6 kg Gourami (Kalui) Caught In Kivatu River

I spent these past weekend over my parents at Kivatu, Penampang. The river near our house is a bit murky and cloudy because of the raining season. So my mom decided to bring me fishing before I went home. She said usually the murky and cloudy water in this area are filled with all these kinds of fish and more. It is best to fish after the rain stopped. And so off we go...

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Budu Secrets Exposed

Budu is a traditional food of Kelantan and Terengganu, Malaysia which is made from anchovies or pickled shrimp. It originates from the east coast of Malaysia and for a time became the study of nutrition experts from Japan, United States, Australia, New Zealand and Germany. 

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Top 10 Prehistoric Fish Alive Today

This list looks at fish that were around in remote, prehistoric times and have survived to our time, still keeping their “prehistoric” looks to prove it. Feel free to mention those I have excluded in the comments.

10. Hagfish

According to the fossil record, hagfish have existed for over 300 million years, which means they were already old when dinosaurs took over the world! Found in relatively deep waters, these animals are sometimes called slime eels, but they are not really eels, and actually, they may not even be fish at all, according to some scientists. They are very bizarre animals in all regards; they have a skull but lack a spine, and they have two brains. Almost blind, they feed at night on the carcasses of large animals (fish, cetaceans etc) which fall to the sea bottom. They owe their “slime eel” nickname to the fact that they produce a slimey substance to damage the gills of predatory fish; as a result, they have virtually no natural enemies.

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Storing Fresh Fish

Fish are not meat. Remember that and you will be on the right path toward taking good care of the fresh fish you bring home. And take care you must, because fish are both expensive and are among the most perishable foods we eat.

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Tilapia For Aquaponic

Fish such as Tilapia and are raised in a large tank of water. I'm gonna use Tilapia in my aquaponics systems because they are relatively easy to raise and because you can market them to restaurants, market basket customers, and they are a favorite in ethnic markets.

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Benefits Of Aquaponic

With an increased demand for food, yet no increase in food supply and over one billion people without clean water to drink, people are scrambling to find solutions. Today, the words “green” and “earth friendly” are commonly used words, but what are people really doing to protect our earth from global warming and to help sustain our food supply? What if we suddenly couldn’t rely on the sources we’re currently getting our food from?

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Kelong - A Wooden House In The Ocean

Kelong fishing is actually a very unique type of fishing found only in South-East Asia. To many people, the impression of a Kelong is more of a resort for families than a place for fishing, as the catch is often not as good compared to boat fishing. To a certain extent it’s true, as the fishing spots are determined by our casting distance around the perimeter of the kelong. But with the correct skills and techniques, the catch from a kelong can be comparable to a boat trip.

A Kelong (sometimes spelt Kellong) is a Malay word to describe a form of offshore platform built predominantly with wood, and can be found in waters off Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia, while only a handful remains around Singapore due to rapid urbanisation.

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Have You Ever Been Poison After Eating Fish?

There are two pretty good ways to get food poisoning from eating fish. Anyone who eats fish can get ciguatera or scombroid poisoning. Fish poisoning is more common in coastal areas. So take care.

Ciguatera poisoning: This happens when you eat a reef fish (any fish living in warm tropical water) that has eaten a certain poisonous food. This poison does not go away when the fish is cooked or frozen.

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River Fishing Tips

In my opinion, the most important thing to remember while river fishing is not to spook the water that you're about to fish. I've seen entirely too many anglers do this very thing. They're standing in the very water they probably should have fished first.

 The first tip is: When river fishing, remember to work the area that you want to fish in "sections". Don't just jump in and start fishing in the spot that you think looks the best or just fish the water directly below where you're wading. 

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Choosing The Right Food For Your Tilapia

Do you know that there are 3 types of food pellet used for Tilapia breeding? You can get this from your local supermarket.

Starter Fish Pellet - For small Tilapia (1 to 2 inches) or at least 100 grams in weight.

Grower Fish Pellet - For medium size Tilapia or at least 100 to 500 grams in weight.

Finisher Fish Pellet - For large size Tilapia, above 500 grams in weight.

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Fun Facts About Fish

Its been a while since I posted anything here. Ran into trouble with google but thats settled now. Got a better sponsor. Today I want to share some really funny fact about our underwater friends. Some of us like to keep pet fish, while others prefer to go out and spend the day catching fish. Either way fish are definitely one of God's unique creations. One piece of fun fact which seems to be under some debate is whether fish feel pain? I would tend to think they do. After all they are a living creatures. In this piece we will try and find some fun facts on fish. The next time you watch the fish in your tank maybe these little tidbits will go through your mind and make you think or at least smile.

Some fun fish facts:

• -fish breath water

• -they eat their own kind- that can't be very pleasant...sheeshhh

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World Smallest Fish

Scientists have discovered a fish living in forest swamps on the Indonesian island of Sumatra that is only 7.9mm long. The species of fish belongs to the carp family and is called Paedocypris progenetica . It is the world's smallest vertebrate or backboned animal and believe it or not, is living in acid.

The tiny, see-through Paedocypris fish have the appearance of larvae and have a reduced head skeleton, which leaves the brain unprotected by bone. They live in dark tea-coloured waters with an acidity of pH3, which is at least 100 times more acidic than rainwater.

'This is one of the strangest fish that I've seen in my whole career', said Ralf Britz, zoologist at the Natural History Museum.

