FISHIOLOGY

I was surprise with the fantastic result from using CO2 injection on the flowering of Marulioides in the passed 3 months and I started googling for the relation of CO2 and marulioides. I can't find any obviously other than those of my own posting but interestingly I stumble upon the relation of Peat swamp and Carbon Dioxide!  And to my surprise, peat swamp is the largest deposit of carbon on earth. They are the fixed deposit for Carbon Dioxide. When carbon is exposed to oxygen they becomes Carbon Dioxide (C + O2 = CO2). And when Carbon Dioxide is exposed to water some of them becomes Carbonic Acid (CO2 + H2O = H2CO3).  The habitat of peat swamp Marulioides is acidic and rich carbon in the soil. And it also happened that peat swamp Marulioides are plentiful with flowers as compared to open water marulioides. I think I've just stumble on the key to flowering Maruliodes. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/peat-lands-and-greenhouse-gasses/ We now know

Yesterday I was invited to dinner by a group of Marulioides enthusiast, and the guest of honour is a person that are most respected in the marulioides field. The man is non other than The Grandmaster of Toman Bunga Mr. Siew . The event rendezvous was at Mr. Siew's place and I had the opportunity to exchange plenty of data with this great guy. Friendly and energetic, he was a great chatter. His knowledge of the Marulioides species is so vast and deep. What struck me most was his dedication, the passion he possessed for the marulioides species. When one is set on and gave absolute 100% dedications to your mission, you will achieve great things. Mr. Siew first explained to me how he had painstakingly collected Marulioides from Terengganu. Bringing the fish back alive is no easy task. He had been doing this in the 90s. At one point he even rented a house in Terengganu for this purpose. The fish was plentiful at that time. I believe he is the first person that had successfully bre

One of the reason I'm so fascinated with Channa Marulioides and has been my favorite fish for the passed 30 years is because every individual fish is different and the outcome of the fish is different. All the hard work you put in grooming the fish will be rewarded handsomely the moment your marulioides flare its full glory. Keeping a marulioides alive and keeping a beautiful fish is a world apart. There is no right or wrong way to keep your marulioides. It just depends on which route you wishes to take. Usually I will take both. I keep marulioides in comm tank because I love watching my maruliodes interact in a comm tank. But fishes that I groom will be kept in single tank or mixed in with sparring fish or fishes. Understand the nature of marulioides. Maru are found mostly in pristine water condition, hardly will you find maru thriving in lakes near town area. Even if they do survive they hardly will breed. This is one of the reason we don't find marulio

There seem to be a trend growing for the Pahang Toman Bunga or Channa marulioides from Pahang. As far as I know Pahang produce the worse Toman Bunga, they lack in colors and flowers. Many had asked me if their recent bought Pahang Marulioides is from Pahang, I will tell them Pahang Perak Selangor and all over Malaysia is unidentifiable. They are just the common Malaysian Marulioides.   Wild caught Pahang   Wild caught Pahang Wild caught Pahang The above images are wild caught Pahang from my collector. As you can see there is no way you can ID them apart from the rest of the clan, or the common cb marulioides you buy for RM10. However, I had a long chat with my collector during our Terengganu expeditions and I discovered a very interesting secret about the Pahang Marulioides. Apparently there is a hidden gem at the very edge of the state of Pahang that my collector told me about. He was there a few years back looking for new grounds and they had stumbled upon a swam

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

I would like to introduce you to some of the beautiful Channa Marulioides from Indonesia and at the same time clarify the complexity and the confusion as best I can. what is Marsum, Marbor, kalimantan, borneo, sp borneo, No.1  Marsum - Marulioides Sumatera Blue Marulioides not to be confuse with Channa Melanoptera Channa Marulioides Sumatera variant is very similar to the Malaysian variant. There is also another var found there known as Blue Maru which is greyish blue in color. No.2 Marbor - Marulioides Borneo known in Indonesia or Marulioides Kalimantan or Kali by Malaysian and Singaporean. The double line The 999/eee The yy + double line Now Kalimantan is very complex and has many variant. They comes in the 2 line bands form, the 999/eee form, the YY + double line form. But one of the key factors to tell them apart from sumatera, malaysia and thai variant is the middle exposure.  The key to ID kalimantan is the expose

  Marulioides in neutral contrast Marulioides in high contrast You can see actual results of newly captured Marulioides from the wild retaining its flowers and on top of it new flowers are growing. Above is 1.5 months progress, when kept properly a newly transferred Channa Marulioides will maintain its flowers and on top of it you can immediately start grooming and have flower progress. Grooming marulioides summarized:- 1. Choose a potential pc, not all marulioides can produce plentiful flowers. Choosing one with a good potential genetically will save you lotsa time. 2. I've demonstrated too many times, high Oxygen will cause maru to loose flowers. 3. High CO2 will encourage flowers growth. Keep your surface as still as possible. If you are willing to go a step further pump CO2 with DIY or commercial unit. Natural swamp water is high in CO2 and low in oxygen.  4. Maintain constant PH, PH fluctuation will cause maru to loose flowers and difficult to grow flowers in this condition. e

My recent study of the Channa Marulioides variant Terengganu had got me really curious of this fish and I just have to see their natural habitat for myself of this very special variant  before all is gone. During my arowana days I kept wishing that I was there before the last wild golden Arowana was captured but it was a little too late for that. Too little was done by the authority to preserved the Arowana and it is now a sad history. For the Terengganu var I still have the chance and I will not let this get by. I'm sure many of you are just as curious to see the habitat as well. I spoke to a marulioides collector and explained that I was running a blog and I wish to document the variant's habitat before it goes extinct. After some negotiation they finally invited me for an expedition to Terengganu to document the habitat with a non disclosure agreement especially the exact location point, the capturing technique of adult maru and the baby maru. Also how they transport t