Borneo Suckers, Gastromyzon sp. in the wild video

Okay, this video was shot during my fish hunting trip on 26th May 2009.

I don't think National Geographic or Discovery have ever documented on this fishes......lol

Anyway this is my simple, down to earth, video documentary on Borneo suckers.

Enjoy...

Terrapin brought us luck on 26th May 2009 fish hunt...

After an unsuccesful hunt in the evening the day before, we (me and my sis) decided for another try today. Well we didn't go back the same place, but instead we went somewhere near our home, and also this time we went there in the morning.

One of Borneo suckers natural habitat

Borneo suckers grazing on rocks feeding on microbes and algae

It's a waterfall we try today. The picture above shows the natural habitat of Borneo Suckers, Gastromyzon sp. and how they suck and graze on rocks.

LOL...that's the best picture I can capture, using my digital camera. Anytime I try to get near them for a better shot, they will skitter away.

In the beginning, it's impossible to catch even one, they skitter of immediately into deeper water and hide when they saw us coming into the water. You know, it's hard to catch them when they are in deeper water.

So we decided to go for a hike up the waterfall to see if there's any good and shallow spot for catching this suckers. Well we did found some shallow spot, but still we can't even get one....hahaha, I guess they went into hiding the moment they saw us.....lol

While searching for signs of suckers, suddenly my sis shouted at me, "Hey, there's a tortoise, arrr....no, no a terrapin......is it?".....LOL my sis was amaze till she can't tell the different from a tortoise and a terrapin, as this is her first time sighting a terrapin in the wild. I myself was puzzled as well to find a terrapin in a waterfall...and that's not that, it's up on a hill as well.

A very unusual terrapin we found

Okay, I know the correct name for it should be soft-shelled turtle, but......lol we have been using the term "terrapin" to describe this kind of turtle.

We've never seen this kind of terrapin before, the colour marking is different from what we normally see, so we decided to adopt it as our new pet.

It was almost noon then, we decided to go back the place we came from, since we didn't manage to catch any sucker. We try to give that deep pool another try. A few trials we faild, but suddenly, out of sudden, an idea of catching these sucker just struck my mind....and after that, catching them was pretty easy, especially in deeper water.

Catch of the day...

Colour variant (striped and spotted)...I guess they are still the same species

So the picture above are some of the suckers we caught in about 1 hour time....after finish catching, we were really hungry and decided to go home for lunch.

I guess the terrapin must have brought us luck.....:)

Borneo sucker hunting with lil' sis on 25th May 2009

The stream we went hunting

Today's hunt wasn't that fruitful....didn't get what we expected, though we do manage to catch some hillstream loach or Borneo suckers, but all of them are small.

We started hunting at around 3pm but I guess it's probably not the right timing to hunt this suckers. Based on my other evening hunt, I also experienced this results.

and there's my lil's sis

Besides the suckers, we also collected other fishes, but yet to be identified. As far as my fish identification knowledge is, one of them is a loach, but I have no clue what type....And also few types of fishes which I guess belongs to the Cyprinid family.

My digital camera, really cant take good quality close up shot, so I'm not able to post the fish picture here. Probably will post it sometime in the future, when I have a beter shot.

If anyone doesn't know how Borneo Sucker looks like, I do have pictures of them from my previous hunt......they do look similar to butterfly loach.

Borneo Sucker/hillstream loach, Gastromyzon sp.

Okay....that's it for now, will be planning another hunting trip soon.....:)

Step By Step DIY Java Moss Wall

Okay...here's my first DIY for My Little Underwater Eden.

See this kind of aquarium plastic background?

Ordinary aquarium plastic background

Well this came together with the aquarium I got from my junior....It's very common, and I find it quite lame.....so here's what I did to make my aquarium more interesting...

I made my own background, and a more lively one, in fact it is real life. And this is what they call "Moss Wall."

Okay, here's an example of what a moss wall looks like when properly done....

Source - www.aquamoss.net

Source - www.aqmagic.com

Ofcourse those moss wall are not mine......I just finish making mine, and waiting for it to grow...Anyway if you like to have one of this moss wall and were thinking of how to make one your own, then watch my "Step By Step DIY Java Moss Wall Video".......hope you enjoy the videos and find it informative

My Sundadanio axelroti...

