giant fish. They believe that if raised properly, the fish will have beautiful colors, bringing luck and fortune to the owner.