FISHIOLOGY

 Finally the black n white Toman During the time when I was searching for the Sp. Borneo at Kalimantan, I ran across a variant of Micros with a unique pattern and colorations. The bars are rounder instead of squarish or big square to the point of just lines instead of bars. The bars are sometimes so roundish that you get polka dots instead of bars. Some like this pc hv a round bars that form a donut. The base color is pale that they appear just white with black bars hence I gave the name black and white toman. I tried searching for the origin of this variant and found non at Kalimantan, mostly are bought from shops or friends.  Until recently I finally found them from fishing groups and bingo....they're not originally from Kalimantan but Jambi Sumatra, yes from the great Riau maru home place. They are truly magnificent, beautiful monster. I'm not sure mine will survive from the long journey, the eyes were sunken and a bit of fungus infection due to the poor keeping conditions,

 

  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