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The family contains two subfamilies, Heterotidinae and Osteoglossinae, with all but two of the ten extant species being members of the latter. Species are given with one or more prominent common names.
>Arapaima or pirarucu, Arapaima gigas (Cuvier, 1829)
>African arowana, Heterotis niloticus (Cuvier, 1829)
>Silver arowana, Osteoglossum bicirrhosum (Cuvier, 1829)
>Black arowana, Osteoglossum ferreirai Kanazawa, 1966
>Red-tailed golden arowana Scleropages aureus † (Pouyad, Sudarto & Teugels, 2003)
>Green arowana or gold crossback arowana, Scleropages formosus † (Schlegel & Müller, 1844)
>Gulf saratoga, red saratoga or northern spotted barramundi, Scleropages jardinii ‡ (Saville-Kent, 1892)

>Red arowana, super red arowana, or chili red arowana, Scleropages legendrei (Pouyad, Sudarto & Teugels, 2003)

>Saratoga, silver saratoga or spotted barramundi, Scleropages leichardti Günther, 1864
Silver Asian arowana, Scleropages macrocephalus (Pouyad, Sudarto & Teugels, 2003)

This species is one of several known also as the Asian arowana or Asian bonytongue.
This species is one of two sometimes called the Australian arowana or Australian bonytongue.
A genetic study shows that the lineage leading to the arapaima and African arowana diverged about 220 million years ago, during the Late Triassic; the lineage leading to the silver and black arowanas of South America diverged about 170 million years ago, during the Middle Jurassic. The lineage leading to the Australian arowanas diverged from that leading to the Asian arowanas about 140 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous.