More On Patin Fish @ Pangasius

The dory meat from Patin.

Since they are omnivorous, the Patin will generally eat all kinds of live, fresh, and flake foods. To keep a good balance give them a high quality flake food or pellet everyday. Feed brine shrimp (either live or frozen) or blood worms. As they get older they loose their teeth and become more and more vegetarian. These catfish get up to 39 inches (100 cm). Yes, over 3 feet long! When they are young they like to school up, but will become more and more solitary as the get older. They are generally a good community fish and can be kept with most size tanks. About their sexuality, you will note that the males are more slender than the females and have darker striping.

The Pangasius catfish are a beautiful fish to watch as they are very grateful and elegant swimmers. Yes. They do looks like a shark. They also need a lot of room to swim and are best kept in a group or school in a pond. They don't thrive as well if kept singly when small. These catfish does not possess the bottom dwelling habit we usually identify with most catfishes, but rather occupies the middle of the aquarium. They are constantly on the move and will occasionally go to the surface for air. These fish are also diurnal, meaning they are active during the day. Be cautious though, these catfish have bad eyesight and they are a nervous fish that can be easily spooked! (Mine got used to it and stop freaking out). If you put these catfish in an aquarium, don't tap on the glass or startle the fish as it is likely to injure itself in its' mindless flight. They can get hysterical when frightened and dash madly around the aquarium. They will often bash into the sides of the aquarium, ornaments or other fish. After such a flight, you may see the fish sink to the bottom of the aquarium and lie on its side or back until it recovers.

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The Black Patin Recipe

Bon appetit~!

The Sour Boiled Catfish (Asam Rebus) is another favorite recipe and traditional way of cooking the Black Patin. There are a lot of delicious catfish recipes such as fried catfish recipe, baked catfish recipes, cajun catfish recipe, grilled catfish recipe, catfish fillet recipes, catfish steaks, catfish stew recipe, soups, chowders and more.

Note the fat (yellow colour). The Black Patin is known for its very smooth and oily flesh.

Looks like a shark.

The original Patin is very popular in the East Coast of Malaysia as these are caught from the rivers and sometimes in brackish water.

This Patin is 1.1 Kg.

Black Patin is a freshwater catfish reared in fish farms which most people shun because of the strong, fishy, ‘earthy’ smell. Over here in Malaysia, we mostly consume fishes from the seas as fishes are easily available as we are surrounded the oceans.

INGREDIENTS 

1 kg patin, cleaned and cut in three to five portions
Ingredients A

• 6 pieces red chillies
• 5 pieces red onions
• 2 pieces garlic
• 3 pieces lemon grass

Ingredients B

• 1 piece of bunga kantan, sliced
• 3 sprigs kesum (bot: polygonum) leaves (or substitute with mint)
• 4 pieces of dried tamarind slices (asam gelugor) 
• 4 slices of Turmeric a.ka Kunyit in Malay.
• 750 ml water

Cooking Method

1. Add ingredients A and blend them until fine.
2. Mix the ingredients A and B in the pot. Cook for about 20 minutes under medium heat until boiled and until fragrance rises.
3. Put in the fish and simmer until the fish is cooked for about 10 minutes. 

SERVING STYLE

This traditional dish is normally served and eaten with the plain steamed white rice. It also makes for a wonderful dish if taken with fine or whole-meal wheat bread, pancakes and the roti canai.

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More On Marble Goby

The Marble Goby is a large, solitary, slow-moving fish which rests undisturbed on the bottom of quiet streams, canals and lakes. It rarely moves, even when disturbed. It preys on other fish, which are oblivious to its presence.

It is best identified in the field by the large head, the symmetrical patterning on the dorsal surface and by the rounded, outstretched pectoral fins. This specimen is well camouflaged at the bottom of a shallow stream.

Know to millions of Southeast Asians as 'Soon Hock', it is considered good eating and is to be found in the live tanks of Chinese restaurants.

The Marbled Goby occurs in many parts of Southeast Asia including Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.


A Hope For Jasper

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Me and My Sister a.k.a partner

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How to release fishes in a pond

Introducing your newly acquired fish into your pond involves much more than just ripping open the plastic bag which they were transported home in, and pouring the fish into the pond. If this is done you are soon likely to regret it. (Trust me.. I tried..haha..)

Fish should NOT be carried home in an unwrapped plastic bag.This will add to the level of stress already induced by the fish being netted and placed into the plastic bag.

You should cover the plastic bag with newspaper, paper bag or an insulated polystyrene box. This will help enormously in settling the fish down.

When you arrive home you should follow the steps indicated below.

1. Float sealed bag for about 20 minutes

2. Open bag and add some pond water to bag

3. Refloat opened bag for another 20 minutes

4. Release fish

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Rifle CS B-44

Shoot To Kill!

Monitor lizards beware!

Monitor lizards @ biawak are really a nuisance in fish breeding. Once these lizards know there are foods @fishes in the pond, they will kept on coming until all the fishes are gone.


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Newly Caught Marble Goby

The three stooges

The One That Didn't Made It

Few day ago my friends went fishing at the Ramayah River. They caught a pretty handful of fishes. Some Tilapias, Puyus, Lampan Jawa and three Ketutus @ Marble Goby. I bought the marble goby from them for RM 30.00 give or take. Two of the marble goby went straight to quarantine. The other one can't make it because of a fish hook was stucked way down in its mouth. Yeah... too bad. That night I had fried marble goby for dinner.


