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I was wondering, are gold arowana legal to keep?
Because I was at my LFS one day and I was asking does he sells Gold arowana, he was shocked and told me that a some kind of planeteers earthwatch group put a laws on these endanger species. A fine of 5,000 dollars for distrubuting or owning of this species and must have legal paper before owning one. Well I never receive any paper of any sort, and my arowana are more likely to endanger my 2 oscars then itself.

gold arowanas are now routinely bred in large numbers, so wild caught specimens are rarely encountered in the u.s.a. i can buy fingerlings here for just under $10, and i can assure you none of the sellers fear a hefty fine. whenever a freshwater fish is commercially bred on a large scale, it is almost always safe to ignore dire warnings about legal ramifications issued from the likes of peta and such.

Most arowanas are legal, except any reds, chile reds, any degree (1-7).

Some states might be different, but i'm sure they are legal in most areas. Reds are endangered, so that's why they are illegal to sell.

Captive bred fish with a license to own and a identification form, as long with a tagged fish, is legal.

Asian arowanas, Scleropages formosus, (often referred to as red or gold aros) are federally illegal to possess, sale, or import in the USA, Under the Lacey Act because of their inclusion in the CITES appendix I when the CITES convention was created in the late seventies. Fines range up to $500,000, with the possibility of jail-time, and a felony record...which will affect your ability to gain employment, and will severely restrict any international travel you may wish to do in the future. If you doubt this, I can probably put you in contact with a number of people that have received fines, jail, or both (although jail-time is typically reserved for anyone caught importing or selling them).

The only people that are capable of securing permits to possess Asian arowanas in the USA are museums/aquariums/zoological institutions.