Aquarama 2009!

Hello everyone. It has been a long time since I last posted. So much things have happened and I got tied up with too many loose ends. I apologize for the long delay. But now I finally I have some time to devote to my blog. The last time I posted was in Singapore, on the eve of the 2009 Aquarama trade show. Here are some highlights from that show.

Reefdepot, (a high end LFS in Singapore) with conjunction with a friend (Ace) had invited me to present my corals at the show. They had prepared a 100 gallon tank to display my corals. It was a perfect opportunity to showcase my corals and introduce them to the Singapore reefers!

Reefdepot is the main distributor of Giesemann lighting products in Singapore. The booth was sponsored by them and had two representatives there.

Reefdepot guys showcasing some new Deltec skimmers. Like I said before, the Reefdepot guys are into high end equipment!

Authorized dealer for Bubble king too!

Various Giesemann lighting systems on display, and on sale!

Spare Red Dragon pumps anyone?

So this was one of the popular displays. A little Red Dragon pump running silent but working like a giant 2 horsepower Baldor!

And here is our display. The tank is a Giesemann and so are the lights. The artificial rockwork in the background was also provided by Giesemann.

A close up of some of my corals. Check out the rare green-blue base pumpkin eyed Acanthastrea echinata on the right - way cool!

My flyer on top of the display tank designed by my friend Ace. Pretty good for having only a few days to make one and business cards - thanks Ace!

And here is Ace, my friend and customer. Actually he was the first to introduce my corals to the Singapore reefers. Now he has closed down his retail shop and does mostly design and setups of high end reef tanks. He is a new concept kind of a guy, and is extremely talented in designing out systems. He was the one behind the famous reef tank with three plasma tv's that stole the show at the 2005 Aquarama. I actually stayed until closing time to get a peek at how the tv's were put into the aquarium. I'll post some pictures and some of his other works at a later post.

Ace's company is called Halequin Marine and he can be contacted at sales@harlequinmarine.com. Actually it is Ace that put this whole thing together with me and Reefdepot guys. The demand for my corals was such a big hit though, that Reefdepot will soon be carrying my corals in Singapore!

Another vendor sharing our booth was marketing these wave makers. Made in the USA and awesome!

Couple of tanks to show how the VorTech works. The corals were actually swaying left to right with this magical wavemaker!

I didn't notice any Korean vendors back in the 2005 show, but this time around, a whole block was dedicated to the kimchee loving (including me) guys!

Many of the Korean vendors were into airstones, but these particular guys were actually breeding ornamental marine fish! They are located in the Jeju Island, an island off of Southern Korea.

Ah, a vendor that we are all familiar with - JBJ. From chillers to "nano cubes", these Chinese made products are really popular in the USA.

Another high end product vendor - Tropic Marin!

Clipper machines! Wish we had one here in Indo. I'll take the one in the background, the manual one. I can see the mechanical ones rusting out and being useless under the humid conditions of Indo.

Lot of books and magazines for sale!

Not sure what brand these were, but it seems like many skimmers look like the ever so popular Euroreefs!

Asian made LED - actinic combos! These weren't around when I was into retailing. Wonder how they work? Sure is bright enough though!

Some beautiful white polka dotted freshwater stingrays!

I think these are called "Motoros" and are highly illegal in the states. But they are gorgeous!

An Asian arowana breeder specializing in white morphs!

I remember back at the 2005 show, where a white silver arowana was so special and desired. But now, I see Asian arowanas in white! Note these are not the albino type with pink eyes.

So this was strange. Goldfish swimming around with nemo!

Couldn't quite figure out what the vendor was selling, but they seemed to have a magic formula to keep fresh and saltwater fish swimming together!

This vendor was presenting all kinds of water treatments. From bacteria to ammonia removers to medications, they had a whole line of goods. Funny thing is that the company has been around for a long time, making mostly products for pond keeping though. They are a US company, now marketing their products in Asia! Many interests, especially from exporters here in Indo are wanting these products. The problem is that there is a law that prohibits any chemical or liquid products entering Indonesia from other countries.

I picked up some samples and will be experimenting with them. One particular product that caught my attention is the ammonia remover. I will be trying this product with friends in Bali to see if we can lower doas on fish.

