Zealot
20-05-2003, 11:32 PM
Ever wonder why fish keeping is so appealing?
My first contact with fishkeeping was when I was four. At that time my dadis keeping a 2 ft tankful of oscars as my family financials are not that good and can't afford big tanks. There are around 10 pcs and it's a real terror tank especially during feeding time. There's only an air pump and the main diet is minced pork. AND they grow real fast and huge. In today's standard, its definitely an unacceptable overcrowding!
After this, I fell in love with keeping pets, and ventured into keeping danios, tetras, guppies, mollies, sword tails, softshell turtle, tortoise, newts. all sorts of tropical fishes.
At 5, my father's friend gave me a small alligator and it's real fun. Feed them goldfish. Feels sad for the goldfish then.
At the age of 6, I started to keep fighting spiders, which I caught from the "forest" at the now Bishan Park. At the same time, I collect many colonies of ants which I kept in chocolate boxes. They include, black ants, red ants, termites. It's quite easy to collect them, stick the stem of a long grass or Satay stick into the ant hole and pull it out. You'll find at least 10 pcs of the ants biting on the stem/stick. On one day, I have a funny idea and mix the 3 colonies together to see which ants is the strongest! Results: Termites, red, followed by the weakest black. But all of them died, just that the termites are the strongest.
Between the age of 6-9, I kept ducklings, chicks and squirrels. Read sad to see the ducks/chicken being killed for food when it grew bigger. My parents can't bear to kill them and they were given to the garung guni man as they are to big and noisy to be kept in flats. My uncle gave me a pair of fighting rooster and they really caught my attention! But damn, they were stolen the next day.
Kepts lots of eels around 10, like to place them on my hands and see them glides in between my fingers. :D
Then comes the dragon (arowanas). At that point in time, arowanas are not even in the markets. My uncle bought a few of them in exchange for a bag of rice in Indonesia and shipped them to us. Kept 10 in total at a point in time. After which, the market starts to introduce them and my dad actually had a collection of these dragons: Red, RTG, Blue, Green, Black and that's when I start keeping Bichirs as well, they called them Kong Long Wang! I would usually buy centipede at the length of around 12 cm for $1 each and feed them to the arowanas! What a scene, it's still so vivid even till today. Another incidents is when water fleas, green thing that stick on the arowanas, were attacking our arowanas. I find it quite fun to remove them and killed them using a toothpick. Really hate them, caused so much irritation to my dragons. Some of the dragons were sold off at a high price $8,000, I remembered and some died. Have a total of 10X4ft tanks at my 3-room flat then.
After which, I think I'm 14 then. My mom suugested lionhead goldfish and ranchus. Use to remember my whole family sitting in front of our tank admiring how stupid these goldfish swim around the tank. They are huge as my mom came up with the idea of feeding them minced meat and they even breed 3 times. The offsprings looks horrible! We still have 3 arows then.
Slowly, the fishes died and my dad gave a lot of our tanks to my father's friends. Then came the stupid and ugly gourami (they called it Ka Luoi then). This fish grew real big and he seems to know I hate him. Everytime I walk past, he would bang it's head on the tank to try to attack me. Really like to see him :bangwall:
At 15, I shifted to where I currently stay and that ugly gourami follow suit.
As preparing for "O" levels, was not really into pet keeping then, but still got one of two tanks of ranchus in my room.
At JC, I started to keep birds at the influence of my dad. Kept a few parakees (don't know how to spell) but got real sick of them as they stink! The worst has yet to come, hamsters, mices, rabbits (real stink!!!!).
On one night, my sister knocked my door and asked me to see what's outside my door. To my surprise, it's a beautiful white dog (hybrid) sitting outside our house. It's fur has been trimmed near it's hind leg and there's a black patch on its body (looks like body rot?). It looks abandoned and real pitiful. We quietly brought it into our house without my mom's knowledge (she hates dogs). You should see how she looked the next morning. Have to keep the dog outside the next day, but we have build a kennel for her and provides food and drinks. My neighbours fell in love witn her quickly and you can see her going from one house to another. It's like a community dog. :D
One day, one guy came and said it's his dog. As the dog seems to respond to his call, we have no choice but to let it go.
Then came army life..... no pets, no life. However, during my BMT in Tekong. My PC has given me the sanction to decorate and stock up the company fish pond. It's real fun amongst all the hardships we encountered.
My university life is without pets as I stayed in hostel and my parents are quite busy during that period. Started work, too busy to keep pets for the initial few years.
In come my Cocker Spanielw when I was 26. I love it. She's such a darling. Super intelligent dog that makes you feel that she's part of the family. She was killed 3 years ago. She ran out with my sis king charles spaniel and we couldn't locate her until 6 am the next morning. Someone has knocked her down and placed it on the side of the road. It was raining and when we found her, the King Charles was beside her, refusing to move. Missed her a lot. :( My mom bought a chinhuahua to accompany the King Charles and they are still with me. Real active dog. But I still miss my cocker.
:(
Kept Malawis 6 years ago, changed to Tangans witin 1 month. Kept LHs as well during the interim as I was told that they are new cichlids from Tangans. Kept a record of 38 pieces of LHs at one stage. Happy that most died and given away.
Crazy about keeping fishes now. Especially since we now have more access to rare and beautiful fishes. Even fishes near to extinction. Felt proud keeping these fishes as it seems like I am helping to preserve the life line of these fishes by maintaining the interest still.
TOK so much, really surprised. Hope you guys won't :bash: me.
