Story Heard at the Saloon - Ignite New Perspective

Like usual, my hair grow as fast as the grass outside the shop. And today I went for my trimming.

It's at a housing area, and my groomer is a lady, roughly over her fifties. She herself do some cutting at home just to kill time. Very nice lady, very cheerful at this age.

When I arrived at the house, there's a few more elderly there. Let's call them Auntie A, Auntie B and Uncle C and also my groomer. So I went over to the room beside to wait for my turn. The door between the Barber room and the waiting room is open so I can hear their conversation clearly. They are speaking in Hakka so I understood most of it.

I heard that I was briefly introduced, "selling fish bla bla, the aquarium fish not the pasar fish, oh oh the one at the road side" etc etc. And then they started telling their past experience involving fishes. Which mostly don't end good, fish die.

Auntie A said she once owned two aquariums, kept some fish in both, first tank K.O. one by one. Then followed by the second tank. Reason unknown and so she gave up, and give the tank away to her friend.

Then Uncle C sambung, "Yalo yalo, my friend also once had a small Fiber pond of fishes, most of them are koi's, then, just one night, blackout, no oxygen, whole tank wipe out."

Auntie B then say "Keep those river longkang fish is the best, my son kept a few of them, no oxygen and even not much water also survive!"

Then they criticized a little about Gohsanzak (Ikan Puyu) say now those fish can't be found anymore whereas last time you can see them everywhere in the drain and so and so.

MY POINT IS a lot of us take this the wrong way.

Whenever we venture into new stuffs, things that we have zero knowledge of, in this case, Aquarium Fish Keeping, we need to keep a very open mind and a responsible heart.

Before you take an aquarium home with fishes, go do some fact find, ask your fish seller. What When Why HOW ?! We are here to share our experience with you! That is OUR responsibility! Yes you can do some searching on the internet but to be honest if you don't have a basic in keeping fish, you won't understand what the internet are speaking. And most of the writers are mostly from much more advanced country compared to Malaysia so a lot of theories and skills are not that applicable locally.

Keep things simple, for beginners, try start with more hardy fishes, cari yang tahan lasak ckit.

Such as:

1. Flower Horn
2. Parrot Fish
3. Oscars
4. Hang Chew (Subangkin)
5. Dragon Fish
6. Angels
7. Betta (Fighting Fish)
8. Koi

To be honest Guppies and Goldfish can be tricky especially if you don't have the "luck" in Chinese we say "手好" or "tengok tangan". We never deny that some people are born with the aura to keep fish, I've seen people throw goldfish in an old bathtub outside the house which experience hot sun and big rains and the Goldfish still live great for years while there are people spending hundreds on pumps, bacteria, premium foods, precise care and everything but yet their fishes still goes to heaven one by one.

But still, remember, keep an open mind.

Ask, Learn, Practice.

It's not that hard, especially when you have the heart, I'm not asking you to spend tons of money into fishes, a small nice 2feet community tank really won't swallow your budget for half a month, trust me. All I'm asking is to put slightly more effort into the fish in your possession. They have lives. You might not be able to pet them like your pet dogs and cats but the uniqueness they posses is what you can't find in your furry balls.

I'm 22 this year and I've spent more than half of my life with fishes and YET I AM STILL LEARNING. What are your excuse?

Happy Fish, Happy Life!

Peace.

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