Sg Pugnax Release

16th March 2008
Have been keeping the wild caught Singapore Pugnax since 2005. They spawned a few times in the community tank but failed to produce any fries. Have good observations on their characteristics over 3 years and thought it would be a good idea to let them go to where they belong.

Location of release at an area to support a dwindling population. Again the stream is natural water from the nearby reservoir. Another short distance away is where I caught the Xmas Betta in earlier post. Plan to release the fries soon to the same stream. I believe the streams are interconnected in the nearby secondary forest. Enjoy the pix and a short video.

7 pugnaxes in plastic bag


The biotope at release area

Channa Gachua

Channa Gachua - wild caught from field trips

This species of Snakehead was encountered in most of my field trips. In tomi habitat, 3 gachuas were found within a 10 square foot area and they co-exist with pugnax, tomi, wild guppy, loach, halfbeak. The Singapore habitat has more gachua in terms of square footage area. Difference is that there is less game in the water so the gachua basically preyed on the pugnax. In Singapore Part 4, John caught a huge gachua, in Singapore Part 5 in my blog, I found 4 gachuas within the same stream within a 15 feet span.

My first encounter on the gachua was my very first and longest field trip where I caught 2 juveniles with Betta Pi, off Trengganu. Only one survive today. I have since put all the 5 gachuas together to study them in greater details. The video was shot during one of its meal time, feeding on mealworms. They are good culling machine as they will eat anything it can put in its mouth. Surprisingly they are quite tolerant of other species like the 2 spot gourami and croaking gourami. Smaller ones end up you know where.

The species came from India and I believe they are introduced here through the hobby trade. One of the reason of keeping them is to let the pugnax population grow.





This guy have one pectoral fin.