FISHIOLOGY

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 guys on sphagnum moss to replace ketapang leaves. S.moss acts the same as ketapang, will give you black water and reduce PH. But it has a special property thats advantage to other softener, s.moss is able to reduce TDS in your tank water. Simply put them in a fine netted bag, tie it and dump the whole thing in the water. You may add some pebbles to sink it. replace every 2 months. Buy them at any plant nursery, will cost you around RM10 for the whole bag. Economical yet useful. This is how I do it, i dont even bother with the pebbles the darn thing will sink in a weeks time. This is my sump tank btw.

I've kept Arowana for more than10 years and i would like to share something I've accidentally discovered about the function of the A shape on the cheek of the Arowana. The A sign on the cheeks functions. Turns out the bone in front of the A symbol is actually an expandable plate to help the fish swallow large preys which otherwise they cannot fit into its head skull. Notice the cheek plate now opens up to allow it to take large prey. Close plate and open plate comparison Interesting isn't it, I discovered this after 10 years of Arowana. Main reason I've never seen this was because 10 years ago a golden crossback like this would easily cost RM4000 a pc which is a fish you don't simply take risk. Fast forward 10 years later it only cost me RM400 for the same thing and this time keeping the fish is more enjoyable without the pressure and I can do more experiment with it.

Today I went and checked out a batch of wild caught Toman Bunga claimed to be from Kahang Johor. Well I'm no Kahang or Johor expert but those fish shows real potential. Flowers are already sticking for an 8" fish. The finnage batik do look like Johor Var. And the dull coloration is also a Johor traits, plus the sticking flower further strengthen this.  They will not sell individual fish so what a waste I can't have them. Just sharing here for you guys to cuci mata. 8" fish starts sticking flower is something you dont see very often.

Channa Marulioides most time need a super low PH to thrive and show off the best of the fish. Usually I keep them in the range of 4PH - 5PH. It could be lower but my tester can only go as low as 4PH. And how do you know that you've gone below 4PH? when you start seeing poo stays the same and wont break down thats when you know you've gone too low. When you're bringing a new maru home make sure you checked the PH that the fish was being kept at. Most of the time maru perish due to PH shock than from diseases. PH shock is the no.1 maru killer. If buying from a fellow hobbyist always request the seller to bring the PH back to at least 6PH or better at 7PH before collecting the fish. How do you keep maru in low PH unintentionally? Usually hobbyist keeps maru at very low PH. Some do it intentionally some do it unintentionally. Traditionally everyone tells you not to do water change too frequently.  Even when nobody tells you this you'll soon learn by experience when yo...

Channa Marulioides var Kalimantan Mac 2018 update, it is near 8" now, this month the fish had gone darker, not sure if because the PH had dropped tremendously that caused the darker coloration, I did notice the tail end had started to blackout or could be just the darker color made it this way. The inside of the pectoral fin starts to show orangy, I'm not certain if this is indeed the sign I'm waiting for. If the fish continue its progress this way then it is very possible to be another var. of sp. Borneo. The head is long the fish is slender like all other C. Marulioides except the band, pattern and color resembles sp. Borneo. I would stare at this fish at least an hour daily trying to figure out what it is. The kalimantan specimen wears amazing stripe pattern, loud band that stretches down to its belly. Since coming back to Channa Marulioides half a year back, I'm only keeping Maru from Kalimantan. They have so many amazing var never seen before. For the p...

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...

How many types of sp Borneo exist? they are caught in so many locations and many types are shown. Here I will try to round them up so we can analyse. ABCE possibly the same variant, CD possibly same. E  Maybe a tank raise fish or young fish with the bars not or haven't fully sticking together yet.  The characteristic of sp Borneo is black patch near the tail when mature, stout body, short and slim head, the band will stretched all the way to the bottom like full bar. Most of the time the fins are black. The main problem why ABCE is undetermine is simply because nobody know how does the ABCE baby fish look like lol.  I tell you... Its not a joke, even Indonesian cannot answer you this.   The below is type D found in central Kalimantan.  Only D is identified and recorded from baby to adult. So to those chasing for sp borneo baby pandai2 lah. Dun buy anything ppl say... Use your eyes and your knowledge given.  For type ABE I'm still...

After 3 months with me the fish is fully stable. A beautiful fish indeed. This pc is kept at 5.5PH, 100ppm TDS, 30C, 1000liter tank. Food is market prawn and frozen seluang. Water changed are done every 3 weeks or so at 20-30%.