FISHIOLOGY

This is the update of the red Kelakai and DOC treatment, the color is very orangy for a Terengganu of this size. This is also the 2nd Marulioides that I've tried with Red Kelakai treatment and yes they do bring out the color of the fish. The previous Kalimantan also display obvious orange patches on its side just as this piece.  I think it can be safely concluded that Red Kelakai will bring out the color of the Marulioides from this 2 experiment. Red Kelakai and DOC Previous Kalimantan orangy patch with Red Kelakai treatment

Its been awhile since I find time to groom my maru, I was busy at work and neglected them, I've sold 2 of the 4 maru I've kept so other hobbyist can properly take care of them. But recently there is a new product in the market that kick start my curiosity again. I found a product that uses Red Kelakai for light Tannins and as we know from earlier research that red kelakai (Red Fern - Stenochlaena palustris) is packed with anthocyanin the active ingredients that color up fishes and just like astaxanthin the red pigment enhancer they somehow at the sametime increases flower development. Second product that I found is the Dissolve Organic Carbon, organic carbon if you've been following my progress is the soul of the peat swamp. The dark water, the low PH are the echoes of the carbon. And from that vibration comes flowers. I reset a tank and added in Light Tannins with anthocyanin and also Dissolved Organic Carbon, I restart the CO2 injections and light it up with my HO T5 ...

I did a review on ready made head designed for DIY CO2 system. Ordered at Lazada costing RM72.00 inc postage. Took about 10 days shipped from China. I received the goods nicely packed, and they even include an instruction to produce CO2 with citric acid and sodium bicarbonate. I did not use that formula as I'm used to yeast and sugar formula. This time I ordered brewers yeast instead of the normal bread yeast, as I was told that brewers yeast will last longer as they can withstand alcohol. After mixing everything I waited for reaction and non could be seen. At first I suspect the diffuser was set too deep which need higher pressure. So I raised it to 6" below surface and waited another day. Next day still no bubbles could be seen, and I suspect a leak. I remove the diffuser and and put the hose in water and I would see bubbles coming out. So the mixture is good, no leaks but why is there no bubbles? I'm kinda puzzled. 3rd day I decided to add more yeast and af...

Further studies in my research for the relation of carbon dioxide and peat swamp had lead me to more datas confirming this anomaly. Peat swamp or Black waters indeed are starved of oxygen and contains high level of Carbon Dioxide as I've suspected all this while. We take a look at the work of Dina Muthmainnah and Zulkifli Dahlan for the research paper of Biodiversity of lebak deling swamp in Pampangan Indonesia. http://www.innspub.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/JBES-Vol6No6-p324-333.pdf In their research they have tested the black waters from multiple points and the water parameter shown below is of similarity from those that which I did with simple testing, not as sophisticated as I lacked the equipment in doing so The important aspect here is that it confirms that Black waters are indeed low in oxygen and abnormally high in carbon dioxide (CO2). The PH is similar at 4.5PH average and TDS an average of 24PPM which I recorded an average of 25PPM at Terengganu swamp. ...

I've many people asking me how to set up a CO2 system so I'll just share my simple setup as a guide for you guys. Setting up multiple tank from a single source of CO2 is proving to be a pain, I tried balancing with ordinary aerator splitter, metal lever and plastic screw type and it never work. Or I ended up with the hose exploding out from the splitter when the pressure got intensed. In the end I gave up and found a shop that sells regulator splitter head and this works like a charm. So dun waste your time doing what I did. And I did not know that technology had advanced tremendously, there is now such thing as atomizer that produces extremely fine bubbles to maximize CO2 absorption. And you will need a bubble counter with the atomizer as you wont know how much CO2 is going into your tank. You will have many choices to choose the size of your canister, usually from 0.5liter to 5 liter tank. I took the 3liter tank. Of how much CO2 you need to pump into the tank will depen...

I was surprise with the fantastic result from using CO2 injection on the flowering of Marulioides in the passed 3 months and I started googling for the relation of CO2 and marulioides. I can't find any obviously other than those of my own posting but interestingly I stumble upon the relation of Peat swamp and Carbon Dioxide!  And to my surprise, peat swamp is the largest deposit of carbon on earth. They are the fixed deposit for Carbon Dioxide. When carbon is exposed to oxygen they becomes Carbon Dioxide (C + O2 = CO2). And when Carbon Dioxide is exposed to water some of them becomes Carbonic Acid (CO2 + H2O = H2CO3).  The habitat of peat swamp Marulioides is acidic and rich carbon in the soil. And it also happened that peat swamp Marulioides are plentiful with flowers as compared to open water marulioides. I think I've just stumble on the key to flowering Maruliodes. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/peat-lands-and-greenhouse-gasses/ We now kno...

Comparison 3rd day after CO2 injection After my success with the first fish with CO2, I've decided to buy a pressurized system. With the proper system I can choose to inject as many tank as I wish. Besides a pressurized system is much more effective in dosing CO2.  I started with the Black tank fish as it is just next to the 9bars CO2 tank that was first experiment with. Its easier to control both of them being neighbors. The pressurized system is not easy controlling the bubble count and I was kinda uneasy having to pump pressurized CO2 with this, I need to be careful as they comes in very fine bubbles that makes dissolving mighty effective. And too much of CO2 in still water couple with thicken surface can lead to disaster - CO2 poisoning.  Experiment with such precious fish makes me nervous. Anyhow I set the bubble count to around 5 seconds per bubbles, its hard work tweaking this, I spend 2 days doing so. I kept a close watched on both the fish for CO2 poi...