FISHIOLOGY

 

  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

 

  Neutral contrast tanning is more effective, the pigment seem more penetrable. In my case here, it was difficult to set the fish into neutral contrast. I discovered the fish would switched to neutral contrast when hunting live shrimp. So naturally I started feeding live shrimp and the fish would stay in neutral contrast. PH5.0 Temp: 28.5C CO2 1 bubble per second Before Before

 Lately I've been asked many times about using pasir malang or Lava rock as substrate. I've heard of this 20 years ago and I've tried that too as you can see from my old picture. been there done that Firstly lemme explain what is Pasir malang, they are Lava Rock or Volcanic rock. Very porous in nature, an excellent filter media. Couple with an ion negative charged acts like a magnet to contaminations such as heavy metal and so on.  Now lets get back to the question, is lava rock a good choice as a substrate? Is it also advisable to use sera siporax as substrate? this will saved us plenty on canister filtration set up. Right? wrong! why do canister, trickle or any sort of filtration designed in such a way that plenty of oxygen supply are pumped onto the media? Because beneficial bacteria needs a lot of oxygen to operate or they will die if inadequate O2 is available.  What happen to places with low oxygen supply? these are the black site or black area that spawn bad bacteria

  When first caught on Oct 2020 One month grooming result CO2 injections 1 bubble per second PH5.5 conditioner RIO Light tannins and Humic DOC Low oxygen environment

When the fish is finally settle I started flower treatment with the same procedure : CO2 injection of one bubble per second, Lighting T5 10k High output + 24W LED white.  PH5.5 Temp 28.5c Conditioner: RIO Humic Dissolved Organic Carbon and RIO Light tannin As you can see new white spec flowers are starting to form all over.