lol... u giv me hope bro

haizzz so sorry to say I dropped my rare fish keeping hobby... but I still keep normal fish... I opted for my other hobby.. photography..

as long as ur a fish lover. ur rare fish keeping wont just end here..
trust me.. i am an example for u..

started at:
7yrs old = betta splendens, goldfish, snakehead.
9-12 = discus, gourami keeping
13-15 = massive discus breeding, characin collection (tetra). flowerhorn, marine fishes (basic)
16 = stop fish keeping. start to like cars. dont like ppl call me "gold-fish man"
17-20 = continue fish keeping. yellow tail aro. marine fish (coral tank, damselfish and common clown breeding)
21-22 = back to basic fish keeping. marine fish (angelfish, surgeons and tangs). got a 2005 toyota vios, start modifying like crazy. everyday go sunway area, yamcha, lepak, genting. behave like a "sampah masyarakat"
23-till now = sold my car. not worth modifying. then arowana. RTG, HB, BBXB, BBGH now and going to the max.. planning 8footer at home, no fark..

haha my fren start call me gam yu lou adi but who cares i more knowledge than them

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Added on November 16, 2010, 4:49 pmdiscus.. interesting

This post has been edited by BenSow: Nov 16 2010, 04:49 PM

Photography and fishkeeping goes along very well.
Keep a piece or 2 rare fish i.e like my L24
Set your tank up nicely and naturally.
Photograph them once a while (i.e macro ) with some ext flash setup.
Don't be suprise u'll get very nice photos.

Like that you can enjoy ur fishkeeping and photography.

yeaahh~~ Now i cant even afford a DSLR yet haha... gonna convince

My journey is opposite to yours. I started modifying cars when I was 18 and I still do until today but I've always been a Skyline/RB person having modified RB20, RB25, RB26 and RB28. I did stray however and had a V9 STI and 350z but luckily I came to my senses. Used to have a few cars at once but now I'm left with my favorite which is my R34 GTR V-Spec II. Although I agree that modifying is a waste especially once you cross the seven figure mark but why do you call yourself "sampah masyarakat"? It's a legitimate hobby with many responsible enthusiasts and I'm sure you were one yourself.

Actually, been into fish keeping all this while but not serious type and currently have a 3ft marine tank and a Koi pond in my Damansara house, a half acre pond stocked with 4000 catfish at the Hulu Langat house, a concrete pond in the Janda Baik house stocked with 2000 catfish and in the Perlis house I have three different ponds one purely for Puyu, one empty as its new and another is fairly large I'd estimate around half acre mark stocked with Jelawat, Catfish, Tilapia, Jelawat and Haruan. None of them are commerical purposes though.

Now, with help from ggMing I've decided to venture into freshwater monsters and after meeting him today at his shop, I feel confident he'll be able to help me achieve what I have planned in mind. Apparently, it's somewhat of a unique setup and I'm sure ggMing will be seeing more of me in the near future.

Anyways, kudos to ggMing, highly recommend him as he's extremely helpful and accommodating compared to a few other LFS I've been to.

Now, with help from ggMing I've decided to venture into freshwater monsters and after meeting him today at his shop, I feel confident he'll be able to help me achieve what I have planned in mind. Apparently, it's somewhat of a unique setup and I'm sure ggMing will be seeing more of me in the near future.

Anyways, kudos to ggMing, highly recommend him as he's extremely helpful and accommodating compared to a few other LFS I've been to.

[/quote]

thank you bro for the kind words... just sharing my information with you only, nothing helpful...

thank you for dropping by, and of course, hope to see you soon in the future...

guys, this is a monster fish keeper with monster ponds... seriously............................ and a river.... hehehe

[quote=ggMing,Nov 16 2010, 10:46 PM]
Now, with help from ggMing I've decided to venture into freshwater monsters and after meeting him today at his shop, I feel confident he'll be able to help me achieve what I have planned in mind. Apparently, it's somewhat of a unique setup and I'm sure ggMing will be seeing more of me in the near future.