Right....another fish species that was given to me by my junior. And another fish that I can't get a good shot of them. So again I cited picture from other website.....have a look...

Image source - jmorgan.zenfolio.com

Image source - ibanorum.netfirms.com

A very peaceful native of blackwater fish from Borneo.

What is interesting about this fish is its colour. Originally the body is transparent, accept for the abdomen. And at one glance don't seem attractive at all. But look again, at a different angle, you will see a luminous blue green running across the body.

Initially I have no idea about this fish the first time I went to collect them from my junior. When I first saw them, I was telling myself, what is this boy upto again? previously he told me he was keeping wild betta, then endlers....and now something not quite attractive......(that's my first impression on the Sundadanio axelrodi).....just pale looking fish.....LOL

Then he told me this is wild caught, and quite exotic......and also the colour will turn blue, when they are kept in better conditions......believing what he said, it is true afterall....they are beutiful fishes.

Hope I can keep them as long as possible, and will try to breed them when they are in better health condition. As for now, they are slowly acclimatizing as I notice most of them are quite thin when I first brought them home, I guess they are left abandon when they were with my junior.....LOL

My Boraras brigittae once belong to somebody else...

Okay...I would like to introduce one of my fish, Mr. and Mrs Boraras brigittae......which was once belonging to my junior :)

I would like to post my own pic of my Boraras brigittae, but I couldn’t take any good picture of them, maybe sometime later when I have a good picture then I will post them here.

Anyway I cited some pictures and here is how Boraras brigittae looks like

Image source - Aquatic-Photography.com

Image source - AquariumFish.com

More information on Boraras brigittae can be found here:
SeriuslyFish.com

AquariumFish.com

My Little Underwater Eden...

This blog was created as a dedication to My Little Underwater Eden as well as my other relating hobbies......

Okay..... My Little Underwater Eden is actually my freshwater planted aquarium, and honestly I have no intention to want to keep or start this kind of aquarium. In fact, I have stop keeping aquarium fishes for quite sometimes now.....till this came up....

Now this is how I got it all started......Hah! This was simply a pass down hobby by my junior. He has to go for his internship, and therefore pass over his (18in x 12in x 12in) aquarium with some plants and fishes (Boraras brigittae and Sundadanio axelrodi) to me.

Actually he was planning to pass it over to somebody else, but that somebody (also my other junior) didn’t turn up.....LOL.....So That’s How I Got Back Into This Hobby Again.

Ohh......Planted Tank!....The last time I could remember keeping a planted tank......Wow! About 14 years ago, when I was around 11 years old. I was keeping guppies, tetras, corrydoras. Then I moved on to breeding Discus.....no more freshwater plants, just clear bare bottom tanks.....till now........GOSH!!! Taking over this really makes me roll up my sleeves!

By the way, I no more breed discus.....I’m culturing African catfish, clarias gariepinus for commercial purpose.....so no more aquariums, but tanks...poly tanks....things are getting bigger and bigger.....no more using air pump for aquarium, now I’m using blower....

Anyway thanks to my junior, I have the chance to revive back my long lost hobby.

So back to My Little Underwater Eden, I was left with...quite a messy tank...some of the fish especially the Sundadanio axelrodi didn’t really eat well the first day I brought them home, the plants don’t look healthy, actually my junior is keeping the plants without any substrate plus without lighting for quite sometime......LOL......he told me those plants are hardy, so I guess no problem.

Oh yeah, he told me he was busy for his thesis....so less attention for his fishes.....haha.

Okay, basically I reused the stuff that he had left me, 2 driftwood, sponge filter, light, plants (can’t identify the plants accept for the java moss), and aquarium.

Well here’s what I did...I added gravels as substrate, I made a moss wall out of the java moss he left me, I’m giving lights to the plants now, added some corrydoras, wild caught loaches and shrimps. Hope the plants and fishes will grow healthy.

And there’s more plans for My Little Underwater Eden.....I’m going to make a proper light hood for the aquarium to give better light penetration into the water, change the sponge filter to a powered filter, add a CO2 generator and etc.

Most of this future plans will be DIY unless impossible for me to DIM (Do It Myself).......so that’s what will keep this blog alive. I will post my DIY methods here in the new future. So stay tune. Enjoy My Little Underwater Eden Pics........talk soon.

Front view of My Little Underwater Eden

Side view of My Little Underwater Eden