Now on its third year, AquaMania 2016, organized by the Tropical Fish-keepers Club of the Philippines, saw thousands of hobbyists from all over Luzon coming to see various tropical aquarium fish displayed during the recent four-day event at the Event Center, Upper Ground Floor of Fisher Mall in Quezon City.
Local and imported fish competed for the various prizes; this year, an import zenzho owned by Mark Lester P. Zamora, representing Team New Beast, bagged the Best of Show award. Asian Betta Alliance also held their AOC competition for the third year, with Alfredo Tumacder taking the Best of Show Award.
Other clubs participated, bringing their personal monster fish collections to the show. In addition to gorgeous fish, visitors saw other interesting booths, including that of festival newcomer Philippine Hamster Owner Society, which featured a petting area for teddy bear, Siberian, and the new winter white hamsters. Quite a few of the children and the young at heart who visited the booth went home with their own hamsters.
As is customary during AquaMania, the raffles featured spectacular prizes, and Jheddan Paguirigan Roxas, a flowerhorn breeder from Flowerhorn Republic, took home an 8” Super Red Arowana from Longxin farm—the grand raffle prize of the night. His prize was sponsored by Dennis Nocom of D Blue Room. Other winners took home aquarium accessories from the Big Fish Place and various ball python hatchlings sponsored by Majestic Balls Reptile Distributor.
WINNERS
Red: Champion – Aro Kingdom, David Bueno
Second Place – Istana Arwana Indonesia, Glenn Angeles
Third Place – Red Dragon Cianjur, Dennis Nocom
People’s choice – Daristo Dragon Fish, Mannix Chua
Gold: Champion – ML Arowana Farm, Christian Dela Cruz
Second Place – Long Xin Universal, Dennis Nocom
Third Place – Trillion Gold, Jay Lim
People’s Choice – Long Xin Universal, Dennis Nocom
This story appeared in Animal Scene’s January 2017 issue.