Anyways, kudos to ggMing, highly recommend him as he's extremely helpful and accommodating compared to a few other LFS I've been to.

[/quote]

thank you bro for the kind words... just sharing my information with you only, nothing helpful...

thank you for dropping by, and of course, hope to see you soon in the future...

guys, this is a monster fish keeper with monster ponds... seriously............................ and a river.... hehehe

[/quote]

Shh don't spill the secret just yet or no more wow factor LOL

Well to be honest, what tipped the balance was the fact that you took me very seriously which for some reason most LFS don't because firstly fishes are a relatively new hobby for me and I don't know always know what to ask. Secondly, they probably think what I have planned are purely daydreams and a waste of their time as I'm probably a time waster in their opinion, thirdly they are more concerned with selling rather than educating and finally you're the first person who has admitted that there are certain questions which you do not know the answer which is rare as other LFS would rather close shop than admit ignorance.

Actually, I was very close to buying the tank just now but I held back as impulse purchases never end well. Secondly, I've yet to finalize the types of fishes I'm going to have in the tank - the Arapaimas and RTC are confirmed but I'd want a couple others perhaps a Gulper Catfish if suitable and really a Gar if its suitable.

gulper not suitable to comm with arapaima.. hehehe... now u've got boken dreams... heheheh
don't wory bout the tank, its only a phone call away...

This post has been edited by ggMing: Nov 17 2010, 12:49 AM

[quote=PIMPIN,Nov 16 2010, 11:16 PM]
thank you bro for the kind words... just sharing my information with you only, nothing helpful...

thank you for dropping by, and of course, hope to see you soon in the future...

guys, this is a monster fish keeper with monster ponds... seriously............................ and a river.... hehehe

[/quote]

Shh don't spill the secret just yet or no more wow factor LOL

Well to be honest, what tipped the balance was the fact that you took me very seriously which for some reason most LFS don't because firstly fishes are a relatively new hobby for me and I don't know always know what to ask. Secondly, they probably think what I have planned are purely daydreams and a waste of their time as I'm probably a time waster in their opinion, thirdly they are more concerned with selling rather than educating and finally you're the first person who has admitted that there are certain questions which you do not know the answer which is rare as other LFS would rather close shop than admit ignorance.

Actually, I was very close to buying the tank just now but I held back as impulse purchases never end well. Secondly, I've yet to finalize the types of fishes I'm going to have in the tank - the Arapaimas and RTC are confirmed but I'd want a couple others perhaps a Gulper Catfish if suitable and really a Gar if its suitable.

[/quote]

I thought Arapaima is banned from keeping as pet? Felt weird when I saw one for sale...

I have an 8-9" RTC.. You want? clearing my tank.. Eats very well and looves market prawn..

To be honest, I didn't know that Arapaimas are banned as pets although I do know their numbers are dwindling in the wild. Because I've seen them for sale and some places have hundreds available so the question of them being illegal never crossed my mind.

Why are you getting rid of your RTC? I notice a lot of people tend to sell their fishes especially Arapaimas after only a couple of years, sometimes after only a few months.

I cant upgrade ><

BenSow,

Actually count your blessings bro. I just realized you are still in high school - when I was your age I didn't even have a handphone what more an aquarium to keep all sorts of exotic fishes. If I were you, I'd consider myself so lucky because compared to other 15 year olds, you're already ahead of the curve. I admire your enthusiasm in wanting to earn your own money to support your hobby and trust me I understand what it feels like to have parents who don't understand your passion; been there done that. Perhaps you should take up ggMing's offer to work part-time but don't let it interfere with your studies. The fishes aren't going anywhere but you as a person - you're going places.

ggMing,

Looks like I have quite a bit of planning to do and I think the best way going forward is for me to determine a budget and then you can suggest various combinations of fishes that fall within the price range. Obviously I'd need some help with the construction of the pond - how deep it should be, tiled or cement covered sand for the bottom, whether it should have various depths or same depth throughout, how to properly use stones/rocks/driftwood etc to make it as authentic as possible and much more.

