My recent study of the Channa Marulioides variant Terengganu had got me really curious of this fish and I just have to see their natural habitat for myself of this very special variant before all is gone. During my arowana days I kept wishing that I was there before the last wild golden Arowana was captured but it was a little too late for that. Too little was done by the authority to preserved the Arowana and it is now a sad history.
For the Terengganu var I still have the chance and I will not let this get by. I'm sure many of you are just as curious to see the habitat as well. I spoke to a marulioides collector and explained that I was running a blog and I wish to document the variant's habitat before it goes extinct. After some negotiation they finally invited me for an expedition to Terengganu to document the habitat with a non disclosure agreement especially the exact location point, the capturing technique of adult maru and the baby maru. Also how they transport the fish from wild to back home converting the water PH. These are the things that I cannot reveal and I fully respect it.
Look like shifting house
After weeks of planning we set off from Kuala Lumpur to Terengganu. We arrived at the location after nearly 8 hours drive from Highways to byways and finally no ways. We got through some rough abandoned logging routes. When we nearly reached the location camp site it was our first disaster. We saw a large group of fisherman with modified 4x4. Somehow they had found their ways there and the first habitat is no longer a secret. We continued our journey until our campsite.
Sadly the days fishing yield unsavoury result from the threatening pressure. And my collector felt bad to disappoint my mission. The next day we decided to switch to another secret location. We packed up early in the morning and spend many hours cutting through fallen trees that had block our path. Finally we managed to opened access for this route and proceed to our camp site. Fishing begins and this time thankfully with no one to be seen things got much better.
obstacle
Solution
The habitat of the full flower Marulioides are in the peat swamp. The waters are very acidic but surprisingly pure. I brought my tester and tested for the PH in a few locations and the reading averaged at PH4.5. I did the same for the TDS and the reading averaged 023PPM. FYI my tap water reading averaged out at 060ppm. The waters are not dark in tint but a little brownish. When I asked the collector he told me that 20 years ago the water was very dark in color but ever since the surrounding forest was cleared and palm oil plantation started booming the water turns murky and also there are lesser rain and the swamp area got much smaller. It shrunk more than 70% in size. This is so saddening to hear.
Channa Marulioides and Channa Lucius are most time located in the same heavily rooted area. Unlike Channa striata that hunts most time in not so heavy cover.
Reaching the habitat by boat is like an impossible task, countless times we have to get off the boat into mosquitoes and leech hell. We have to dragged them in mud to deeper waters. We brought chainsaw to cut our way through.
We tried fishing for the marulioides but was unsuccessful to get any. My collector had perfected his own technique of capturing the maru which I'm not allowed to review. The fish are not injured in anyway by meticulous care. Fishing them will most time blind one of the eye making them worthless.
Jigging for marulioides
These are the hangouts of Channa Marulioides, 2 of the beautiful specimen was caught here.
We caught Striatas and Lucius by casting, the smaller ones are released for them to thrive. Fishing for Lucius is practically jigging your lure in the tangled roots. From this trip I noticed something that is not right with my earlier theory. I've always thought that flowers maximized at around 14" and the remaining 20% at most we can groom. But according to my collector friends they say snakeskins are only found in old fish that are 20 plus inches. They have yet seen a 14" snakeskin in all his years of collecting Terengganu Variant.
These 2 beauty unfortunately did not survive
I've to restudy my theory and I'm not sure if I have the capacity to study a fish that long a time. Will the variant terengganu continue to bloom flowers throughout its life time? and how old exactly are those 24 incher we caught?
We exchanged a lot of data of the marulioides. One of the theory that we both agreed upon are that open and fast water variant Terengganu yields much lesser color and flowers. He told me there is another location of the variant terengganu from the Sungai Dungun tributary. These are fast water maru which has very little flowers. He agreed to drop by there the last day. The diversion is to try and capture open water marulioides to compare them with the swamp variant.
On the last day we again stray off to sg Dungun in search of river Marulioides. It was a lazy moving river and we have to paddle upstream. The scenery was beautiful but the river seem a little too quiet for our liking. Cast after cast we did not get any actions.
The fishes fate are doomed
And when we reached the interior of the river only that we see the reason. The river was sadly heavily harvested. A fixed platform dam netting was erected and rows and rows of horizontal net along the rivers. After spending 3 hours we decided it will be fruitless to go further. Disappointed and time is running out, we gave up our search. They are however plenty of beautifully artistic driftwood everywhere.
Time to carry the boat across this obstacle
It has been a long time since I've done jungle camping and it was quite fun but tremendously hectic. I've easily carried the boat across obstacle a hundred times. Bathing in peat water that are insanely cold. Having fresh caught Lucius for dinner was heavenly delicious. But most importantly is that I've finally seen with my own eyes the habitat of the majestic variant Terengganu. And also I can share them with you all.
If the authorities continue to allow cutting down more forest converting them into palm oil plantations, alas the destruction of the variant Terengganu is not by buyers like you and me, or by insane fisherman, but the destruction will come by deforestation and the swamp shrinking into nothing but a plain field. I hope we will not go there one day and if the day do comes, this post with videos and picture will preserve the evident the once habitat of the great Terengganu.
These are the ones that survived
3 batches of baby Marulioides that survived
catch of the day
Miscellaneous fish caught
Whatevers footprint
signing off
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