Field Trip to Terengganu, Malaysia by Zhou Hang

Field Trip to Terengganu, Malaysia

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

22nd - 25th July 2004
I went on a four day collection trip to Terengganu, a state in the north-eastern part of the Malay Peninsula, quite far away from Singapore where I live. It is well known for Kenyir Lake, which is the largest man-made lake in Malaysia.

One or two weeks before departure I rang my friend Zahar, who lives in Kuala Terengganu (the capital city of Terengganu), and we quickly settled the schedule. My main target for this trip was an undescribed species of betta. One of the characteristics of this fish is that the barred marking on the caudal fin can be seen on the females. It is unique in the pugnax species group. This fish is currently only known to be found in hill-streams. When I talked with Zahar about this betta, he told me we could try a place not far from Kuala Terengganu.

I mentioned the trip to a friend of mine, Azmi, who owns an aquarium shop. Perhaps because I was so enthusiastic, very soon he was in on the trip.

On the 22nd July, Azmi and I started early in the morning. We first went to the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur.

Halfway we passed Ayer Hitam, the habitat of Betta bellica and Betta persephone, at a speed of 130km per hour!

Click on photographs for enlargements. Then go "BACK."

The bus stopped at a rest stop at Yong Peng. There's a shallow pond in front of the restaurant in which there are some giant Arapaima.

We took the longer route since I wanted to visit a used-book store near the Kuala Lumpur Bus Terminal, where I had seen some very nice old books during a previous visit. I grabbed a book, and we went to Kuantan on the east coast of the Malay Peninsula. From Kuantan we changed to a bus to Kemaman, and arrived at 11:30 pm!

23rd July
The next day, 23rd July, was Friday, which in this Muslim state is equivalent to our Sunday. Our friend Zahar was waiting downstairs at the hotel in the morning. During breakfast we discussed the area we were going to explore, and started our day at 8:15 a.m. As we drove westwards we stopped at a typical betta habitat:

It was located in a forest. There was a small blackwater stream flowing nearby. Red dwarf bettas are usually found in biotopes like this, hiding under the fallen leaves.

But there weren't many fish around. I struggled for about 10 minutes but I only caught two loaches - Lepidocephalichthys sp. I seriously thought the swamp might be polluted and was wanting to give up. But suddenly Azmi shouted "Hey, what's this?" I rushed over and took a look. Bingo! It was Betta tussyae! Then I looked at my watch - 8:45 a.m. It was all going too smoothly - we were not even warmed up yet!

A beautiful male Betta tussyae, and the loach, Lepidocephalichthys sp

We continued collecting, but in the end we only caught three fish. This swamp could have been recently flooded and the fish might have been washed away.

I personally was hoping to find some Betta waseri and Parosphromenus nagyi. I have collected them in Southern Pahang but I wanted to know where is the border between Betta pi and Parosphromenus paludicola vs. Betta waseri and Parosphromenus nagyi. But at least we confirmed the location - I guess our friend Zahar will find out more in future.

We moved on and reached another very similar biotope. We tried to bash in, but as you can see Azmi wasn't in the right attire. This Pandan tree growing in the swampy area is a killer. Zahar was wearing short sleeves too, so they both suffered from mosquito bites. But both of them are great bashers!! Boleh!!

Our original plan was to spend the whole day in the southern region searching for Betta tussyae. But now it seemed we had a whole day for something else! So we moved north along the coastal highway, and somewhere near Dungun, Zahar brought us to this very interesting blackwater stream with a very healthy population of Cryptocoryne affinis. Too bad we couldn't find any flowers, but we found many fish here:

Notopterus notopterus, the Asian knifefish. This was my first time scooping this fish from the wild.

Channa lucius. I've heard that this species tastes the best amongst the snakeheads!

Luciocephalus pulcherhis is one of the most ferocious predators around. However it's very shy.

Nemacheilus selangoricus (loach)..Cyclocheilichthys apogon (barb)..Rasbora myersi (silver rasbora)

Other fish collected from this stream included: Nandus nebulosus (a leaf fish), Systomus banksi (an Anabantoid), Pristolepis fasciata (a leaf fish), Rasbora einthovenii (long-band rasbora), and Trichopsis vittata (croaking gourami).

Azmi also caught a couple of leeches. I quickly stepped out of the stream as I hate leeches.

Zahar then took us to a swamp not far from the coast, where he once found plenty of Parosphromenus paludicola (licorice gourami) during the rainy season. But now it was completely dried up. We walked around the area hoping to find some pools, but with no success. As I could see from the vegetation in the area, that swamp must be a very temporary one during the rainy season only. Fish must have been washed to the swamp during floods.

Then we visited another swamp. Obviously it had been flooded only one or two days earlier. Here we collected some Betta imbellis. Again the fish population was low. The water was warm, and in a such a habitat only Betta splendens or Betta edithae types are found. They are extremely tough!