Although you said filters weren't necessary, I feel its something I should at least look into as I'd want the water to be as clear as possible. This definitely needs proper planning to coincide not only with the dry season as currently ground too soft and wet to construct anything properly as well as being ready to receive fishes that are ready to leave the grow out tank.

Right now I've got even bigger fish related problems - been trying for the past couple of months to source for Pacific Bottle Nose Dolphins and currently the Solomon Islands seems to be the nearest place but their prices are steep; over RM1m per dolphin and I need five. I don't suppose you could help me with that could you? LOL

PIMPIN >> wow!!! sure you have a lot of info to share with us bro...welcome to this thread! just share everything here...looking for rare fish breeder in malaysia... maybe we can be like JAPAN...1 day Maybe...

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Added on November 18, 2010, 11:57 amdont worry bro...joshua hill help you find it...he also nice person

This post has been edited by khairulanuar: Nov 18 2010, 11:57 AM

wow.. bottle noses... ahh another reason I wanna sell my fish... Now my tank overstocked too high of bio load the tank is alway green..

I think you have gotten the wrong impression of me. I am very new to this hobby and I've been absorbing as much information as possible. It just so happens that we have several houses and for some reason all of them have ponds with freshwater fishes. However these are fishes which are meant to be eaten and aren't pets.

On that note, if anyone is interested in catfish then I have probably a couple hundred fishes which I want to give away. Most are just the right size to be eaten while some have grown a bit too large and won't taste as nice when fried, etc. But at the end of the day, they are absolutely FOC as its surplus after taking into account my family's personal consumption and even after giving away to immediate neighbours.

The catch is that you have to pick-up in Janda Baik and also I would appreciate it if you were to donate a token sum to my family's orphanage which we have run for the past 20 years. The amount doesn't matter - take 100 fishes and donate RM10 is fine because donation amounts must be 'ikhlas'. If interested please SMS me on 019-2578888 or 019-2588888. Alternatively, you can email me razlan.radzi@gmail.com

Back to the topic at hand, in terms of keeping fishes as 'pets' then all I have is a pond full of Koi and a marine tank both of which are at my Damansara House. I've always wanted monster freshwater fishes but didn't want to rush into it until I'm confident I can provide the best possible environment for them.

BenSow - bottle nose dolphins are cetaceans and since their original habitat is the open ocean, you can't keep them in your aquarium. Currently we're planning on constructing a 600,000 litre aquarium which does not include the open air dolphin enclosure. This is a very small setup as the consultants we've spoken to have constructed private aquariums up to 1.6mil litres in size but they are usually in the palaces of the Arab royal families. To give you a sense of the size, Aquaria KLCC is about 1.2mil litres and that is a public aquarium. These are all marine based setups however.

But the dolphins I've been looking to source aren't for me neither is the 600,000 litre tank but is actually a tourist attraction project.

ok.. but who is "we"?

Basically, there is a project that was initiated by a State Government and is meant to be a marine mammal park however it was abandoned after 40% of the work was completed so it had to be rescued by the private sector - basically another company willing to not only buy over the land and completed work (of which all the systems were setup wrongly and would have failed even if completed by the original company) but also secure the additional funding and expertise required to complete the project. But then once completed, the company has to make a return on its investment in addition to managing a wide range of risks from the economy going south to losing all their fishes on display. This requires a team of experts ranging from marine biologists, dolphin trainers, F&B staff, maintenance staff etc some of whom would have to be expats.

Personally, I don't agree with dolphins being kept in captivity as half of all dolphins captured from the wild in the first place die within weeks of being in captivity. This depends largely on how they were caught and subsequent transport to the final aquarium. Those who do survive live for around 7-10 years max which is 4x less than in the wild. In fact, dolphins in captivity have been known to suffer from depression leading to developing ulcers and a whole bunch of other illnesses. Furthermore dolphins in the wild travel up to 40-50 miles a day and when placed in someplace like Sea World where the industry standard for keeping dolphins is 10ft x 10ft x 30ft per dolphin, then it would have to swim round its enclosure 1700 times a day to match what they are able to do in the wild.