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Carpet Grass For Earth Pond

The earth pond project is complete but there are still works to be done with it. Weeds to be thrown to keep it tidy. Rocks to be install and maybe I'll put some flowers here and there. My first of many tasks is to remove all the weed around the bund and then I'll grow carpet grass on the bund and around the pond. I've bought a dozen of carpet grass seeds few days ago. Why I chose carpet grass? Its because carpet grass grows relatively well in low-fertile soils and soils with low PH levels. It is also well adapted to moderately drained sandy or sandy-loam soils (in Malay - Gambut). Perfect for areas with heavy annual rainfall and well suited for hilly or flat earth.


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Canvas Pond

Rings are 1/2 ft apart.

Height 2 fts. (Water depth 1ft)

Long 7 fts.

Width 5 fts.

Canvas pond are gaining popularity nowadays. Most people likes to purchase ready made structured settlement for their fishes because they can moved it to anywhere they want their pond to be. It is quite cheap and you don't have to get secured loan from your local bank to build one or more. It lasts long and you can consider selling these structured settlements to your friends. I have been frequently asked about how did I build my canvas pond. It is quite easy actually. Mine is the size of 5ft x 7ft x 2ft. I fill it with water until the level reached 1ft. Please note that when you purchase your canvas pond from any retailer, make sure it got double lining, sewn and glued. Some retailer just glued the canvas. My first canvas pond was the glue type and within one week the pond burst. Stress! Stress! The second canvas pond was custom made. It was sewn and glued, I never have to worry about it getting burst. The rings for the ropes are half a foot apart. You may want to place your canvas pond near a water source. Surely you don't want to have to carry buckets of water to fill your pond. Good luck on installing your pond guys.


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Riveting wildlife

That evening I sat by the pond at dusk and watched the marble goby appear from their hiding places around the new pond. One evening I heard them splashing from opposite sides of the pond. I had no idea what they were communicating to one another, but I hope they weren't saying "I preferred the old place, didn't you?"

Whether the pond's water looking clean or rather green, the marble goby seem to like it. The pond has been used by marble goby since it was first created, and is now also a home to large adult frogs, juvenile year-old frogs, froglets ,frogspawn ,tadpoles which is a natural food source and diet for my dear marble goby. 

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Stress and die

This particular marble goby was the one I last relocate in the canvas pond. I think it died due to stress. Too bad, it weighted nearly 700 grams.


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Relocation

I moved everything gently in case marble goby were sheltering inside the pvc pipes around the canvas pond, as, I discovered, many of them were. I then had to lift them out with a plastic bucket and direct them towards the adjacent new pond. Safely transferring the last marble goby out of the canvas pond took a while, as by this point the water had been muddied so much it was difficult to see where the marble goby had gone. It was eventually located and safely relocated. I put the condominium @ pvc pipes inside the new pond and some tilapia fry for the marble goby. I hope they like it.


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Tending the pond

My pond is small and at times full of algae, with the water looking rather murky. Apart from fishing out excess algae, and occasional tending to the pond plants, my pond is left alone to do its thing. Sometimes the water clears, sometimes it's rather hard to see down past the first couple of inches.


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Pictures of my 'Spawning' Pond

Digging out the earth was difficult enough, getting the ledges within it and the levels around it right even harder. Much trial and error was in order, as I tried to visualise what the pond might look like once full of water. I can generally picture what planting combinations might look like, but with water, I'm rubbish. But I got there in the end.


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Earth Pond Completed

Finally the earth pond project I've been working on is complete. It is 20' x 20' and 1' to 2' deep (some area up to 3'). It was due to heavy rainfalls that I have to abandon deepening it to 4'. The pond was constructed in late August 2009, to provide a better home for the marble gobies. The only way I could make space for this new and slightly larger affair was to dig up a rather wet and moist soil near my house, whose wild kang-kong had been spreading for several years.


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Tilapia Fishing Spot

Ingredient : garlic, sesame oil,onion, red dates
ginger

My Steamed Snakehead...remember to rinse it
Asam Jawa water before putting in all the ingredient.

Fishing is one of my favourite hobbies. Last week I went fishing with my friends near Donggongon town. We arrived at Puun Tunoh river around 2 p.m. To my surprise, there are already a few group of people at the site. Some were casting nets (jala), and the rest are using rods and reels. The fish they're targeting are Tilapia. While I and my friends were using prawns and squids as bait, these people used fungus or water alga. These algas can be found nearby. The catches were not bad. Tilapia the size of both my palm combined! One guy caught Tilapia the size of a tyre reem. Thats the biggest Tilapia I ever seen! Live! I tried using this water alga but it keep dropping from the hook even before it touches the water. I wonder if there is any way I can keep the water alga (lumut) from dropping. I caught only 1 fish that day. A common snakehead (haruan). Weighted aroung 500 grams, not a fair fight at all. I keep the fish in my quarantine aquarium for three days. The fourth day, it went directly to the pot. Yummy~!


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Earth Pond

I am checking out a suitable site to build an earth pond for Tilapia and Patin.


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Quarantine Your Marble Goby

Wild marble goby in quarantine. This step is a must.


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