Azmi in action..............well, he looks fake, what else can I say?

On the way back to Terengganu, we stopped halfway and enjoyed a famous local dish - Keropok Lekor, a kind of fish cake. This particular piece definitely doesn't look good! - but it tastes great. I prefer the deep-fried ones.

When we reached Terengganu, we found that our friend Zahar's house is located less than 15 metres from the beautiful Terengganu beach. ....This fella simply couldn't resist!!!

We enjoyed delicious local food near the jetty to Redang Island that night.

24th July
Zahar and his colleague took a day's leave from work, and we started early in the morning again. We first visited a Betta pi habitat located to the west of Kuala Terengganu. It was a very beautiful black water peat swamp:

The water was clean and clear. Normally the polluted swamps would have a terrible smell, but this swamp was very comfortable to hang around at.

This is the biggest Betta pi that we collected. I took back to Singapore three big specimens from Zahar's tanks, which he had collected from the same location earlier in the year.

This snakehead was also brought back to Singapore. Later it grew up and turned out to be Channa marulioides.

Channa micropeltes, another species of snakehead, and Clarias batrachus, another ferocious but shy predator.

Along the same road, the very next stream from the Betta pi habitat, was the Parosphromenus paludicola (licorice gourami) biotope. We could see the riverbank was a hang-out place for wild boars. But the locals don't hunt them, and more animals means more leeches! I have had very bad experiences with leeches, so soon after I caught a nice male specimen we retreated and finally started to look for the main target of this whole trip!

This is the only specimen of Parosphromenus paludicola we managed to catch here.

Along the way we stopped at a small restaurant that specialised in fish curry.

This is Hampala macrolepidota (Hampala or sidebar barb). It's got a huge mouth. The bigger the fish the more alert they are, and there are some serious fishermen specifically after these elusive fish.

Tor tambroides, a protected species of mahseer. It's local name is red kelah, It cost about RM60 per kg., and usually these fish were reserved for VIP customers. But we were lucky enough to get a plate, and it was simply fantastic!!

This is Probarbus jullieni (Isok barb), a fish listed in CITES Appendix 1!! It can reach up to 1.5 metres. It's endangered in the Mekong Basin but not that seriously in the Malay Peninsula. As you can see in the picture there are tinfoil barbs, Barbonymus schwanenfeldii, as well.

Definitely the best meal of the entire trip. Yummy!

This dish is unique. It's fermented durian. It tastes more like the fermented tou fu that we Chinese usually have. But it tastes better with the durian smell. Yes, I am a hardcore durian lover!

It took us some time to reach the location of the new undescribed betta. But I had an idea of what kind of habitat to look out for, so we didn't really waste much time in finding this stream. Water parameters: Temperature: 26.4C (measured at about 3 p.m.), pH: 6.5.

Before we stepped into the stream we encountered a scorpion. Azmi showed us his skill in handling the scorpion, but I was pretty excited so I stayed away and only took pictures.

Meanwhile the rest of them went down to try their luck. Within a few minutes, I heard "I got Betta!!" That was Zahar. I ran over and saw a small specimen in a plastic bag. No colour but I could see the barred markings. We never expected it to be so easy.

The water level was pretty low and it was easy fishing. Within 15 minutes we collected more than 20 specimens. That was more than enough!

Azmi couldn't get any paros earlier so this was his revenge time. He caught a beautiful dominant male betta.

This is the largest specimen of the undescribed betta collected, measuring about 5 cm. In comparison with the rest, this was definitely a dominant male. Two mouthbrooding males were obtained; they were about 4 cm. in size.

A female

Hemirhamphodon pogonognathus, a halfbeak. We caught Systomus banksi (a barb) in this stream as well.

We took some time off to move to another place and enjoy swimming in a hill stream. It was nice to wash the mud from us.

But I am still a fisherman after all, and I caught a Mastacembelus unicolor eel.

We had Durians to celebrate. Yummy!

25th July

Our last day in Terengganu. Azmi and I enjoyed a very relaxing day in Kapas Island and Gemia Island.

We went snorkeling, but were told that it wasn't the right time....Jellyfish!

The beach on Kapas Island. We walked around and found only a few tourists in the water. The water is still considered clean, and was way clearer than Tioman Island of Johor.

We then joined a guided snorkeling trip, and they took us to Gemia Island since there were less jellyfish floating around. Gemia Island is a private island owned by one of the royal families of Terengganu.

The resort was a temporary home for young sea turtles.

Fantastic travel mate, Azmi !!

Azmi then headed north to Kota Bharu, crossed the border to Sungai Golok and took a bus all the way up to Bangkok to meet our labyrinth friend, Nonn Panitvong. I had to take an overnight bus back to Singapore to catch a flight with two other friends to Bangkok, since with my passport I couldn’t enter Thailand by land.

So we met in Bangkok again for our Central and Southern Thailand trip...

Go to the next article in this series:

Field Trip to Central and Southern Thailand