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.

Wild Betta Country road

This is one of those trip on road to wild betta collection. This strip of road leads to a forest but the video was shot on it's way out. Travelling speed at max 50km/h due to the road condition. This is probably the driest dirt road I have travelled. Due to the holidays, no lorries were seen except at the entrance of the dirt road, which makes it easier to move around. Most of the times, the red mud can pile as high as 8 to 10inches in the centre of the driveway. One of the worst thing about collecting wild betta is washing the "Wildbetta" mobile. Takes almost 2 hours after each trip to clean the underside and tyres off mud but worth the trouble. Folks enjoy the scenery. See the cows? Camera person was having a hard time trying to hold the camera in position. At one point you can see the drop off on the road almost 10inches at least.

Visit to my old friend habitat

Field Trip 5 Jan 2008
First field trip of the year. Wanted to catch Tomi at another location at Kota Tinggi. First stop the Bak Kut Teh shop along Kota Tinggi. On the way after lunch, paid a visit to my old friend Cf Pugnax habitat. Didn't collect any, only lots of Rasbora. The biotopes seems a little disturbed with this yellowish mud. Still in abundance is the Nepenthes Ampullaria.

Road leading to biotopes



Nepenthes Ampullaria


Explore the forested area a little but no more stream. Came across what seems to be wild elephant dung. Too dangerous to be around this area.

Elephant dung


Moving back towards the car means around 1.5km back trek. Something funny happen. Got my first leech encounter in my shoe. I was wearing rubber boots and inside was wet. The leech must have got in while at the Cf Pugnax biotope. Only knew I got leeched when I took off the boot to wash my foot. The blood sucker parked between my forth and last toe. Obviously doing his job. It grew to almost half the size of my last toe. Panicked la. Luckily at the back of the car, I had a new bottle of soya sauce. (bought for my mum) No choice, open the cap and pour the light soya sauce onto the leech. It actually "vomit" my blood and let go. So this is revenge time, more soya sauce for the little bloodsucker. It actually died from that. Haha, don't leave home without the soya sauce. Good remedy for leech bite.



Leech lodged between toes/trying to escape after soya sauce bath






Bottle of soya sauce / "gruesome kill" by soya sauce. Wasted my blood



Still early and ask the locals where to find Ikan Pelaga and was directed to a nearby palm-oil plantation. The guy actually pointed to Betta Tomi from my Betta book. Excited. The road to the first stream was downhill with many potholes. One look at the stream, saw Betta Pugnax swimming freely on a small flowing stream. It's beautiful just like the Singapore Pugnax, full of green irridescent on its scale. Manage to collect the big male.





No Betta Tomi. Next time perhaps.

X'mas Betta

Field Trip 25 Dec 2007

Looking for Tomi's habitat. Came across this stream and a 30mins scooping around the stream yielded 4 snakehead, channa gachua and 4 pugnax. One of the pugnax was mouthbrooding and release about 3 fries whilst in the container. Release back 2 juveniles pugnax. One of the channa gachua only have a left pectorial fin but apparently a healthy fish. Not handicapped by a fin short.

Channa Gachua and male pugnax

The female

The mouthbrooding pugnax released a few fries in its new tank and the rest on the next day. There must be slightly over a hundred fries. These will be release back to the wild upon reaching 1 inch.

There were many residents monkeys that move freely along the road, no fear of humans.

Wild Singapore Part 4

Field Trip 8 Nov 2007

Unplanned trip. Actually scouting around for possible Betta Tomi habitat. Met John and his friend Matthew catching fish at a known Pugnax habitat. They have got couple of gobies and big channa gachua. Caught 4 pugnax for John, 3 males and a female. One of the male was mouthbrooding. Unfortunately the biotope was a little disturbed before the picture was taken. The biotope was formed from water seepage from the nearby reservoir through underground piping. A stream must have been there originally and now a service road actually run across this place.

Continuing the wild search, came across this stream that is wild and seems untouch. Rasbora, barbs are a common inhabitant. There's plenty of wild guppy. Collected a few for my tank. Some of the flora around the stream. Search still goes on for Tomi habitat

Hunt for Betta Tomi

Field Trip 3 Nov 2007

Planned trip to see the elusive Tomi habitat. This was a result of some discussion over the forum on BettaBite of how the Tomi in Singapore could be extinct etc. The trip started at 7am driving towards Kota Tinggi/ Mersing. On the way stop by some black water habitat that could be a promising betta haven. Baboons can be seen along the roadside foraging for food. Unfortunately road kills of monkeys are commom along this route





Along the way, we stopped at the Bak Kut Teh shop and have our brunch. We kind of know that once we start collecting, there may be no time to think about food or anything except betta. We reach Tomi's place around noon. We were definitely happy cos the description of the habitat matched what we saw upon arrival.


Getting into the biotope requires some care and caution. The area is quite dense but there seems to be some makeshift planks thrown along the path. Presence of other betta collectors. The area is a primary forest and seems to be a low drainage point offering this betta biotope. Caugnt channa gachua,nandus, anabas, boraras, loaches, wild guppy, pugnax and tomi. Living alongside are freshwater prawns, crabs and frogs. The tadpoles are big orange coloured that can be seen almost everywhere. Surprisingly, the mosquito was not present and that is a definite relief. Some of the habitat seems to be dried up almost like a dry season but it rained while we were collecting Tomi.


Biotopes of Betta Tomi










Comparing our catch