FISHIOLOGY

This was a project I did back in 2014 and I've decided to compile it into this blog. My daughter's first turtle vivarium with waterfalls. Took me a whole week to set this up. But the excitement on her face was really worth it. Cut and stick polystyrene with silicon glue to your liking Colored Grout After a few layered of colored grout   Back wall and pump cover Silicone to the back of your tank as you know polystyrene are extremely buoyant  Apply silicone on the cover and sprinkle sand to cover  Pump and filtration hidden below

I'm sharing this article about an experiment I did back in April 2015 Today is sharing time how to maximise lap, endli and Ansorgii marking without using red garnet sand. When I first bought the lap, the moment the fish entered my tank I felt like returning the fish back, fish was thin n colorless. But Kitty Lai told me to take the lap challenge so I did. And after fumbling for a month alas I found a way to turn on the marking n color. The solution RLT - Red Light Treatment, use LED lighting those with multiple color adjustment. Formula - tank should be somewhat dark to begin with. Turn on the LED the rest of the day when u off yr tank light. My main tank light is on for 6hrs a day tat means my LED is on 18hrs a day. Set yr LED to the red mode and lowest brightness setting. The idea is when the red LED shine on the bottom it mimics Kerala red sand. I got this result in just 7 days. I presume this formula works for PBB too the contrast for my endli improved too. I...

Its been nearly 2 weeks since I got hold of the batch of baby Terengganus. The fries had grown a bit and seem stronger as compared to when they first arrived. 6 casualties so far due to stressed. Fries did not eat from day 1 and perished from lack of food.  Last year I was sold 5 baby Diplogramma from an unscrupulous trader (CG) with the same condition. Fish perish within a week. So beware of conman traders who do not quarantine their fish and out to make a quick buck. To make matter worse I did complain in a local snakehead group but unfortunately the admin backed the unscrupulous trader and booted me out from the group. I think that snakehead group is just a con group to fish newbies. Anyway I'm never a fan of groups who allows trading as it automatically kills off knowledge sharing. Back to our projects, I've split the fish into 3 groups:  Group A Group A is the biggest tank I can afford, PH4.9, 8 hours low output tanning light, 15 Tails. The fish will ...

3 months after I added kangkung to my filtration. They grew like crazy I didnt realized how rampant they grew until my downstairs neighbor gave me a sound. I would say the best NO3 extractor. NO3 reading stands at 0ppm. Water spinach can grow 6" stem in 24hrs. That is F1 in plant world. To topped it off you also get flowers lol. After the complained only did i realized 0ppm NO3 Kangkung flower, first time I see.

Found some pictures of my previous batch of wild caught Channa Marulioides from Sg. Dusun tributary. If ever I've the chance I will look for this specimen again. They have an orangy tint which is very nice.

This is a cb var Terengannu Marulioides that I once bought for RM25, dont think Terengganu has no cb. I sold the fish when it was around 10" because it had no potential. 

I've ran out of tank and the micro had nowhere to go, so I've decided to try and comm them both. The borneo challenged the micro the moment it hit the tank but I've to intervened and scared the Borneo to behave. 2 days later with a very unhappy Borneo its color turned dark in protest. Marulioides are never good in a comm tank. Borneo challenged the Micro Borneo turned dark in protest

A batched of wild caught Channa Marulioides var Terengganu was given to me by a fren for study. The catch location will not be reveal here. As you've noticed by now that I've never kept Terengganu var all this while as I do not wish to promote this special var Marulioides which are on the verge of extinction if the catching continues.   Unfortunately their reputation precedes them and it is not helping with their survival. But unlike the Arowana who lived mainly around the Kerian basin that are easily accessible by boat. Terengganu var scattered throughout Terengannu. The swamp variant lives deep in the jungle, but their survival now are in grave danger as many forest had been cut down for palm oil plantation. And with facebook, their popularity had caught on fast and many are being exported out as we speak.  I might as well log a group of Terengganu fries and study their growth for all to see. This batch of babies are caught by my friend and brought to me th...

