Yeah...Just received my Glossostigma elatinoides and Hair Grass

Gonna make a short post....Finally I just received my pack of Glossostigma elatinoides and Hair Grass. My Dad help me to bring them back from Peninsular Malaysia, today. He arrived home at 1am in the morning.

LOL......I started planting some of them at around 2am in the morning.....Oh boy, I'm so tired :(

I'll post some pics later, so that's it for now :)

Borneo Suckers (Gastromyzon aeroides and Gastromyzon extrorsus)...

Okay, I finally get the pics and video all up. So this is it, pictures and video of G. aeroides and G. extrorsus, the water parameters and not to forget, as promised, pic of my largest caught G. extrorsus which measured 95mm.

I have created an album (more pics) for each species, just click on the pictures and you will be directed to my picture album.

Gastromyzon aeroides...I like this one, because they have very nice sky blue dorsal and caudal fins.

From Gastromyzon aeroides Album 1

Gastromyzon extrorsus...their rostrum reminds me of pinocchio....haha

From Gastromyzon extrorsus Album 1

And this is the largest caught G. extrorsus with a total length of 95mm, almost reaching 4 inch long.

From Gastromyzon extrorsus Album 1

Here's a short video of G. extrorsus swimming in their natural habitat that I manage to captured

And finally, here's the water parameters of both G. extrorsus and G. aeroides habitat

Temperature: 29.56°C
pH: 6.0 - 7.0
Hardness: 2°dKH (approx. 36 ppm KH)
Sampling time: 2.15 pm
Date: 18th June 2009
Climate description: Drought

Lastly as reminder, Please this is for information purpose only. Parameters may varies during climate change. It is not advisable to comply exactly to the above parameters, thank you :)

The hunt for Borneo Suckers (G. aeroides and G. extrorsus) - 18th June 2009

Yesterday, me and lil sis went to hunt for Borneo Suckers, Gastromyzon aeroides and Gastromyzon extrorsus. The spot we went is about 30-45 minutes, easy drive away from our house. It wasn't really a planned trip, we were just curious to find out, as the documented location for this species is quite nearby our home compare to where we went to hunt for G. auronigrus and G. cornusaccus.

We started our journey quite late, at around 10am. When we reached there, I took some photos of interesting spots, before we started collecting. Have a look...

Man made path for crossing this river


View from the man made path towards downstream


A car crossing the path


Lil sis checking for sign of suckers, see the crystal clear water?...too bad this river is protected, so can't collect here.

There are many large river like this in Sabah which are protected for the local villagers. This is good practice, as it prevent illegal fishing, but bad news for us fish collectors :(...haha

However we manage to find some smaller streams to collect the suckers....but...

Some small stream where G. extrorsus are spotted


Another stream where G. entrorsus are spotted

Though we spotted quite a number of suckers here, but both this stream seems a little difficult to catch the suckers. I guess their population is quite small here, and they disappear into hiding real fast. So we decided to find a larger river nearby. And we finally found one, and actually started catching at around 1pm.

Looks calm ehh....but...


Most part of the river looks like this...fast flowing water


Catch of the day, Gastromyzon aeroides and Gastromyson extrorsus

At around 3pm I finally call it a day, as I was not feeling that well. Felt really exhausted, I guess maybe due to dehydration and the hot weather.

One of the most interesting catch of the day was a 95mm (almost 4 inch) long G. extrorsus. It's really a large one, seem like it broke the recorded documented size. I will post the pic in the next post. Also I managed to capture a short video of G. extrorsus in the wild. All this will be published in the next post....so stay tune :)

Photos of Gastromyzon cornusaccus

And here are some pics of Gastromyzon cornusaccus that I recently caught. Enjoy the pics....:)

Gastromyzon cornusaccus side view


Gastromyzon cornusaccus top view


Not sure if it's adult, but mostly caught are this sizes

To view more of Gastromyzon cornusaccus photos please click the link below
More Gastromyzon cornusaccus pictures

Photos of Gastromyzon monticola

I have manage to photograph the Gastromyzon monticola that I caught recently. Here are some of G. monticola pictures...enjoy :)

Gastromyzon monticola side view


Gastromyzon monticola top view

To view more of Gastromyzon monticola photos please click the link below
More Gastromyzon monticola pictures

Borneo Sucker Trip (13th June 2009) - Home...

At around 3.30pm we decided to pack and head home. Though the hunting hours is short, the trip is worthwhile afterall. We had indeed explored a new place, which neither of us had ever encounter before, despite my dad who used to travel alot during his working days. The hunting spot was amazingly beautiful. We told ourselves that we must come back to spend at least one night there to experience the wonderful world of nature :)

So back again to the 1 hour ride on rough and bumpy road. Along the way, we did stop by one of the smaller stream to try our luck for Gastromyzon auronigrus. But still none, mostly G. monticola. At that time, it was just a simple tryout catch, so didn't measure the parameters. However, I would like to state that the water temperature is slightly higher, probably around 29°C to 30°C. Anyway it's not accurate, so don't try and set your Gastromyzon tank to 30°C :). But honestly the water there is much warmer compare to our initial hunting spot.

