"The Arowana is no Ordinary Fish"

My friend Leo has a deep passion for the Arowana - a beautiful, majestic-looking fish commonly known as the Golden Dragon. He paid several hundred dollars for a young Arowana several years ago. Barely three inches long it cut a lonely figure in the large four-foot tank, swimming constanly end to end, perpetually in motion.

He feeds the fish once a day, upon his return from work. On the way home he would stop by the pet shop and pick up different food items for his fish everyday without fail. They would be live tadpoles and small guppies, but as the fish grows in size, its menu would include live centipedes and larger species of the guppies. He could sit for a couple of hours just to watch his pet fish feed and swim. He feels a sense of serenity and calmness at the end of a hectic day at the office, he says.

Six years on, the fish grew to a size 18 inches long and space inside the 4-foot tank became increasingly an acute problem, made worse by the fish's enormous appetite which now costs him $6 daily.

Standing in front of the fish tank one day, he said to his wife: "We cannot keep the fish anymore. Tank is just too small. Time to sell it or give it away."

His wife agreed.

Returning home from work the next day, as soon as they turned the lights on, they saw sprawled on the living room their pet fish. Dead. Their Arowana, which they kept and fed for 6 years, was now dead. Suicide it was. For reason not hard to see, it decided to end its life by jumping out of the tank!

The thought that its owner is about to give it away must be something just too hard to take.

My friend was heartbroken for weeks after that. He has vowed never to keep a pet again.

Writer: Peter Chang