Silver arowana
Amazing fact
A silver arowana’s scales shift to shades of red, blue and green as it grows older.
Smithsonian's National Zoo
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
A silver arowana’s scales shift to shades of red, blue and green as it grows older.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Silver arowana
- Scientific name
- Osteoglossum bicirrhosum
- Japanese name
- シルバーアロワナ
- Group
- Freshwater animals
- Order
- Osteoglossiformes
- Family
- Osteoglossidae
- Genus
- Osteoglossum
Where the name “Silver arowana” comes from
The Osteoglossum part of its scientific name means “bony tongue”.
Smithsonian's National ZooA fish of the Amazon floodplains, where the rivers overflow onto low land. Its name comes from its shining silver scales.
Its mouth faces upward, so it catches prey by swimming up from below. It may even leap out of the water to grab insects or small birds from low branches.
The male cares for the eggs and newly hatched young by carrying them in his mouth.
How the Silver arowana lives
They hide alongside fallen trees near the shore and wait for prey to swim by. They also eat crabs, snails and fish. They spawn at the beginning of the flood season. Females lay large eggs.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity WebSmithsonian's National ZooBasic data
- Diet
- Large insects, fish, crabs, snails, snakes and small birds
- Range
- Amazon drainage and western Orinoco, Rupununi and Essequibo systems of the Guianas
Where the Silver arowana has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- シルバーアロワナ
- 简体中文
- 双须骨舌鱼
- 繁體中文
- 雙鬚骨舌魚
- 한국어
- 실버아로와나
- Español
- Arowana plateada
- Français
- Arowana argenté
- Deutsch
- Arowana
- Português (Brasil)
- Aruanã-prateado
- Italiano
- Arowana argentato
- العربية
- أروانا فضية
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Arwana perak
- Tiếng Việt
- Cá ngân long
- Русский
- Аравана
- Türkçe
- Gümüş aravana
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- Smithsonian's National Zoo — Silver arowanaChecked: 2026-11-03
- 鳥羽水族館 — シルバーアロワナChecked: 2026-11-03
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Osteoglossum bicirrhosumChecked: 2026-11-03
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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