So after failing to collect G. auronigrus we finally decided to head home.

We reached home at around 7.30pm. It was already dark then. So we unload our stuff, and the fishes. I placed the fishes in their quarantine tanks, ate diner, made my first post about this trip, bath, and sleep. LOL......the journey was tiring......haha, and best of all we enjoyed ourselves. And dad just KO after diner......haha. Lil sis, hah! still have the energy to spent some time watching video....of course, she didn't do much accept for scooping the fishes....haha, she told me that she couldn't stop thinking about Gastromyzon auronigrus when she tries to sleep...so the reason to go watching some videos.

Anyway 13th June 2009 is one of the intresting day in our life :)

Photos of G. cornusaccus and G. monticola will be up soon.....stay tune.

Borneo Sucker Trip (13th June 2009) - Water parameters...

Okay, as usual, if anyone reading my blog and would want to know the water parameters of the river which is home to G. auronigrus, G. cornusaccus and G. monticola...here it is:

Temperature: 27.6°C
pH: 7.5
Hardness: 6°dKH (approx. 107 ppm KH)
Sampling time: 11.30 pm
Date: 13th June 2009
Climate description: Drought

Please this is for information purpose only. Parameters may varies during climate change. It is not advisable to comply exactly to the above parameters, thank you :)

30°C for G. monticola habitat? Read more bout it in the next post :)

Borneo Sucker Trip (13th June 2009) - Hunting for Gastromyzon auronigrus...

Part of our main objective of this trip was to hunt the Gastromyzon auronigrus. It was documented that the river we went collecting are home of 3 types of Gastromyzon species, G. auronigrus, G. cornusaccus and G. monticola.

However during this trip we only manage to collect G. cornusaccus and G. monticola. Base on my rough speculation, percentage sighting chance of G. auronigrus, G. cornusaccus and G. monticola in a calm river is around 0.1%, 1.9% and 98% respectively. Haha, honestly, it's quite difficult to tell the difference of the suckers in riffles, especially between cornusaccus and monticola. One can sight an adult monticola easily, but a little difficult to sight the cornusaccus as the cornusaccus is rather a smaller species compare to the monticola and might resemble the monticola juvenile.

On the other hand, I did not even had the chance of sighting the G. auronigrus. That 0.1% sighting chance is based on my lil sis claim that she did saw a G. auronigrus swiming near the river bank, and by the time she wanted to show me, it went into hiding under some boulder. What an opportunity :(

The same goes to the percentage collecting rate. 0% for G. auronigrus, 9.6% for G. cornusaccus and 90.4% for G. monticola. Haha...what an unexpected trip. We thought that we were able to at least collect one G. auronigrus, since my lil sis claim she sighted one........:(

It's okay for me and dad, we will come back next time for G. auronigrus. This time better, we plan to camp there since it's such a beautiful place, so we will have more time to hunt for G. auronigrus. Hahaha....lil sis felt regretted during the whole journey back home for able to sight the G. auronigrus but not able to even collect a single piece.

Dad and lil sis taking a good inspection of what they caught.....G. auronigrus? Hahaha, not a chance :(


Home of G. auronigrus, G. cornusaccus and G. monticola


Very nice river...the forest here is untouched...love it:)

I'll spare the next post for the water parameters.........:)

Borneo Sucker Trip (13th June 2009) - Dry season...

During our journey to our designated spot, we noticed that there's sign of drought. While traveling on the red earth road we saw some small stream were dried up. The trees and grasses along the road were covered with dust and in some part, instead of green plant, they all turn into red, cause of dust from the red earth road. Boy, it must have not been raining for quite some time.

Some part of the river in the national park are dried up


Certain part of the river turned into a pool during the drought

Anyway the drought doesn't limit us to collect some suckers...

Gastromyzon monticola and Gastromyzon cornusaccus

This is the only sucker picture I capture during the trip...I regreted for not able to capture picture and video of them in the wild :(

Find out about the hunt for Gastromyzon auronigrus in the next post...

Borneo Sucker Trip (13th June 2009) - The Journey...

Here's the full story of my Borneo Sucker Trip on the 13th June 2009...

We (me, dad and lil sis) started our journey from house at around 7.30am. It was a fine Saturday morning. It took us about 3 hours drive to our destination town. And another about 1 hour drive from the town to our designated spot for sucker collection.

First 3 hour road drive was fine (tar road all the way), but the other 1 hour drive was rather rough and bumpy (gravel and red earth).

At around 11.30am we finally reach our destination. It's rather secluded deep in the jungle. And there's a national park which I think is quite new, setup for the purpose to prevent illegal logging and preserve the forest flora and fauna. Well I guess maybe it's new, cause I didn't saw any lodge where you can put up a night. However, there are camp site for campers. It's such a beautiful place, the river is damn crystal clear, and best of all you can find natural made jacuzzi in some part of the river, YES natural made jacuzzi where the flow of the water gives your body that nice massage and we actually plan to go back and camp here. The forest is untouched, accept for the road construction which connects local villagers to the town.