'It's tiny, it lives in acid and it has these bizarre grasping fins. I hope we'll have time to find out more about them before their habitat disappears completely.'

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How Japanese Solved Stale Fish Problem

It is interesting to know how Japanese solved the problem of stale fish. It could be a true event or a typical case study - whatever may be it could be an eye opener to all of us - to know that "for every problems, there are solutions"

The Japanese have a great liking for fresh fish. But the waters close to Japan have not held many fish for decades. So, to feed the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger and went farther than ever. The farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring back the fish.

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The Blue Whale Joke

A Blue Whale produces over 400 gallons of sperm when it ejaculates but only 10% of that actually makes it into his mate. So 360 gallons are spilled into the ocean every time one unloads. You wonder why the ocean is so salty.... Don't swallow the water!!!

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Is There A Such Thing As Organic Fish?

As far as I know, fish caught in the wild cannot be marketed as organic. However, several supermarkets and many independent organic retailers now stock organic fishes produced in fish farms. Several types of farmed mussels and shellfish are also likely to become more widely available in the future. I know some people who farmed freshwater lobster but I'm not sure whether its organic or not.

In organic fish farming, many of the pesticides, dyes and antibiotics widely used in conventional fish farming are not permitted and so these fish products are generally accepted to be credible organic products by both the soil association and consumers.

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Child Slave of the deep sea

Child slave labor refers to the illegal employment of children below 18 years of age in hazardous occupations. Underage children are being forced to manual labor to help their families mainly due to poverty.

Child labor has many ill effects in children who are supposed to be in the environment of a classroom rather than roaming the streets and risking every chance, time and time again, to earn money. Although most do get the privilege of education, most end up being dropouts and repeaters because they are not able to focus on their studies. Because of child labor, children suffer from malnutrition, hampered growth, and improper biological development.

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Muroami : Child Exploitation and Murder

Muro-ami fishing trawlers, mostly unseaworthy, stay out at sea for up to ten months. They roam the seas and drop anchor in areas of coral reefs and atolls. The stinking, unsanitary, and cramped quarters are often packed with as many as 400 to 500 adult crew and little boys as young as 7 years old.

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Muroami : The Destruction

The Muroami fishing technique, employed on coral reefs in Southeast Asia, uses an encircling net together with pounding devices. These devices usually comprise large stones fitted on ropes that are pounded onto the coral reefs. They can also consist of large heavy blocks of cement that are suspended above the sea by a crane fitted to the vessel. The pounding devices are repeatedly and violently lowered into the area encircled by the net, literally smashing the coral in that area into small fragments in order to scare the fish out of their coral refuges. The "crushing" effect of the pounding process on the coral heads has been described as having long lasting and practically totally destructive effects.

Muroami netting is a dangerous fishing practice that has led to extensive coral reef deterioration in the region.  In many countries that use this practice, as many as 300 young boys, 10 to 15 years old, are used to set the nets and bang on the coral. They are called Muro-Ami or Reef Hunter. This is also one of the worst forms of child labor in the illegal fishing system. The divers, who consist mostly of children, usually have to take at least few dives a day.

Muroami or Kayakas is a Japanese-inspired fishing technique that once devastated the fragile marine life of the country. The procedure comprises groups of swimmers particularly children that are harnessed to a waiting net loaded down with scarelines like coconut leaves or plastic streamers attached to it at 1 meter intervals to create the illusion of a wall and dragged across the ocean floor as it slowly traps in on the fish. It also involves sending a large group of divers to depths of 30-90 feet, without protective clothing or gear save for homemade wooden goggles. These divers plunge into the waters below armed with metal weights or large stones fitted on ropes to vigorously pound or bang on corals to drive fish out and into the waiting nets. Corals are eventually smashed in the process. 

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Fish Bombing Is Stupid

During the Second World War, a number of navy personnel operating in Asia made use of grenades to catch fish. The blast from a single grenade killed many fish, large and small, and the ones that floated to the surface were easily netted in quantity. The technique of catching fish using underwater explosions quickly caught on with local fishermen as it is simple and ruthlessly efficient, at least as far as the time taken to catch the fish is concerned.

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Top 5 Catfish Baits Part 5 - Crawfish

If chicken livers are the best known of all catfish baits, crawfish may be the most overlooked. All major species of catfish feed on crawfish, although most flatheads caught on craws weigh 20 pounds or less.

Crawfish rank among the best baits of all for fishing in creeks and small rivers. You can either bounce live crawdads near the bottom in the current using split shot rigs or add a little heavier weight and fish crawfish tails right on the bottom. Dead crawfish produce mostly channel catfish. Live ones -- especially big craws -- also attract modest-sized flatheads. Anglers who specifically want flatheads should put baits close to the thickest cover they can find and be ready to pull with everything they have upon setting the hook.

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Top 5 Catfish Baits Part 4 - Night Crawlers

Stringing a worm on a hook is the essence of fishing simplicity. In fact, it almost seems too simple. That said, night crawlers remain some of the finest baits available for coaxing catfish into biting. They smell natural, because they are natural, and they seem to taste mighty good to catfish.

Generally speaking, the rule for night crawlers and catfish is, the bigger the better. Even small cats like big, juicy worms. It is generally a good idea to wad two or three on a hook if you only can find small or medium-sized worms. Unlike other species, catfish typically do not care how night crawlers are strung on the hook. They feed mostly by smell and taste, not by sight, so the more worm that is wrapped around and sewn onto the hook, the better your chances are of hooking cats that bite.

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