FISHIOLOGY

This is the very beginning of flower formation, notice the shimmer in the scale usually around the  the band. I've chosen to show this pic because it is quite obvious and it is easier for you guys to take note and observed. Usually it is not this obvious. Now to share a little secrets on how to choose a champion fish, notice this fish has 6 bands, and the shimmer reaches the 6th band counting from tail to head. So this will be a very potential fish with flowers growing in the whole length of the fish.  2nd rule is the height of the flowers, it is growing at the full height of the band and this will reflect a very big portion of the fish having flowers, length plus height. When you spot this at the lfs, dont think, dont blink, straight pack the fish as you've got a winner. Another thing I need you all to understand is what I'm saying here is a fast bloomer like this particular fish. There are of coz slow bloomer which does not rule out the rest of the pack o

I've started the tanning experiment on local marulioides, it is a little bit early as the ocell has not fully formed yet. What I'm hoping to achieved here is to see if the tanning starts at this tender age when the color changing ability has not taken place, will the scales be more easily manipulated? Will they shut off the color changing ability and just gets burned off when they are weak. Some of the marulioides had hints of flowers forming at this young age, and I think it is very possible to began the tanning experiment on them. But I've to tread with care as young flowers are easily destroyed if not properly cared. I've selected 7 tails for this experiment those that are showing less early flowers development. I'm starting this with the strong HO T5 to quickly burned the scales and lets see where this will lead us.  Previously I've tried tanning local marulioides with no success. But that was before I discovered that they need to be parked at neutral co

Terengannu baby fries have since double in size, they're like eating machines. The band or shall I call it blotches have begun appearing. The black part is slowly fading away. The ocell is still nowhere to be seen. Should we see the ocell first or the band? this I've no idea, we shall witness this progress. Interestingly the fish that are kept in the dark are very light in color. Band or blotches begin appearing The batch that are kept in the dark are very light in color unlike those kept with light. The dark batch is also the lowest PH group at PH3.5. Notice the poop just remain there and wont disintegrate.

Its been nearly 2 weeks since I got hold of the batch of baby Terengganus. The fries had grown a bit and seem stronger as compared to when they first arrived. 6 casualties so far due to stressed. Fries did not eat from day 1 and perished from lack of food.  Last year I was sold 5 baby Diplogramma from an unscrupulous trader (CG) with the same condition. Fish perish within a week. So beware of conman traders who do not quarantine their fish and out to make a quick buck. To make matter worse I did complain in a local snakehead group but unfortunately the admin backed the unscrupulous trader and booted me out from the group. I think that snakehead group is just a con group to fish newbies. Anyway I'm never a fan of groups who allows trading as it automatically kills off knowledge sharing. Back to our projects, I've split the fish into 3 groups:  Group A Group A is the biggest tank I can afford, PH4.9, 8 hours low output tanning light, 15 Tails. The fish will b

I've been reluctant to write this but many had asked me to post how to take care of marulioides for maximum performance. The truth is you need to abused it, hence Marulioides care isn't exactly the correct terms to use. Channa Marulioides is found in most part of malaysia, lakes, pond, streams, rivers, but one thing most fisherman realized are those caught in swamp, I mean really dead stagnant peat swamp. Waters that are near black in color most time the fish had tremendous performance, beautiful colors and a lot of flowers. From this theory many tried replicating the conditions with low ph and so on. I've experiment many ways of keeping marulioides and I can concur to this, Low PH meaning Ph5 and below, I usually keeps mine ard PH4 or maybe lower, because my test kit can only measure till 4 and cant read anything lower. Low PH produce beautiful coloration. As for the bunga, yes everybody wants to know this, there is no tricks, just lots and lots of experiment. It i

Some Channa Marulioides var in Malaysia do comes in Orange color. The famous orange variant is from Terengganu of course but other states has their orange variant as well.  One of the place that I've had the opportunity to explore is the sg. Dusun variant. They are found in the tributary along this river. I was there during 1991 - 1996. We had caught a number of orange and very bright yellow variant adult fish. The fingerlings of the dusun variant cannot be ID so don't waste your time chasing for this variant. Unless your source are incredibly reliable which is rare nowadays. The fingerling shows a strong golden hue when they're around 3". Then they change to a dull deep yellow/orange when around 6". Their finnage starts losing the batik and will eventually turned black. The adult fish display an impressive of color play from cream to yellow to orange according to thier mood. Recently I saw an orange marulioides being posted at facebook and I was

My 2nd pc of sp Borneo is being kept in a fgt on a higher ph that is 7.6PH, tds 120ppm, 29C running on organic filtration. RGB LED 18w lighting. Food comprised mainly on market prawn and live tilapia. With this odd parameter the white scale develop quite well, the color is weak mainly because this is only a 10-11" fish.

Channa Melanoptera is a super rare snakeheads from Indonesia. First describe by bleeker in 1855. He found the fish in Kapuas river. Bleeker gave the description of a black snakehead with no ocel at the tail.  They look somewhat like C. Marulioides. A lot of confusion and misinformations about the description of this fish from the internet. Most of them posted a blackout C. Marulioides and took it as C. Melanoptera. Again no thanks to fish traders quick to make a fast buck. Channa Melanoptera practically has no flowers or white scales. If the white scale do exist it will be very small looking inbetween C. Marulia and C. marulioides white spotting. The batik pattern on the finnage glows in blue they've a florescent feel to it. They do not have the ocel at the caudal fin . Bands are not presents below lateral line . The heads are very short and slim. They have top black and bottom white. Ive searched this species for a very long time until I stumble on a kalimantan shipment r