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| May 9th. One week later, I decided to go to Pantu area to search for Betta brownorum. There are a few peat swamp forest over there. I was alone at that time. I found a beautiful peat swamp forest but I couldn't find any betta....only the common Rasbora kalochroma. After spending one and half hour inside the swamp, I finally "surrender" as I was totally exhausted! Again, going home with disappointment. |
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A beautiful peat swamp forest near Pantu. |
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| May 15th. I finally got the information from the fish expert, Mr Tan about the name of the river where I can find Betta taeniata. The name of the village is very similar to a village nearby the Serian town, so I went to the wrong collection point and found nothing interesting. Then I went to another collection point described by Allan Brown in the Sarawak Museum Journal (1987 issue) in Tebedu area. However, I failed to find anything except an underground river (flooded cave)....somewhere nearby the road to the Indonesia border. This time I really wanted to give up. All the streams and rivers that I went to, there is no such fish called betta!! |
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| May 23rd. After confirming with the fish expert for the second time, I realised that the river where I found 2 species of Borneo sucker is the river where he found Betta taeniata.This time, I have 100% confidence to find the fish. I went to the upper part of the river where there are a lot of plants growing near the stream and I push my net very hard and at last I found a male Betta taeniata!! Words can not describe how I felt at that moment. After so many years growing up in Sarawak, this is my first time that I saw such a beautiful wild betta !!!!The anal fin is bluish mixed with greenish colored.....isn't it a great creation of the God?!! So perfect and beautiful! |
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A male Betta taeniata |
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Hey man, I am not peeing but busy collecting the fish! This is where I found Betta taeniata. |
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| May 29th. This time Mr Tan asked me to be a guide for three new friends (Benjamin,Benny & Zhou Hang) coming from Singapore. They're here to collecting some wild betta and other species of fish. In the early morning, after bringing them to eat the famous Sarawak laksa, we headed to a peat swamp forest not far away from the city. When I went into the swamp, I saw the stream is too shallow and believed all of us will not find anything inside that muddy swamp. About 15 minutes later, Benjamin found the first Betta brownorum! Gosh! I never really expect the swallow water along the jungle trail got such a beautiful red betta fish! If I didn't bring them there, I would have over looked that area to find this betta! My Singaporean friends explained to me that Betta brownorum is belongs to Betta coccina group. This group of Betta inhabit in shallow and slow flowing stream. I'm not just found this beautiful betta but I also found three new friends who are willing to teach me how to breed fish, sharing knowledge about fish keeping and taking a good photo. After a month long of "hunting" I feel this collection period is the most fruitful one! |
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The red arrow is pointing at the leave litter where Betta brownorum is hiding under. |
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I thought Betta brownorum is as big as Siamese fighting fish, but in fact it is a small species! |
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A beautiful male Betta brownorum. |
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