:D Zealot :D
My first contact with fishkeeping was when I was four. At that time my dadis keeping a 2 ft tankful of oscars as my family financials are not that good and can't afford big tanks. There are around 10 pcs and it's a real terror tank especially during feeding time. There's only an air pump and the main diet is minced pork. AND they grow real fast and huge. In today's standard, its definitely an unacceptable overcrowding!
After this, I fell in love with keeping pets, and ventured into keeping danios, tetras, guppies, mollies, sword tails, softshell turtle, tortoise, newts. all sorts of tropical fishes.
At 5, my father's friend gave me a small alligator and it's real fun. Feed them goldfish. Feels sad for the goldfish then.
At the age of 6, I started to keep fighting spiders, which I caught from the "forest" at the now Bishan Park. At the same time, I collect many colonies of ants which I kept in chocolate boxes. They include, black ants, red ants, termites. It's quite easy to collect them, stick the stem of a long grass or Satay stick into the ant hole and pull it out. You'll find at least 10 pcs of the ants biting on the stem/stick. On one day, I have a funny idea and mix the 3 colonies together to see which ants is the strongest! Results: Termites, red, followed by the weakest black. But all of them died, just that the termites are the strongest.
Between the age of 6-9, I kept ducklings, chicks and squirrels. Read sad to see the ducks/chicken being killed for food when it grew bigger. My parents can't bear to kill them and they were given to the garung guni man as they are to big and noisy to be kept in flats. My uncle gave me a pair of fighting rooster and they really caught my attention! But damn, they were stolen the next day.
Kepts lots of eels around 10, like to place them on my hands and see them glides in between my fingers. :D
Then comes the dragon (arowanas). At that point in time, arowanas are not even in the markets. My uncle bought a few of them in exchange for a bag of rice in Indonesia and shipped them to us. Kept 10 in total at a point in time. After which, the market starts to introduce them and my dad actually had a collection of these dragons: Red, RTG, Blue, Green, Black and that's when I start keeping Bichirs as well, they called them Kong Long Wang! I would usually buy centipede at the length of around 12 cm for $1 each and feed them to the arowanas! What a scene, it's still so vivid even till today. Another incidents is when water fleas, green thing that stick on the arowanas, were attacking our arowanas. I find it quite fun to remove them and killed them using a toothpick. Really hate them, caused so much irritation to my dragons. Some of the dragons were sold off at a high price $8,000, I remembered and some died. Have a total of 10X4ft tanks at my 3-room flat then.
After which, I think I'm 14 then. My mom suugested lionhead goldfish and ranchus. Use to remember my whole family sitting in front of our tank admiring how stupid these goldfish swim around the tank. They are huge as my mom came up with the idea of feeding them minced meat and they even breed 3 times. The offsprings looks horrible! We still have 3 arows then.
Slowly, the fishes died and my dad gave a lot of our tanks to my father's friends. Then came the stupid and ugly gourami (they called it Ka Luoi then). This fish grew real big and he seems to know I hate him. Everytime I walk past, he would bang it's head on the tank to try to attack me. Really like to see him :bangwall:
At 15, I shifted to where I currently stay and that ugly gourami follow suit.
As preparing for "O" levels, was not really into pet keeping then, but still got one of two tanks of ranchus in my room.
At JC, I started to keep birds at the influence of my dad. Kept a few parakees (don't know how to spell) but got real sick of them as they stink! The worst has yet to come, hamsters, mices, rabbits (real stink!!!!).
On one night, my sister knocked my door and asked me to see what's outside my door. To my surprise, it's a beautiful white dog (hybrid) sitting outside our house. It's fur has been trimmed near it's hind leg and there's a black patch on its body (looks like body rot?). It looks abandoned and real pitiful. We quietly brought it into our house without my mom's knowledge (she hates dogs). You should see how she looked the next morning. Have to keep the dog outside the next day, but we have build a kennel for her and provides food and drinks. My neighbours fell in love witn her quickly and you can see her going from one house to another. It's like a community dog. :D
One day, one guy came and said it's his dog. As the dog seems to respond to his call, we have no choice but to let it go.
Then came army life..... no pets, no life. However, during my BMT in Tekong. My PC has given me the sanction to decorate and stock up the company fish pond. It's real fun amongst all the hardships we encountered.
My university life is without pets as I stayed in hostel and my parents are quite busy during that period. Started work, too busy to keep pets for the initial few years.
In come my Cocker Spanielw when I was 26. I love it. She's such a darling. Super intelligent dog that makes you feel that she's part of the family. She was killed 3 years ago. She ran out with my sis king charles spaniel and we couldn't locate her until 6 am the next morning. Someone has knocked her down and placed it on the side of the road. It was raining and when we found her, the King Charles was beside her, refusing to move. Missed her a lot. :( My mom bought a chinhuahua to accompany the King Charles and they are still with me. Real active dog. But I still miss my cocker.
:(
Kept Malawis 6 years ago, changed to Tangans witin 1 month. Kept LHs as well during the interim as I was told that they are new cichlids from Tangans. Kept a record of 38 pieces of LHs at one stage. Happy that most died and given away.
Crazy about keeping fishes now. Especially since we now have more access to rare and beautiful fishes. Even fishes near to extinction. Felt proud keeping these fishes as it seems like I am helping to preserve the life line of these fishes by maintaining the interest still.
TOK so much, really surprised. Hope you guys won't :bash: me.
:D Zealot :D