Fish competition is always a big draw to these kind of shows.

From discus to flowerhorns to arowanas to bettas to goldfish to guppies - the best looking guys from the species are represented here.

Here is my favorite freshwater fish - the Asian arowana - also known as the Dragon fish! Small specimens can still sell for thousands in the US. They are still banned, and don't really know why. All other countries have lifted the ban on these beautiful "Feng Shui" fish!

A reef tank competition!

This display is simple and open, but probably could have gotten more brownie points if it had some fish.

I liked the layout on this tank the best. Plenty of space for fish to swim around, but again no fish!

Ah yes finally some fish! The school of yellow tangs contrast with the corals and rockwork well.

If I was the judge, this tank would have won first place. I've been in sections of the reef where the corals literally were growing on top of each other, like this one. Plus the fact that it was dominated by acros and it was presented by a friend:)

This tank was interesting. Whoever set it up had in mind to present a message. Too small to read so I have typed it out below:

Lions in the ocean?
Invasion of its species!
Oh look how they are reproducing!
Now they're even in US Coastal waters!
Florida was where it all started.
It seems they're spreading fast!
So we should really stop releasing them!
Hold on to your lionfish!

Some friends from Aquarama. To my left is Bob Fenner, founder of wet web media. I met bob several years ago when me and the local reef club sponsored him to do a talk. He is like a walking fish and coral encyclopedia! To my right is the famous Leng Sy. He is famous for his montipora capricornis, known as the Leng Sy cap. He is known for his company, Ecosystems and products like miracle mud. Now he is going to be super famous for his new magazine! It is called Reeflife, and I had the privilege to check out the first issue. Beautiful pictures from Scott Michaels! One more thing, Julian Sprung was also here at the show, doing a presentation. I tried to track him down after wards and say hello but couldn't find him:( Oh well, maybe I'll see him at MACNA this year.

And here is another famous guy, at least in Asia he is! This is ChingChai, the founder of the Siam Reef Club, in Thailand. He is an avid reefer and his dedication to the hobby is well noted from all over Asia. His tank was featured on Reef Central's tank of the month, last year May. He is into sps, and I will be looking for some nice rare pieces to go into his magnificent tank! Great job on spreading the reef hobby in Thailand ChingChai. He has invited me to come visit him, and I will in the future!

Wow what a surprise! I have been talking to these guys for a while through e-mail about how to import in corals from Indo. And all of a sudden they show up at Aquarama! They didn't know I was going to be here and I didn't know they were coming. It was a pleasant surprise. What a bunch of nice dedicated reefers these guys were. They have an LFS promoting the hobby in the Philipines! Go check out their website. It was weird, these guys were talking to me like I was some sort of a celebrity or something. But it was great meeting you guys - Justin, Edwin, Randell, Raymond, and Wiley, keep in touch and I will go visit you guys one day!

It was a strange coincidence meeting up with this old chap from Australia. His name is Gary and he is a diver/collector/exporter. I didn't know it but it turned out we have a mutual friend in the US. Gary supplies to a friend of mine. So in no time we were talking like old buddies! Gary had come to Aquarama to get customers in Asia. I know his products are top knotch. If anyone is interested in great Aussie corals, outside of the United States, contact me at joylucktp2000 and I will give you Gary's contact. I have some pictures that he gave me and I will ask permission to post them on my blog. One day, I hope to visit Gary as well and go coral collecting with him!

Conclusion

Ok guys that is it for this topic. Again I like to thank Ace, Nelson (Reefdepot), and Giesemann for letting me present my corals at Aquarama 2009. It was fun and a great experience. Maybe we can get together next year for Interzoo ha! ha!

I'm heading out to Bali in the morning for hunting for aquacultures. I will go back to posting regularly, I promise!

Also I took some videos at the show, but can't seem to upload. The internet connection is so bad that it keeps going in and out. Oh well, it looks like I will be sharing lots of videos when I get back to the US.

Cheers,
Eddie

Goodmorning Singapore!

Hello everyone. So it is late Wednesday night right now. Tomorrow is the beginning of the Aquarama trade show. I will be handing out fliers and business cards with some friends in the industry.