Not much to update but starting from this month I will try to slim down the fella to show higher finnage. Food will be cut down to twice a week frozen fish. Size should be somewhere 15".

Week no 2, they now swim like a champion, the video is taken right before dinner is being served. They're more active with them spending their free time swimming about. They parked when theyre tired of swimming like regular bichirs.

Some videos I've found of my previous Kalimantan during the low PH kelakai treatment. Initially I suspect if a variant of the Kalimantan will grow up to be the double line sp. Borneo. Why did I believe in such a thing? Because to date, we've not seen a baby sp. borneo double line. The experiment was to keep a baby kalimantan in very low PH with red kelakai (Stenochlaena palustris) tannin. I stumbled on the double line kalimantan for sale and this was the reason I kept the Kalimantan. Ok back to the experiment, The fish was kept at PH3.5-4.0 for nearly 2 months with dried red Kelakai tannin. The Kalimantan was very stressed at PH below 4.5. The fish was most time dark and the eyes was in black color mode. The flowers was disappearing fast the band was wide. The interesting thing with this experiment is the fish shows reddish tint and when flaring the fish is bright orange as you can see from the videos that I've found. When I stopped the experiment to saved the flowers...

I'm back again to Bichirs but this time more on the experiment that I didn't do last time. When I was once active in bichirs I noticed that some but very very minority of them swim with control buoyancy meaning they can control the depth level like those of ordinary fish using the swim bladder. But in reality; bichirs do not have a swim bladder that is why most time they swim like a drowning fish.  I noticed this behaviour on some Endlicheris, the control buoyancy and of coz the great Turkana Polypterus Bichir Bichir. So my question is, can bichir learn to control buoyancy with their lungs replacing them as the swim bladder?  I got 7 cb Polypterus Lapradei and kept them in a species only tank. Food will be available only as floating pellet. The reason is to encourage them to swim and learn to adapt using their lungs as swim bladder. Will they able to do so? Day 1 of coz they dont eat, I've to start coaxing them to take sinking pellet. Day 2 they are all...

Most time when a hobbyist hears the name Terengganu toman bunga they glow with expectations, cant blame them seeing so many snakeskin and Sticking flower specimen posted online and fishing magazines. But will buying a baby Terengganu and raising them from young gives you the snakeskin dream fish? The answer usually is an unfortunate NO. So far I've yet to see a baby  Terengganu growing to a full snakeskin. I've only seen sub adult wild caught peat swap fish that grew to a snakeskin. For the true sticking flowers variant, I've yet seen one grew from tank. Sub adult fish had a good start in the peat swamp that already open up most of its flowers and just waiting to blossom. Terengganu var caught in peat swamp usually has more flowers where else those caught in rivers and big lakes will be a disappointment in the flower department. Do not put on high hopes that your baby Terengganu will grow up to be a champion. 99% of the time they grow up just the same as those RM10 comm...

Introducing Channa Micropeltes var Kalimantan, at least this is the place that my researched has pointed. I do not have solid evidence to proof that this fish is from Kalimantan as so far I've not seen a wild caught specimen. It could all be the result of commercial breeding. Anyway Channa Micropeltes kalimantan or I nicked name this as Toman Michael Jackson because this var of Micropeltes shows a beautiful Black and White color. The base color is pearl white shimmering a rainbow of tint. And lets see what we may discover of this variant.

When first brought home at 3" July 17 10" Aug 18  Kalimantan Flaring Kalimantan is perhaps the most beautiful Channa Marulioides that I've kept. The part I love most about kali is thier band, yes they have lots of them almost looking like Channa Asiatica. The band extend to the belly. And they possessed strong colors when kept in the right PH. They are bold and always ready to show their best. When you approach the tank they will flare and show their colors.  The only shortfall of the Kalimantan is in the flower department, "usually" they dun have them much, but you'll have plenty of bands to ogle. The Batik pattern on all 3 fins are amazing, unfortunately not all the batik remains when kept from young. Plenty of work to groom retaining the batik to ensure they dont fade away. Its ashame I've to sell my Kalimantan, but all good things must come to an end so that new fish can take its place. Thank you for following the progress of...