New setup tank - Midas haven

Yay! it was about time, it took me a good 2 weeks to repair and re-setup my diamond shaped aquarium; this time with a lil' more caution, we'd decided to place the tank outside! :) Only survivor from last month's leaking incident were the convicts, and a single midas cichlid. 

This time around, I'd thought it'd be fun to catch the fishes for my aquarium instead of fish-shopping as usual :) First trip out n we managed to hook 4 juvenile midas cichlid and a single jaguar guapote! First time i saw this fish, i thought it was a typical tilapia of some weird origin! Beautiful fish, with its jaguar like spots... though, i wonder how it manage to survive in a pond filled with midases... He's surely timid n gets bullied by the bigger, fatter midas! hopefully, life here wouldn't be as stressful! :) 

Here are sommore pics of the new members. They're getting bullied by the smaller convicts, surprisingly. I guess now i know how the convicts gets their reputations for being the bad boys of the aquarium world.

Oh if u're wondering if the tigerbarbs were caught...sorry, last time i managed to do that was in Kundang, Selangor... maybe 2 decades ago! These guys were purchased, unfortunately. Needed some buffer fish, to de-stress the midas and others! What better fishes then tigerbarbs!

By the way, did you see that multi-coloured fish in the background above?! I caught this guy and a slight more matured midas just the other day and have no blinking idea what he is! :P Anyone seen this fishes around? I first thought it was a flowerhorn, but then you don't get the tail colourations. 2nd guess was a Cichlasoma festae! But both aren't a dead-ringer to this guy...maybe he's just an immature flowerhorn trying to his his stripes :)

Will leave you guys with pics of the scardey midas, takes them a while to acclimatize to their new environment though; the new bunch were hiding most of the time for the first few days! Signs of intelligence maybe? :P Can't wait to go on another excursion to see what we'll catch next :)

Gone Fishing - Semenyih

'Twas a beautiful day to head out fishing last week. A friend had a durian orchard with a small pond in it where we tried our luck fishing. Durian's were abundant! Fishes, unfortunately there weren't many...Though, my dad manage to catch a kg plus snakehead (haruan) ! 

Also, along with the haruan we managed a few baby tilapia...which a friend wanted for his aquarium. Seems they're the only breed of fishes able to survive in this tank :) We were hoping to catch a few marble gobies, as a few years ago, our failed stocked of them were thrown into this pond! We were experimenting with raring them to maturity for the commercial market. "Haruan bodoh" as it's known, does fetch a real fancy price in chinese restaurant. RM100 per kg! 

Resident poultries on the loose... and the ubiquitous sheepdog lazing... :)

Here's a picture of us with one of the fruiting durian trees! 

Ever wondered what a mangosteen plant looks like? This was my first encounter with one! Talk about city kids, lol! 

Wished there were more places we could go fishing these days. As they'd say... back in those days, fishes were in abudance :) ...alas, the price of fast-pace development, ***sigh***

Cracked up tanks...

Somehow or other, raring fishes, one would have to face cracked tanks once in a while... I remember my first experience cleaning my dad's tank n accidentally cracking the base. I accidentally dropped one of the huge stones into it! That's when my dad gave up aquariums, thanks to his son :P I've actually tried repairing this filter tank the last time around, hence you'd notice the black silicone glue all over the tank. Naz, hopefully it'd serve u better then me :) After awhile, that'd start spurting too...And as they say, when it leak, it pours!! Replacement 2.5feet filter tank cost me RM75 from Irene's. Here are some of it's residence

Slightly matured maylandia zebra makonde. Love his colouration... wished i had a dozen of this guys!

Plecos playing around...

another convict cichlid hiding from my camera!

Unfortunately, even my other 10 year old cichlid tank started leaking! After a year of good service in our new house, it too started spewing water... took me a good whole month to trace the leak!! After moving this old aquarium for the third time, the silicone glue started giving way. Good thing though, because of it's thick glass, it didn't actually crack. That would have been a major hassle having to clean up furniture n all!! So now this tank is in recovery... :( 

Here are sommore pictures of the tank with everyone in running condition...

My yellow Lab..

Guess where i got this midas cichlid! Caught 'em off a pond in Puchong! Seems a whole school of them breeds in there... such beauties, easily available sommore :P

Caught this sepat (Climbing Pearch) in the same place too! It's actually quite a dull looking fish, it's just something new to add. Some folks do say that having the sepat in your tank buang sueh! or in english, gets rid of bad luck... erm, not in my case after getting two cracked tanks!! ***not tat i believe in it, nways.

My happy geophagus, or earth eaters... they were growing so well.

Lastly, here's a baby marble goby, or ikan hantu which we caught too! :) 

All in all, I've lost a dozen cichlids which didn't survive in my planted tank. One geophagus which died during transportation to my other tank. 2 midas cichlid which didn't survive in my lily-pond, along with the sepat which went missing!! :P Haven't dug around for my marble goby though...*sniff* *sniff*. Only consolation is that i have brand new setup to figure out now!