FISHIOLOGY

Yesterday I was invited to dinner by a group of Marulioides enthusiast, and the guest of honour is a person that are most respected in the marulioides field. The man is non other than The Grandmaster of Toman Bunga Mr. Siew . The event rendezvous was at Mr. Siew's place and I had the opportunity to exchange plenty of data with this great guy. Friendly and energetic, he was a great chatter. His knowledge of the Marulioides species is so vast and deep. What struck me most was his dedication, the passion he possessed for the marulioides species. When one is set on and gave absolute 100% dedications to your mission, you will achieve great things. Mr. Siew first explained to me how he had painstakingly collected Marulioides from Terengganu. Bringing the fish back alive is no easy task. He had been doing this in the 90s. At one point he even rented a house in Terengganu for this purpose. The fish was plentiful at that time. I believe he is the first person that had successfully bre...

I did a thinking the other day and something struck my mind of the Marulioides habitat. Flower performing specimen most time thrive in still water, low Ph and blackwater. When I had failed specimen they are most time related to fast moving water, powerful pump, air pump, high PH, these if you look at it in another angle are somehow related to the ratio of oxygen vs carbon dioxide. Is Carbon Dioxide one of the factor for flowering of the marulioides?  Or is starving of oxygen the caused for producing flowers. Remember open water and Marulioides from rivers has less flowers? How are the lack of oxygen causing a flower bloom? So the only way we can find out is to do a set up to test out this theory. I've practically ran out of tank to do so many types of experiment, thank god I still have 14pcs of Terengganu to try out. I choose the many band var which is the most stubborn of all types. From my understanding this is the controversial spec that is causing all the fights. The many b...

Actinic light is also a powerful tanning light as u can see from this example. 

The black tank pc update T5 tanning As you can see from the result of tanning , it will help with flower development but the gene is the main factor. I cant get every pieces with the same result. Some pieces do not have flowers development like this.  Choosing the right fish and invest your time raising it is far more important than depending on tanning alone. 

The first batch of actinic tanning fish result for nearly a month. What I did was I first started tanning on top for 3 days. And gave an interval of a few days. The 2nd tanning I hang the actinic light at the side for 3 days. The 3rd tanning I submerged the light into the water. Each tanning is done 7 hours for 3 or 4 days and then rest period. This is the result Tanning result First start the fish has some very faint flower marking that was hard to capture 1st Feb 2019 Partly submerged coz the other end is not waterproof. Just make do wire to avoid accident.

These are my Terengganus update they are about 5 inches now. The flower formation is still strong and some flowers has started growing pass the gold line. There are a lot of terengganus out there and to choose a Terengganu it is most important that you take note of the entire batch of fish. If they are above 4" and you do not notice any flowers developing then they are probably open water fish. Swamp Terengganus starts flowers formation at very young age, they begin as early as 3". Never fall into the band trap. Band does not dictate flowers, the connecting flowers or snakeskin form at the top part of the fish and not on the band below it.  This is a 5 band Terengganu, notice how the snakeskin is form, its on the top part! Choose a fish that you can already spot flowers. Never choose a fish that has 9 or 10 bands but does not show any flowers. You will be disappointed in the future. Terengganus are famous for its excessive flowers, so choose flowers inst...