Scleropages
Scleropages is a genus of fish in the family Osteoglossidae found in Asia and Australia. All of these species are carnivorous and have great jumping ability. These species are highly valued as aquarium fish, particularly by those from Asian cultures. In 2003, a study redescribed several naturally occurring color varieties of S. formosus into four separate species. The majority of researchers dispute these redescriptions, arguing that the published data are insufficient to justify recognizing more than one Southeast Asian species of Scleropages and that divergent haplotypes used to distinguish the color strains into isolated species were found within a single color strain, contradicting the findings. They are considered monotypic, consisting of closely related haplotypes based on color.
The ancestor of the Australian arowanas: S. jardinii and S. leichardti, diverged from the ancestor of the Asian arowanas about 140 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous period. The morphological similarity of all seven species shows that little evolutionary change has taken place recently for these ancient fish. The genus had a much wider distribution during the early Cenozoic, with fossil remains known from the Paleocene of Niger and Belgium, and from the Eocene of China
Species
There are currently 7 recognized species in this genus:| Image | Scientific name | Common Name | Distribution |
| Scleropages formosus | Asian bonytongue; green arowana, Asian arowana | Thailand, Cambodia, southern Vietnam, Malay Peninsula | |
| Scleropages inscriptus T. R. Roberts, 2012 | Myanmar bonytongue, Scripted arowana, inscriptus arowana | Myanmar | |
| Scleropages jardinii | Australian bonytongue, northern barramundi, Jardini arowana | Gulf of Carpentaria drainage system, west to the Adelaide River in the Northern Territory, throughout northern Queensland and in New Guinea | |
| Scleropages leichardti Günther, 1864 | Spotted bonytongue/Saratoga | Fitzroy River system Australia | |
| Scleropages macrocephalus Pouyaud, Sudarto & Teugels 2003 | Silver Indonesian arowana | Central and West Borneo | |
| Scleropages legendrei Pouyaud, Sudarto & Teugels 2003 | Super red/blood Indonesian arowana | Kapuas River | |
| Scleropages aureus Pouyaud, Sudarto & Teugels 2003 | Indonesian/red-tailed golden arowana | Siak River in the area of Pekanbaru or along the Batanghari River in the Berbak Reserve |