Selamat Hari Raya to All

Lemang, Ketupat, Rendang, Gulai Ayam, Serondeng, Soto, Laksa, Kek Lapis Sarawak, Pulut Kuning, Ayam Masak Jawa, Butter Chicken, Makaroni Bakaq etc etc...

Above all and most importantly, forgiveness, family and friends...

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri. Maaf zahir dan batin.

Lots of love. ;)

Random Pix of My Babies

I just wanna share some recent pix of my "babies"... ;)

The Electric Catfish, an early pre-birthday present from the lovely Juliana.


My Aba Aba Knifefish, the plastic tubings used to be long enough for the fish to hide in!


Polypterus endlicheri, the Endlis' Bichir, another early birthday present, by Fins N' Greens


2 of 3 of my African Arowana, Heterotis niloticus, my own birhtday present for myself


A "tangle" of Ropefish

A friend once said that if you owns 15 cats, you're crazy BUT, if you have 15 aquariums at home then you're HARDCORE! ;)

Owh... Selamat Berpuasa to all of our muslim friends...

Nothing :)

Satu Petang Yang Hangat Di Dalam Mini Studio Di Laman Padi Langkawi...


Senyum.... Tak Perlu kata Apa-Apa...

Waiting... Waiting...

I'm waiting for my new "babies"... They'll be arriving tomorrow kot... I've divided my current lungfish tank into 2... It should fit them both comfortably...

1 tip of successfully keeping a lungfish is to have a mesh divider between the fish and what ever wired aquarium appliances that you might want to include in its tank and between the fish and also, a tight fitting lid... They're deceptively strong...

Here's a face pix of my new lungfish... I've posted the tail end in the previous post. It'll be arriving with a shipment of the African Freshwater Butterfly Fish (Pantodon buchholzi).

It's sooooooooooooooooooooooo CUTE!

The Saddled Bichir (Polyopterus endlicheri) and the Ropefish (Eirpetoicthys calabaricus) will be arriving next week due to some reason. The stock is not stable enough to ship. That's a GOOD REASON enough... Happy, happy...

I have a friend who is capable of bringing this species Neoceratodus forsteri, the Australian Lungfish direct from Australia with CITES documentation and ID chip, of course.

YES! The Australian Lungfish, Neoceratodus forsteri is available for sale in Malaysia. No kidding!

Look me up on facebook if you're in Malaysia and is interested to be the select few proud owner of this species.

I am saving up to buy one too... :)

Coming Soon...

I am adding more to my collection...

Another lungfish. I've ordered for Protopterus aethiopicus (the Leopard/Marbled Lungfish) and Lepidosiren paradoxa (the South American Lungfish) but came across a cheap Protopterus annectens (almost 12", less than RM100), I just can't resist!

Basically, I was looking for these-

Adult Lepidosiren paradoxa

Protopterus aethiopicus (baby)

Protopterus aethiopicus (adult)

that is one very big fish or a very petite dude!

Here's a photo of the actual fish, resting in an aquarium some where in KL at my Kaki Cari Ikan brother GG Ming of Fins N' Greens (he's on facebook, check him out)!

Protopterus annectens (kot?)

It'll be coming to Langkawi next week... I just can't wait!!!

Also... I've just confirmed an order of 6 of these!!!

Erpetoichthys calabaricus the Rope/Reed/Snakefish...

The net listed its maximum size at 3 feet but they're slow grower. Most max out at 20".

They're like olive green snake with fins...

A well-fed (fat) ropefish... They're related to the Bichirs (Polyopterus sp.)

In case you don't know what's a Bichir is...

The beautiful Polyopterus endlicheri, I might be getting one too.... ekekeke

The more commonly seen in Langkawi Polyopterus senegalus

The slightly more expensive albino Senegal Bichir...

And MAYBE a few of these!!!

Pantodon buchholzi the African Butterfly Fish. It kinda looks like the Asian Arowana Scleropages formosus.

Kinda looks like the Asian Arowana with long trailing fins...

Yes... It is related to the Asian Arowana

Surface dweller and surface feeding and a jumper... Very nice!

Simplicity

I'm enjoying the simple life.

Not bothering to set alarm at night.

Not bothering to rush.

Shower.

Do laundry.

I did cook today. Rice. Fried fried chicken in cornflour with garlic, ginger, cumin, black pepper and soya sauce.

I love it.

Hypselecara temporalis aka the Chocolate Cichlid

Last month (which kinda seemed like it was a long, long, long time ago) I went to the LFS near my office with the innocent intention of buying feeder goldfish for my Aba Aba.

Due to the lingering Tokay Gecko craze that hit the island not long ago, I had to wait, 10 long minutes just to buy RM1 worth of goldfish!

So being some one who has never succumbed to the temptation of impulse buying (just the fish that I forget to plan to get) I browsed around the shop and I must say, I browsed with non-interested eyes.

I know most of the bread and butter fish species at the shop. The usual neons, barbs, danios, platies, guppies, suckers, corys and cichlids...

Then I saw... They're something similar to the Indian Leaf Fish, Pristolepis marginata.

The beautiful Pristolepis marginata, locally known as "Ikan Patung". They are rarely seen but they do occur in the wild in Malaysia. Caught a huge number of them (piring/small plate-size) in Tasik Banding.

Then I looked again and then I remembered back in 1989, I think, I've kept this species before. Bought a 4" specimen for less than five ringgit from San Sui Aquarium in SP and the shop owner told me it was called "ikan sultan".

Yeah, what ever. Common names can be misleading... So lets call this by the proper scientific name then. It is Hypselecara temporalis, the Chocolate Cichlid.

It can change its color from brown-deep red-green-silver and back. Being young at the time, I then released this fish where it lived a very long life in my fathers telaga (in case you don't know, telaga=well) at his Durian orchard.

The next time I saw this species was back in 1996, just before the Ayam Serama aka the Bantam Chicken and the Lou Han / Flowerhorn / Amphilopus labiatus / Amphilopus trimaculatus hybrid hit Malaysia. Then almost every aquarium fish shop sell nothing but Flowerhorn!

They were 6-8 of them the size of a small plate and they were very beautiful and they were labelled "Lion King, NOT FOR SALE".

Amphilopus labiatus aka the Red Devil Cichlid, the great grand daddy of the Flowerhorn.

Amphilopus trimaculatus, the Trimac Cichlid, the other great grand daddy of the Flowerhorn.

Anyway, fast forward to some time in April 2011, I saw the lfs had 6 of them at RM15 a piece. I just had to have them! So here they are... In Aizzats' 3' aquarium for the time being...

They're about 3" long.


Shoaling close together minutes after release.

Getting bolder, exploring the new aquarium (new as is been running for 2 months without any fish, just a few hillstream shrimps in the tank for cycling).

I know they're not much to look at, at the moment except for the romantic swimming style (head pointing to the surface, swimming ala2 malas... I like!!!) but they'll grow and turn into these in a few months time... Behold!

Adult Hypselecara temporalis.

Here's an update of my Aba Aba, it kinda grew big and fast and getting more "finger-friendly"!

Buntet IV

Happy Hari Buruh

Here's looking forward to  a very long weekend and a busy month ahead . If you're working, have a happy Buruh Day to you.   It is also a good idea to catch up on the current buruh law as well. One can never be sure when you'll need it.t