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| Batang Ai - Lubok Antu Expedition |
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| (collection date: June 1st, 2004) |
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| To me and my friends, Kapuas River basin is just like the Amazon River basin of South East Asia. There are more than 300 species of fish fauna found in this river basin, especially the Vaillants chocolate gourami (Sphaerichthys vaillanti) is one of the most beautiful fish inhabit in the upper part of Kapuas river and the surrounding area of Danau Sentarum lake. We found out from the map (not the one below) that the hills and the mountains in the bordering area near the Lubok Antu town is not so high. We decided to go to explore the Batang Ai and Lubok Antu area to find the water head of upper kapuas river. |
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The pink circle indicate our collection area. Danau Sentarum lake is in Kalimantan Barat,Indonesia. |
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| June 1st....the first day of Hari Gawai.(harvest festival), Benjamine, Zhou Hang, Benny and I were heading to Batang Ai area to search for the water head of upper Kapuas river. About 1.30pm, we reached the first collection point. Its a tea colored, fast flowing river. We found an unknown species of rasbora and a fish looks like Puntius species. |
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| As the road is too bad for me to continue driving to the border, I decided to turn back. We stopped at a blackwater brook and Zhou Hang found a species of rasbora looks like Rasbora einthoveni. We all felt very excited as all those fish we caught are never seen by anyone of us before. |
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| Later, we headed to Batang Ai dam.....took some picture and left. We found no fish in the river below the dam, except the eggs of the frog sticking on the hair grass. |
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| The last collection point is the blackwater swamp somewhere near Seri Aman. We found Betta ibanorum and a swamp eel. |
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| Due to the poor planning, we failed to explore most of the area near the border. Maybe I will come back to explore that area one day. |
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A tea colored river near the border. |
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Rasbora dusonensis (left) and unknown barb (below) found in the river shown above. |
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Batang Ai dam. |
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Visitors (of Batang Ai longhouse resort ) are embarking the boat. |
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Hair grass is growing abundantly in the river below the dam. |
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A swamp eel found in blackwater stream near Seri Aman. |
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