Revenge on Southern Pahang, Malaysia by Zhou Hang

Revenge on Southern Pahang, Malaysia

by Zhou Hang
from his website http://www.ikanpemburu.com/
Aquarticles

15th & 16th May 2004
At last I was able visit this place again. I had caught Betta waseri and Betta tussyae during my previous trip, but only one of each. This time, as well as bettas, I also hoped to find Parosphromenus nagyi (dwarf licorice gourami).

Edwin, Simon and Marcus from AquaticQuotient (Singapore forum) joined me on this trip. We met early Saturday morning (I was late) and picked up a rental car in Johor Baru. Marcus was our main driver, with Edwin as the back-up. Simon was the photographer.

I didn't take any pictures on Day 1, since Day 1 wasn't that interesting.

This is the area we covered during the two days.

On Day 1, as always, we stopped by the Cryptocoryne cordata point near Mersing, but didn't wet our nets. After some discussion during lunch at Padang Endau, we decided to move up north along the coast.

Then we stopped at an abandoned paddy field somewhere around the Kampong Lebang Condong. Due to the thick vegetation it was quite difficult to obtain fish, and a Boraras maculata and a juvenile Betta imbellis were all we could find.

We headed towards Kuantan on Highway 40. Sometimes we could see the South China Sea on our right-hand side, but to catch freshwater fish we had to stay away from the sea.

The second point we stopped at was another paddy field. We could see a swampy forest quite far away and decided to walk to its edge. But that was a mistake. The long walk under the hot sun wasted lots of our time and stamina. When we finally reached the edge of the forest we found that the whole area was already dried up. We were tired and frustrated.

We continued our journey. Soon we came to a road that turned the left. It looked good, but the small stream flowing along the road was a brackish stream. However we kept going along, and finally found a nice blackwater stream. Obviously professional fish collectors were collecting fish from here.

While the three fellas were happy catching their favourite Puntius hexazona (six-banded barb), I bashed into the forest and found a small stream. Bingo! I managed to catch about ten Betta tussyae in a tiny pool and also two juvenile Betta waseri. We called it off. I was happy and they were happy too!

This was our hotel. RM80 (US$21) for a room with 1 twin bed and 2 single beds, hot shower and cool air-con. What else did we need?

We were to cover Road 63 on Day 2.

We visited the busy morning market after breakfast.

Dried gouramis (probably two-spot gouramis) and kissing gouramis were sold for food. Live Pangasius sp.(catfish) were sold too. (They are farm bred, and might be hybrids).

An old man selling traditional medicines.

This is the first point where we stopped in the morning. It was a pool where cows come to drink. The water didn't smell good, and I actually didn't want to wet my net. But I was soon proved wrong.

We collected many fish in this tiny pool: Rasbora einthovenii (a rasbora), Boraras maculata (dwarf rasbora), Belontia hasselti (Malay combtail), Betta waseri, Betta tussyae!, Sphaerichthys osphromenoides (chocolate gourami), Betta imbellis, Kryptopterus macrocephalus (a glass catfish), swamp eels and more.

It was still very early. I already had enough Betta waseri, and could call it off anytime!

So we switched our radar to Crypto-mode.

As we moved on we saw a small mountain to our right. There was a small road leading to it, and this is a small pool we found, which the locals use to do laundry and to bathe in. It was clearwater, and only a couple rasboras were found there.

I went into the forest a little bit, and saw this Cryptocoryne on the ground. Soon the others joined me. Despite trying, we couldn't find any flowers. Many of the crypts were surviving under the damp fallen leaves. We had to remove the leaves to observe the crypts.

Everything was going a little bit too smoothly. We simply got whatever we wanted. But something was missing! Paros!!

It didn't take too long to reach a small blackwater stream. We managed to collect Belontia hasselti, Betta waseri, Trichogaster trichopterus (blue gourami), Anabas testudineus (climbing perch), Kryptopterus macrocephalus, Boraras maculata, Rasbora einthovenii, Rasbora pauciperforata (red-stripe rasbora), Sphaerichthys sphromoides (a gourami), and Wallago leeri (a catfish)!

Water Parameters: pH: 4.5, KH: < 1, Temp: 26.8

Finally, something caught in my net - a dead Parosphromenus nagyi! (Dwarf licorice gourami).

We went to the lower stream, which was covered with Barclaya. We collected a few more Parosphromenus nagyi and that was it! Fantastic trip!

There were other streams that looked promising, but we just recorded their locations and rushed back to Johor Baru.

I would like to thank everyone. It was great fun travelling with you guys. Endure!!!!!!!!!

Go to the last article in this series:

Field trip to Tanjong Malim, Malaysia