Grades of Asian Arowanas

EKen

Super Moderator
I think there are no true RTG's left.

I have been searching for a pure RTG for the last 8 years.
I have only seen pictures of a couple.

NO ***NONE*** 5th level shine. at all.. period..
complete 4th row..

looks amazing, and you really can tell the difference compared to all the hybrid highbacks..

I was told, (correct me if im wrong) that in the 80's everyone just considered them gold and red, all the pure rtg's were put in ponds with xbacks..

by the time the hobby was really spreading in the 90's, there was no more pure rtg's available for sale.
I also agree, most highback rtg's have a lower gold intensity then more pure rtg's, however a lot of that could be upbringing, water, food ect.. I can't say for sure its cross genetics.

love to hear more input on this.

Would you consider the RTG from this thread a "pure" one?
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=91988&highlight=rtg
 

xbackgolden

New Member
So I guess a golden head brooder who mated with a fourth level (OK just kidding maybe 5th level) female xback Will have frys that will be sold at golden head price, but that's ofcourse after seeing it's potential thru the white tank treatment. I guess that's why there were several cases of aros being sold as goldenheads, and it does show at the time of purchase, but loses all these a few months in the costomer's tank and some shine drops to 5th or even 4th. But of course WTT is another story :D

Yes it does happends. However, to have guarantees of gold head, these fishes should only be sold when they are about 12 inches. and more than 50% of the head covered.
 

protoxeno

New Member
I agree with you xbackgolden, but I am sure at 12" that GH is gonna cost MUCH more. But I would pay a bit more to have that guarantee, then again, in the aro business nothing is guarantee.
 

EKen

Super Moderator
Ha ha, I am not that experienced but i don't look at the brand at all. Coz I know most of the farmers in Singapore, so i only buy from the ones who has the best skill in selecting reds. Because, Sg is not a big time red producing country, so alot of them are imported from indonesia. But if you want a absolute guarantee in terms of quality, you can buy from this farm called Munjulputra. The fish is guaranteed to turn red, if it doesn't you can seek a refund, but the price is very very high.

I looked up your info and found their website. If any bros want to check them out, I think they are pretty impressive:
http://www.munjulprimautama.com/gallerytwo.html
 

Yuppa

Super Moderator
I was looking at munjul last week..
I like their guarentee, however thats only for local residents..

looking through their gallery, their aro's are nice, but nothing jumped out at me as being exceptionally better then what I see from any other farm.
 

xbackgolden

New Member
I was looking at munjul last week..
I like their guarentee, however thats only for local residents..

looking through their gallery, their aro's are nice, but nothing jumped out at me as being exceptionally better then what I see from any other farm.

Wait till you see them in person. thats all i can say, Coz these photos are taken without any background lighting or enhancement to bring out the color.
 

protoxeno

New Member
Yeah, Munjul definately is top notch. xbackgolden, heard munjul is near the only farm that keeps a near pure breed of reds, sure they keep a record. And they have F5 which I rarely see in the market, usually F2.
 
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arl

New Member

I read the thread at MFK and it says that its from panda. So is that Panda Gold then? I thought I read somewhere here in this site saying PG's are rtg-X-back crosses :confused:. I've seen many pics of RTG's before and after/developement stages and I have the feeling that this aro will have atleast half of its 5th level shinning in 2 to 3 years from now specially that its a PG and she's only a year old.IMHO
 

Cirrus

Arowana blogger
I read the thread at MFK and it says that its from panda. So is that Panda Gold then? I thought I read somewhere here in this site saying PG's are rtg-X-back crosses :confused:. I've seen many pics of RTG's before and after/developement stages and I have the feeling that this aro will have atleast half of its 5th level shinning in 2 to 3 years from now specially that its a PG and she's only a year old.IMHO

My understanding is that almost all RTG's on market now have some Xback genes. In Panda's case, their entry level RTG (Panda Gold) is closer to being a true RTG, even though it will probably become HBRTG. The next level up is the Panda Gold Supreme which has more Xback genes. I suppose you could look at it as being more of a Xback highbrid? It is not uncommon for the Panda Gold Supreme to eventually become a full Xback. Pretty good value if it does for sure! :)

I know some farms in Indonesia market their fish as "Pandas". This has no connection at all to Panda Aquatics. If anything I guess it is a compliment to Panda Aquatics since "immitation is the sincerest form of flattery". :)
 

arl

New Member
My understanding is that almost all RTG's on market now have some Xback genes. In Panda's case, their entry level RTG (Panda Gold) is closer to being a true RTG, even though it will probably become HBRTG. The next level up is the Panda Gold Supreme which has more Xback genes. I suppose you could look at it as being more of a Xback highbrid? It is not uncommon for the Panda Gold Supreme to eventually become a full Xback. Pretty good value if it does for sure! :)

I know some farms in Indonesia market their fish as "Pandas". This has no connection at all to Panda Aquatics. If anything I guess it is a compliment to Panda Aquatics since "immitation is the sincerest form of flattery". :)

Cool!! My understanding, on the other hand, is that PG supreme are RTG's imported from indo. by panda to SG, but not by mr.Kan but buy your former first 5 or so group buy supplier Derek before you switched to mr. kan. I don't know what's their arrangement(Derek and kan) regadrding the panda name but they are totally different operation. Derek use to work for mr Kan many years ago though, then a year ago he was starting his own farm and he had some issues with his costumers(remember the AF forum link I gave you). It's not only "supreme" that they added on the PG name there were a few more Panda Gold XXXXXX and that is to distinguish it from the mr. Kan PG, who just carries the name PG, and doesn't import aros for re-sell, he does though to improve his stock. Derek panda imports all his aros for retail then, don't know his operation now. This is just my understanding.

