What kind of fish is known as the ikan DBKU?
Well, you have to read this book to find out. It suffices to say that the acronym stands for the Kuching North City Hall.
A Field Guide to the Fishes of Kuching Rivers (Natural History Publications, 2006) by Katherine Atack, a British biologist who found her dream hardship posting to Borneo, is a layman's handbook to the piscine inhabitants of Sungei Sarawak, Sungai Maong and Sungai Kuap that flow through the Sarawak state capital.
One warning though: don't expect information on peat swamp species like Betta brownorum here. The three rivers in question are semi-estuarine and a good bulk of the book is taken up by brackish and marine species such as sharks, shads and sardines (Clupeidae), tarpons (Megalopidae), snappers (Lutjanidae), mullets (Mugilidae), rabbitfish (Siganidae) and soles (Soleidae).
However, families familiar to aquarists are well-represented, including the featherbacks, carps, bagrid catfish, clarias cats, spiny eels, anabantoids, tigerfish (Datnioidae), archerfish, gobies and puffers. Apart from the fish listings, the book covers the aquatic ecology of Sarawak and Kuching and profiles the various habitats (freshwater, estuarine, marine) that encompass the river's run. Basic fish biology, their human use and conservation are also discussed.
Interesting entries include those for the long-snouted pipefish (Doryichthys boaja), a large (41 cm) freshwater pipefish found in Sg. Kuap (Mike, you know what to do....), Rasbora tornieri, the threadfins (Polynemidae or ikan kurau), and the excellent concluding Gobiidae and Tetraodontidae sections (including a good profile of Carinotetraodon borneensis, the redeye puffer). A new oddity featured is the first record of the grunting toadfish Halophryne hutchinsi in Malaysia, which was described only in 1998 as originating from the Philippines and Indonesia's Pulau Waigeo.
Not for the casual aquarist but rather the slightly more hardcore Sundafanatic, The Fishes of Kuching River is available at the Nature's Niche bookshop at the Botanic Gardens Visitors Centre in hardcover. Go buy now and don't be a cheapo like some people who would actually borrow Diana Walstad's book for wholesale photocopying.
u bought the book ah?
thats a mudskipper on the front cover! ehehhehe
hmm im a pseudo sundafanatic but im not sure if i wanna read about fishies.
i think i focus on reading the prehistory of the indo-malayan archipelago
Posted by: monkey | 24 February 2006 at 02:57 PM
Hmmm interesting
about time i get acquainted with my fellow inhabitants of the river
thanks for the review
Posted by: FH2o | 25 February 2006 at 10:17 AM
Ha!ha!Ikan DBKU!! Interesting huh??!! I still can't find that pipefish....I think I better use bigger net to catch it in big river. :-p
Posted by: jungleMike | 25 February 2006 at 02:18 PM