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,...

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.

The Fish that started it all. (April 2014) I would like to share a story, the beginning of my fish keeping hobby that eventually got stuck with me from childhood till today. This is about a fish that had been hiding away from me for the past 30 odd years. This was the fish that inspired it all. When I was around 9 yrs old, my dad took us for a holiday trip to Singapore, we visited the Singapore Aquarium if I remember correctly. And in one of the tank on display I could not help but was instantly mesmerized by the blue fish, the body of the fish is painted in shocking blue color. I remembered clearly written on the side Toman - Channa Micropeltes because this was the first time I was introduced to the scientific names of fishes. After returning from the trip my crave for snakehead developed, I got a few snakeheads but never in blue. I asked around but nobody had ever seen or even heard of the blue Toman. I bought micros from fish shop and grow them till adult and to my disappointm...

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.

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%.