One of the most popular parts of Aquarama are the farm visits to Singapore’s leading breeders and exporters in what has been called “the heart of the ornamental fish capital of the world.” Animal Scene joined the Farm Tours and visited the following farms: Dragonwana, Pang Long Pte Ltd., OTF Aquarium Farm, Longxin Universal Pte Ltd., and Qian Hu Corporation Limited in the company of our friends from PALHS. There was much to learn about the latest techniques in fish farming, particularly for arowana or dragon fish and stingrays.
Quian Hu Farm
The Qian Hu farm was, in the early 1980s, among the first few breeders to acquire the knowledge and techniques for breeding arowana in Singapore. Known for breeding quality golden and red arowana, the farm’s major clientele are from China. They are also among the first companies in the industry in Singapore to achieve ISO 9002 accreditation for conditioning and exporting of ornamental fish and Arowana. The farm continues to engage in R&D with scientific institutions in Singapore to expand their knowledge of the biology and breeding behavior of the Asian Arowana.
Aquatic Gliders
The Aquatic Gliders Farm began breeding stingrays in 2000 with brown rays like potomotrygon pearls, P. castexi, and P. motoro. In 2013, they began exclusively concentrating on P13 leopoldi black diamonds. They supply hundreds of pups yearly from over 100 brooders to countries like China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, Korea, and the Philipines. Each fish is microchipped and come with certificates attesting to their breeding; this is critical because experts and hobbyists agree that this farm produces some of Singapore’s best stingrays.
Longxin
This farm began when a hobbyist decided to start rearing his own dragon fish 15 years ago. They specialize in premium crossback arowana, including gold and blue base fish, and export mainly to China, Europe, the Philippines, Japan, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. They use only the latest technology such as an automated dripping system for all of the fish; the fish are also fed food with no additives. The fish are quality-checked when they are 2-3 inches long so that the prized Universal 24k Gold can be reared separately to be of a certain quality. The farm is also known for having combined golden head with blue based fishes, resulting in their popular blue-based golden head or Universal Premium Blue.
Animal Scene would like to thank Jimmy Lim, Margarita Hermoso, Lennox Ong, Melvin So, Francis Tan, Samuel Lim, Bert Tan, Lloyd Ryan Inocencio, Christopher T. Soon, Jay Africa, Chingka Lee, Ching Sun Lee, Carter Lee, Albino Lee,Zotico Tan, and the officers and members of the Philippine Arowana and LouHan Society.
This appeared as “Farm Visit” in Animal Scene’s July 2015 issue.