For those of you that are visiting my blog for the first time, WELCOME! We are committed to providing the highest quality of corals from Indonesia. Please take the time to read my past posts, as there are lots of pictures and valuable information. To get a complete background on me in the industry, please go read my first post "hello world".

Normally for each picture, I would do a short description. But for now, as I'm just exhausted from my travels, I will have to do the write ups some other time. So for now, enjoy the pictures. All of the corals pictured were hand picked by me. Some have been exported and some have been shared with locals and other exporters.

Fishing in Hong Kong Part 4

Hello everyone. I do have more tunicate pictures to show but for now, let's finish up the fishing series.

So the first fish to be caught was this very unhappy fellow. Probably this filefish never thought that the shrimp morsel was going to be his last meal for ever. Now he is going to be a meal for me!

The second fish to be caught was this little scrappy scorpionfish. I heard they taste quite good, but I was thinking a much larger one would be better.

We are in small fish mode folks! This juvenile "sun beam" as they are called is about the size of a large damsel. Speaking of damsels, I tried luring huge sergeant majors to my hook, but they were way too smart!

After some hard battles with the little fish, it was lunch time - my favorite time of the day! The old lady picked us up again with her boat and we ended up at her house - a floating platform house!

The lady and her daughter got busy preparing food for us. Included in the meal was this steamed fresh grouper! Man, fish never tasted so good!

Some vegetables and roasted duck that we bought from the restaurant earlier in the morning.

And one more dish - black pepper beef ribs! Man it smelled and tasted so good!

And here we are sitting Indian style with friends ready to chow down!

While we were eating, the lady of the house was busy setting up traps to catch rabbitfish. Old molded bread was used as bait to lure the unsuspecting little guys into the trap. Once they enter, they cannot get out.

Some swimming crabs on hand. These were already ordered from a group of tourists.

Soon after the great meal, we went back to the fishing platform. My friend hooked on a live shrimp and caught this grouper!

It was getting late in the afternoon and I guess the owner of the platform (grows fish) showed up and started chopping some small fish.

Upon a closer look, it was anchovies!

The fish started going crazy after the guy dumped in handfuls of chopped up chovies! Remeber the little silver fish called the sunbeam that we were catching? Well, these are bigger versions - around 12 inches long.

Like all good things come to an end, the sun was setting and it was time to head back. Here is what we caught for the day. Two filefish, a rabbitfish, a grouper, bunch of small scorpionfish, small beams, and a squid! We released the little beams in the end.

So the jack of all trades old lady picked us up again and we were off!

We got back to the wharf and sure enough, there were fishermen still trying their lucks!

After a quick taxi ride, we ended up down this alley.

Here is the best part of this trip. So this restaurant cleans and cooks our catch for a small price! How cool is that? Never heard such a thing in the US, but I loved the idea!

First plate to arrive on our table was this, scorpionfish and shrimp (the shrimp is our leftover bait). Maybe I was hungry, but it sure tasted good!

Here is one of the scorpionfish, not looking so scorpion like!

This soup was made from the scorpionfish and the shrimps! Delicious!

Oh man! The steamed squid with garlic was just insanely delicious and beyond! I never knew squid could taste so good! Makes my mouth water just remembering it!

And here is our collection of "aquarium fish" The one on the left is the grouper. The one next to it is a filefish. The third one is the rabbitfish. And the one on the far right is another filefish. I have to say that the rabbitfish tasted the best of the three, then the filefish and then the grouper.

Guess what fish this is. If you guessed filefish, you are going to Disneyland!

Me chowing down on a filefish!

You heard of Reef Central? Well this is Pets Central. After done eating, we walked around the neighborhood and I spotted this building. Hong Kong people love their pets!

I declare Hong Kong dog lover capital of the world!

We continued to walk around the wharf area and came across this entrance.

Inside was a fresh seafood market.

Napoleon wrasse chuncks for sale!

Lobsters anyone?

Mantis shrimps are really tasty!

The poor guys, they get stuck inside these bottles until they get sold - and then it is off to the wok or pan or pot!

Cuttlefish looking like aliens.

Looks like the black and white zebra maxima clam!

So here is what the inside of a scallop looks like. The white meat you eat is the abductor muscle.

Kids playing with a huge horshoe crab on the street. It was meant to attract attention to the restaurant that serves it.

