FISHIOLOGY

Remarkable results What I was hoping for

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...

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...

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.

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...

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%.

I've so many pm from hobbyist asking me how do I groomed my maru with so beautiful flowers. The secret is not in the grooming it is in the fish gene. I would like to share my secret of how to select a champion fish. Since ppl keeps getting conned. This technique will provide you with almost 99% failed safe. No more toman belang. Bunga can be selected with fingerlings of 3". You just need to know the technique. Take note of the shimmering at the edge of the scales. And that shimmer will eventually turned into bunga or white patches. Maintaining the white patches and encouraging more white patches/bunga to grow is also important. And if bad husbandry is provided the bunga may disappear and never return. You need to hv a good eye sight and patience. Selecting fingerlings usually takes hours and you will soon be a nuisance to the fish store owner. So the next time someone tries to sell you a grade AAA terengganu but the fish hv no tell tail signs of...