Dolphins also produce a lot of waste so filtration is extremely important. Also, dolphins communication can travel for miles under water and they use this form of sonar to hunt as well so imagine being in an aquarium and having these sonar waves bouncing back at you from every angle. The reason why bottle nose dolphins are used the most is due to the fact that they look happy with a smile which is not necessarily the case as dolphins have been know to commit suicide in captivity either by refusing food or even to the extent of banging their heads against the enclosure.

Therefore, dolphins when retrieved in the wild do not adapt well to captivity which is why Australia and UK have banned all cetaceans from captivity and its only countries in Asia, Middle East, US and especially Japan who allow dolphins in captivity. There are dolphins who are born and bred in captivity usually in open cages by the sea and is a big industry in places like the Solomon Islands. Only dolphins born and raised in captivity would actually perform tricks like jumping out of the water onto the side of the pool and perform tricks before retreating back into the pool. Getting a wild dolphin to do the same is next to impossible as it goes against their natural instinct and its unnatural for them as being out of water means the weight of their bodies presses down on their internal organs and if a dolphin performs three shows a day seven days a week over several years you can imagine why they don't live for very long.

In short, on a personal level I disagree with the concept and I've tried my best to get the whole concept changed completely as you don't need to have dolphins performing tricks three times a day to attract visitors. If I could have it my way, I'd go for a concept like the Atlanta Georgia Aquarium which is the world's largest and was donated by the founder of Home Depot at the cost of quarter of a billion dollars. It's size is 30 million liters or 30 times larger than Aquaria KLCC. It also has 125,000 fishes a large number of which are HAND FED daily and they have the best experts in the world not to mention massive manpower; even their volunteers number in the thousands. Currently, the Atlanta Georgia Aquarium brings in over USD 1 billion to the city of Atlanta without even having to put on a single show or even have a single dolphin in captivity. So it can be done, it has been done and its doable without being cruel to dolphins.

So why is it happening? Well, at the end of the day this project had already been started and since the original parties have failed, the new company which is attempting to rescue the project has already doubled the amount of capital in addition to nearly tripling the land area. However, the terms of the takeover are very clear which states that this is a marine mammal tourist park with a dolphinarium so if its going to happen the best anyone can do is try provide the best environment for the dolphins as possible. I still harbor hopes that the dolphin part can be eliminated and in its place a bigger aquarium or even more than one aquarium and for the same money produce something that puts Aquaria to shame as current plans already include an aquarium half the size of Aquaria's so imagine without dolphins you could have more than twice the size and even have a whole reef.

What does it have to do with me? Well, I studied finance in University and my first job was in investment banking. I was exposed to the world of finance during my early teens as my parents subscribed Business Week, Economist, Malaysian Business and even current affairs like Newsweek, Far Eastern Economic Review (before it was banned those days) and I was given annual reports of public listed companies to read. I've since moved on and basically my life's work has changed dramatically as I now help run our family's orphanage but purely from the financial side so fundraising, investing whatever money we have etc. Next year I will assume more responsibility and I guess at some point I will take over from my father. So although my priority is the orphanage, I do have a business with another two in the pipeline along with some investments in property and the stock market. Basically, with regards to this dolphin venture I'm basically looking out for the interests of the company's chairman but I don't own any shares in the company nor am I employed by the company and it does not require much of my time as I'm focused primarily on everything related to the finances of the venture so I look at everything and anything to do money from costs to loans to rate of returns to pro forma statements of cashflow, revenue, etc. I was offered the chance to be a part of the venture but I do not agree with the concept and I also have to juggle my own ventures/investments.

I hope that answers your question?


This post has been edited by [PIMPIN]: Nov 18 2010, 11:56 PM

^ so we know youre superrich and could spend so much time writing essays that no one cares about. Your point is ?!?

THAT aside, where can I find fish shop in kl/pj area that carries tigrinus catfish? Cty in pg has a defective one if anyone is interested.