A lobster holding station.

Big groupers anyone? The chances are, these are from Indonesia, although they could have come from the Philipines.

Another seafood vendor showcasing the live goods!

Here is a side view picture of the seafood market. To the left is the bay.

So here is how it works. You go buy the live seafood from the vendors and then take it to the next door restaurants. For a fee, they cook it the way you want it. Pretty exciting and something I want to try next time. The prepared food looked so good!

We continued to walk and I took this picture from a pier. That neon fish is a napoleon wrasse!

Ah good old Mickey D's! Reminds me of the good old days when I was a youngin!.

So it was getting late and it was time to head back to the hotel. But before we got on the bus, we stopped at this place for desssert.

A late night snack before bedtime! Way cool!

Conclusion

Ok guys that is it for today and this concludes this fishing series. It was a great day and I will never forget the beautiful tunicates. It was lots of fun for guys like me that really like being out on the water. Going to a restaurant and having them cook your catch was just the icing on the cake! I love Hong Kong!!

My next post will come from Singapore. I will be attending and meeting some friends and business associates at the Aquarama 2009. The international trade show runs from May 28th to the 31st. Hope to see you there!

Cheers,
Eddie

Fishing in Hong Kong Part 3 - Tunicates!

Hello everyone. Sorry for not posting lately, again have been very busy. So let's continue on to "fishing in Hong Kong".

As I was getting excited about catching what ever fish that was lurking down the platform, bright red sponge like things caught my eye that was growing on the sides of the plastic barrels that was holding up the platform.

I dropped my line and put my fishing pole down. I then laid down on my belly to get a closer look at the interesting life that was beaming at me from just under the surface. Wow! I saw sponges (I thought it was at first) in all sorts of colors. From red to white to orange to yellow, you name it, it was a beautiful sight. Well for the rest of the day, I lost interest in fishing (first time ever). Instead I spent the whole day documenting and taking pictures of the fabulous little ecosystems that was going on right below our feet. I even managed to take a few crude underwater videos with my camera.

The first obvious inverts that were clinging onto the pontoons were sea squirts and tunicates. I thought the rest of the other colorful things were sponges. It wasn't until I got back to my hotel and uploaded the pictures and video on my computer that I realized that most, or all of the "sponges" were indeed different species of tunicates and the likes. Wow, pretty cool! I felt like I discovered gold or something.

For sure I thought these were sponges at first. But ended up being tiny little tunicates. Even that white thing in the front is a tunicate species.

The regular large tubular white ring things on the bottom are easy to identify as a tunicate. But the little red things encrusting half of the oyster on the lower shell (towards the top) looks very much like a sponge.

Wow! The little red buggers are even encrusting the larger cousins!

Brown and white tunicates. It is easy to see why I mistaken them for sponges. Heck I thought for a second it was a wartskin angler!

Really beautiful little guys. Looks like little cocoons of some strange animals!

On a certain side of the pontoon, only these white guys dominated the precious living space!

Gorgeous orange and red tunicate. Looks like a big sea slug!

Look at this bundle of joy! You got red ones surrounding larger brown cousins. The you have little yellow ones and even a purple one in the front!

Check out all this growth on one of the mooring lines. Literally all kinds of sea life are growing on top of each other. Unlike the housing market in the US, there is a shortage of realestate here!

Check out this strange coral looking thing growing on a thin piece of rope that was just sitting in the water.

I pulled up the rope and here it is. From what I can tell, it wasn't a coral. But it is calcareous and perhaps a type of a coraline algae.

Here is shot of the mooring lines that keeps the platform in place.

One of these mooring lines was just caked with feather duster type of worm creatures. Perhaps they could be glass anemones or aptaisa!

A few mussels managed to get a hold of on the crowded real estate!

A green tunicate and a green mussel share the neighborhood!

Just beautiful is all I can say!

The mantels on these mussels were striking. They looked like they had on turquoise lipstick!

A menagerie of tunicate species!

Ok for sure this is an aptaisa. Good to see that they do exist in the wild, and not just in our aquariums!

Cool orange looking little tunicates encrusting a larger cousin.

Check out the smaller brownish guys surrounding the bigger boys. And also, smaller white little dudes encrusting the big ones!