Arrgh! If only I have take some pictures......I made a mistake for not taking some pics of the place. I was actually saving my camera memory and battery for photos and video of Borneo Sucker in the wild, but turn out it was wasted after all, I didn't manage to photograph or video any wild suckers.....sad.

By the way, the national park is located across the river and here's one interesting photo that I manage to capture which I think could explain...

See that 4x4 crossing the river? We are actually waiting in queue to cross

Hah! This is good experience...and not many people have experienced this :) This is real river crossing and not any man made path. Real Fun!

To be continued...find out more in the next post....

Borneo Sucker Trip (13th June 2009)......

Would like to do a real quick post....

Just came back from a Borneo Sucker hunting trip today.....was excited with what I caught, and would like to take their pictures and post it here......but when we arrived home, it's already dark, all we can manage to do is just place the fishes into their quarantine tank :)

Will be posting up their pictures real soon, this is exciting, cant wait to do this.

There's alot to say about this trip, I will spare it in the next post. And boy, we (me, lil sis, and dad) are damn tired after this 1 day trip. Bout 8 hours driving up and back home :(.......

Will get some rest now, and begin updating this blog in the next few days.....stay tune, this is gonna be interesting as you will see new pictures of some Borneo Sucker that you cant find anywhere in the net :)

Cheers :)
Borneo Sucker

P.S. I haven't even take my bath when I did this post......see how excited am I? See you soon

Step By Step DIY Java Moss Wall Update (20 days later)

It's about 20 days since I started making the moss wall. Here's an update image and video of my DIY moss wall.

little moss leaf start to grow out of the plastic mesh

The past few weeks, was wondering whether the moss will ever grow, since it's my first time making a moss wall. And what got me worried is the small mesh size of the plastic mesh I was using....Well feeling a slight relief now, since I saw some leaf starts growing out of the plastic mesh.

While waiting for the moss to grow that little....I did some changes to my tank lighting and also pump in CO2. I guess both the new lighting and CO2 did help the moss to grow.

Will do a post on what I did to my lighting and CO2 later :)....guess what, it's all DIY :)

Pictures of my Borneo Sucker (Gastromyzon sp.)

I think I have created some curiosity to Borneo Sucker Lovers, when I publish my first video on Borneo Sucker in the wild. People were asking what species were they belong to? Honestly, I myself can’t tell...even after referring to Dr. Tan’s Borneo Sucker book.

So I decided to post pics of the suckers I caught, hopefully someone can tell what species they belong to...Here are some of the pics, you can view more of my pics here at My Borneo Sucker (Gastromyzon sp.) - Album 1

There are few type of colour pattern you can see here, however they have the same caudal and dorsal fin colour. All of them have red/orange at the edge of their fins.

Enjoy :)

From My Borneo Sucker (Gastromyzon sp.) - Album 1

From My Borneo Sucker (Gastromyzon sp.) - Album 1

From My Borneo Sucker (Gastromyzon sp.) - Album 1

From My Borneo Sucker (Gastromyzon sp.) - Album 1

Water parameters of Borneo Sucker (Gastromyzon sp.) habitat

Okay, in addition to the moss collecting trip, I also brought along some simple test kit to measure the water parameters of Borneo Suckers (Gastromyson sp.) natural habitat. The idea to measure the water parameters was a result by interested parties around the world requesting for more infos about this suckers. So here it is...

Some waterfall at upstream...people use to come here for picnic

For the image above, the parameters are:
Temperature: 24.8°C
pH: 7.5
Hardness: 3°dKH (approx. 54 ppm KH)
Sampling time: 1.00 pm

The spot I used to catch this suckers about 1km downstream from the spot above

For the image above, the parameters are:
Temperature: 25.7°C
pH: 7.5
Hardness: 2°dKH (approx. 36 ppm KH)
Sampling time: 2.30 pm

But as a warning, I’m limited to only three of this water parameters...and if in any case, if you find that the infos are not enough or inaccurate please give me a comment, and I’ll try to work things out.

Collecting Moss...

This was not a planned trip. It was just an intention to collect moss to prepare for a breeding tank. So we (me, my sis and girlfriend) went to the same spot where we had caught Borneo Suckers, because I spotted moss growing in that area in my previous trip. Can’t tell what species, as I’m not good in plants :(

Same time we also spent some time catching some suckers. The same type of suckers as in previous post.

Anyway, here’s some of the pics of the moss I collected...

Moss growing in the wild

A little close up of how they look like in nature

Collected moss...

After cleaning...

Java moss? I can't tell :(

Borneo Suckers (Gastromyzon sp.) feeding on cucumber

Okay, here's a video I made about my suckers feeding on cucumber. I was just playing and testing around the food source that I can obtain from my kitchen. Cucumber seems to fit the menu...

They will start eating from the middle/inside of the cucumber which is softer, and work their way out to the harder part of the cucumber.

Hmm...not sure what's the nutritional fact like, but I guess they can't thrive solely on cucumber, so this is just a treats for my suckers.

On the other hand, I do feed algae to my suckers....maybe make a video how I feed algae to my suckers in the future, in the meantime, enjoy this video :)