FISHIOLOGY

There seem to be a lot of confusion in these terms lately and everything is everything. People are naming for example sp terengannu sp sampit, sp sentarum and lately I even seen people naming ori or not ori. Lets clear the air sp - sp means an unidentified species yet to be proven, Borneo is where the fish is found hence sp Borneo. sp lets think of it as (Species Problem), sp will refer to the spp of a certain species but undetermined, for example Channa sp. Borneo from the channa spp. So sp means the fish is suspect to be a different species but unproven. It looks like a channa marulioides but the pattern, shape, characters, fin count, scale count or something is very different. We shall wait for scientific evidence to prove if it is indeed a different species. So in the mean time we name it Channa sp.Borneo. sp Borneo refers to a channa that is typically red in color and stout body. var - var means the same species but from a certain location, something identifiable.

Toman Bunga or Channa Marulioides juvenile stage shows a strong coloration. But unfortunately this is the only trait which makes it useless when comes to ID. Different environment could make the fish thrive either way. But anyhow this is just to share how it would look like so you'll have an idea. 6 inch size Dark Yellow/Orange  4 inch Golden Yellow

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.

The beauty of C. Marulioides is the ever changing color of the fish. They can switch on and off thier body color according to thier mood. They can turn thier body color to Bright Yellow, Orange, or white. They can switch thier eye color to flaming red or full black. I don't recall any other fish having this ability to change eye color. Watch the video at 00:08 sec it suddenly switch to bright yellow... At 00:57 it switch to orange. Such magnificent fish they are.

First time in my life I've seen flower develop on the head! I think sp Borneo will bring all kinda surprises. They are not your regular Marulioides afterall. I suspect the flower development are different from the regular maru. 1st we never see young red with lotsa flowers. 2nd those with lotsa flowers are usually large fish of more than 18" Pic are sourced from the internet, if the owner do stumbled on this blog pls drop me a note I will credit the image to you, thank you.

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