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 :)