FISHIOLOGY

The water of Terengganu peat swamp is amazingly soft, the measurement was taken in the monsoon season where the water is generally high. In the dry season the PH should be much lower and the water much darker in tannin.  TDS at 36ppm, in case you wanna know, Kuala Lumpur tap water is between TDS 50ppm - 70ppm. You will need to run an RO unit to achieve the natural TDS. Electric Conductivity is at 74us/cm, EC determines the inorganic dissolved solids examples: NO3, Fe, mg and so on. The reading for natural swamp should be in this range unless there are farming or industrial activity in the surrounding area. Tap water ec is around 60 - 90us/cm. PH is on the high side for black/peat swamp, most probably due to monsoon. Next year dry season will do another round of test to determine the average PH. Some of the Marulioides that did not survive, take note that not all Terengganu's are 9 or 11 bands.   Captured fries Different batch Anothe

Over exposure to strong light you'll notice yr maru turned colorless. Best is low light and you'll see the band forming strong all the time. Too dark eg black sand black side n back will make the fish dark colorless n no band showing. Ive tried this with 18w T5, 36W high output, led low n high same result. I've tried tanning wit nan light... Fish turns black. Tanning with fullspectrum high out put also produce black fish. I notice unlike most fish maru respond differently with light. When u off the light for many hours, the moment u on yr light u see the fish in full color. Most fish is dull in the dark but maru shows thier best in dark environment. Banding will be strong. U can play around, just keep in mind yr target is the fish should always show its band strongly. And the most important of all fish keeping is low NO3. How do we not do water change and yet maintain a low NO3? Answer is Plants, low light plants like java is good, or u can plant terrestrial plants

I would like to introduce you guys on sphagnum moss to replace ketapang leaves. S.moss acts the same as ketapang, will give you black water and reduce PH. But it has a special property thats advantage to other softener, s.moss is able to reduce TDS in your tank water. Simply put them in a fine netted bag, tie it and dump the whole thing in the water. You may add some pebbles to sink it. replace every 2 months. Buy them at any plant nursery, will cost you around RM10 for the whole bag. Economical yet useful. This is how I do it, i dont even bother with the pebbles the darn thing will sink in a weeks time. This is my sump tank btw.