This appears to be a calcareous plating coraline algae of some sort - pretty cool!

Of course I had to find out what was hiding out in the submerged part of this tire!

I stuck my camera in and started to move around looking for things. There were the typical tunicates and algea. But hiding out half way was this sea urchin. Even simple little things as this was exciting to discover.

Some more searching and I spotted this anemone way in. I nearly got my head wet trying to get a close up photo. From the looks of it, my guess is that this is a condylactis.

Another rope that had been submerged for quite a long time. I pulled it up to get a closer view. Just amazing at the amount of growth in such a small area.

So this is my favorite shot. A bit blurry but gorgeous turquoise manteled mussel. The red encrusting tunicates really highlites this little bivalve!

Conclusion,

Ok guys that is it for today. I have another set of tunicate pictures to show you on my next post. I also have three videos to share. I'm learning how to upload them now and hopefully will have the videos up when I do the next post.

Cheers from bustling Jakarta,
Eddie

Fishing in Hong Kong Part 2

Hello everyone. So lets continue on to my fishing adventures in Hong Kong.

These are the boats that will be taking us to the fishing place.

Some friends waiting for our boat to arrive.

A guy in a corner doing what he likes best!

A view from the docks. Tourists here can rent windsurfing equipment and enjoy other water sports!

As we were waiting, these little fans were being passed out. It was around Easter and traditionally the locals go visit and pay respect to their passed away loved ones on the islands. The graves are "Fung Shui" chosen on the different islands for the best resting place. The little fans are a reminder to put out the fire on the candles after paying respects.

And here we are off to the fishing grounds!

Nothing like being on a boat!

Here is one of the grave sites that I was talking about earlier.

And here we are arriving on the floating platforms. Looks just like the "carambas" we have here in Indonesia. The place reminded me of Nha Trang bay in Vietnam.

And here we are getting off the boat. Note our captain and host is a lady!

The place was really cool. People can rent these floating platforms on a daily basis to go fishing or just to have a family gathering. Pretty cool little hangout place!

And here is the toilet. Well what did you expect?
Some other fisher people relaxing on another platform.

Most of these floating platforms are used to grow out fish. Later I will have some pictures to show.

Our friends getting ready to set up the rods.

One thing I noticed about the fishing in Hong Kong is how the everything is kept neat. Every piece of tackle has a place of its own. And everything is compact and mobile. The guys really take care of their equipment. I can't say much for us fishermen in the US though. Most of us just throw our poles and equipment in the garage until it is used. Then we simply throw it in our pickup or the trunk and grab a bucket full of tangled tackle, or even that messy tackle box with all kinds of tangled lines! The fishermen in Hong Kong are very meticulous and tidy.

Check this out. So besides the normal spinning and level winds, these guys came up with this strange unique cool looking "hybrid" reel. I can say that it is a combination spinning and baitcast. And get this, this reel and the "special" rod is designed just for floating platform fishing. God forbid, no one dares to use regular equipment, although it would do the same.

And to go along with the special floating platform reel, is the special designed ultra light pole.

The back screws out and the rod is a telecopic type.

It has zillions of eyes and is ultra sensitive. By now, I figure out that we were not fishing for 200 pound tuna!

Bobber stoppers are a norm tool of the trade, although we seldom use this in the US.

Even the weight is special. These thin strips of lead are cut to the fishing conditions.

The trick is sensitivity. Bare minimum of weight to get your bait to the bottom. I got frustrated with my bait sinking too slow and put on more weight. Of course our fellow fishermen thought there is no way I can catch fish that way. They were right I didn't catch much, although the reason wasn't because of the weight though. You will see what happened on the next post.

So here we are, ready to drop my line down to the dark green water. I leaned over to the edge of the platform and saw some things growing on the sides of the floating drums that was holding up the floating dock. That blue thing in the picture is the plastic empty drum.

I leaned down and looked closer. Wow! There were all kinds of living things! From tunicates to mussels to even anemones!

Conclusion

Ok guys that is it for today. On the next post, we will look more in detail of the life that I discovered on the sides of the floating drums. Also we start catching fish!

I've been in Sulawessi for the past week. I will be flying out to Bali later today and then off to East Java for more corals - mostly softies and sps!

Cheers,
Eddie