So you mean there are more farms in indonesia who carries the name panda other than Derek?
 

xbackgolden

New Member
Yeah, Munjul definately is top notch. xbackgolden, heard munjul is near the only farm that keeps a near pure breed of reds, sure they keep a record. And they have F5 which I rarely see in the market, usually F2.

Haha, well then again... Thats what they say lar..... In this industry, its better not to believe too much.
 

xbackgolden

New Member
Cool!! My understanding, on the other hand, is that PG supreme are RTG's imported from indo. by panda to SG, but not by mr.Kan but buy your former first 5 or so group buy supplier Derek before you switched to mr. kan. I don't know what's their arrangement(Derek and kan) regadrding the panda name but they are totally different operation. Derek use to work for mr Kan many years ago though, then a year ago he was starting his own farm and he had some issues with his costumers(remember the AF forum link I gave you). It's not only "supreme" that they added on the PG name there were a few more Panda Gold XXXXXX and that is to distinguish it from the mr. Kan PG, who just carries the name PG, and doesn't import aros for re-sell, he does though to improve his stock. Derek panda imports all his aros for retail then, don't know his operation now. This is just my understanding.

So you mean there are more farms in indonesia who carries the name panda other than Derek?

Guys, have you heard what is called product differenciation in business? if you have 3 products, there is only so much you can mark up, however, if you create more products out of these 3 products, it becomes easier to perform your mark up. So in this case, we have 3 main products, RTG, Xback and Red ;) What panda does is that for their product RTG, they created 2 new product names for it. Panda Gold, and Panda Gold Supreme and for xbacks, they have marble blue which is essentially a blue based xback. Platinum head which is nothing more than a gold-lined arowana, from the pictures shown, i don't think most of them qualify to be true gold head arowanas. But just not to loose track of the focus. how they differentiate the Normal high back goldens plus those slightly better ones are as follows. Note, some high backs with 5th lvl shine are not acutally hybrids of the xbacks and the rtgs but rather are naturally occuring fish which are sold as PG. On the other hand, there are some High backs which produced by the farm which are of slightly better quality. This is becuase, some of the parent fish are poor quality xbacks or reds which are mixed with the highback rtgs in the pond. Hence, on rare occasions, it is not necessary that the xbacks or reds must mate with the highbacks but could instead mate with anothe fellow xback or red. This explains the difference in variety of the fishes. PG supremes which look like xbacks or having high shine(reds normally have high shine) while others look like normal PGs.
 

jackson

Member
I think the Aro's on the munjulprimautama site are awesome. I wish we could get some of those LOL

I think we should get Hendri to tell us about the quality of fish they have. He was the guy who took all the pic's of them for the site.
 

xbackgolden

New Member
I think the Aro's on the munjulprimautama site are awesome. I wish we could get some of those LOL

I think we should get Hendri to tell us about the quality of fish they have. He was the guy who took all the pic's of them for the site.

Well the cost of them are astronomical. They are sold in Singapore for 9000 SGD for a 12 incher.
 

arl

New Member
Guys, have you heard what is called product differenciation in business? if you have 3 products, there is only so much you can mark up, however, if you create more products out of these 3 products, it becomes easier to perform your mark up. So in this case, we have 3 main products, RTG, Xback and Red ;) What panda does is that for their product RTG, they created 2 new product names for it. Panda Gold, and Panda Gold Supreme and for xbacks, they have marble blue which is essentially a blue based xback. Platinum head which is nothing more than a gold-lined arowana, from the pictures shown, i don't think most of them qualify to be true gold head arowanas. But just not to loose track of the focus. how they differentiate the Normal high back goldens plus those slightly better ones are as follows. Note, some high backs with 5th lvl shine are not acutally hybrids of the xbacks and the rtgs but rather are naturally occuring fish which are sold as PG. On the other hand, there are some High backs which produced by the farm which are of slightly better quality. This is becuase, some of the parent fish are poor quality xbacks or reds which are mixed with the highback rtgs in the pond. Hence, on rare occasions, it is not necessary that the xbacks or reds must mate with the highbacks but could instead mate with anothe fellow xback or red. This explains the difference in variety of the fishes. PG supremes which look like xbacks or having high shine(reds normally have high shine) while others look like normal PGs.


3 or 4 years ago it was PG Special and pretty much every body at AF forum, was convinced that PGS are indo rtg's imported by panda but can not give them the PG name since they're not really bred at panda farm. PGS then was same price or even cheaper than PG. I think there was even another name after "special" then now "supreme". Then there's also a PG hi-back. Your "product differenciation" does make a lot of sense, maybe that is the case now for the "supreme", they are priced much higher. I only base my informations on forums I don't have any inside information like you or most of the guys here :D. I agree with your PG breeding, I also believe that thy're not cross with x-back, PG's are already beautiful even in the 90's that's why they got so famous, and I don't think crossing an X-back with RTG was their formula for then. It's just selective breeding and they got a good breeding stock when they started. I remember reading that somebody asked mr Kan if PG is rtg X x-back. He answers "NO" panda gold is cross with panda gold........Panda Gold is Panda Gold :D
 

protoxeno

New Member
Well the cost of them are astronomical. They are sold in Singapore for 9000 SGD for a 12 incher.

That makes sense, no farm offers guarantees like them. But I find the buy back policy kinda....lets just say by the time it grows big enough to see no red, i think the resell value would be more than 80% of the original when bought at 6-7" price if buy at that price. Nevertheless I am very impress of their stock and no doubt its worth every penny.

xbackgolden, can you share the price of Munjul at 7-8"?
 
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