Cleaning Up The Pla Nin Pond

[DerkMR]

Today we were cleaning up the "Pla nin pond", at least the family said there were Pla nin put in 4 years ago.

OK, in deed we got like 15 adult ones, 20 mid sized and 20 below 10 cm - well the family already was fishing for them when the pond was filed...

Most of our catch were Pla tongraj (?) - grey featherback, Notopterus notopterus (ca. 100 - all adult), Pla busaj (?) - sand goby - Oxyeleotris marmoratus (ca. 30 - 5-20 cm), Pla gradihmo (?) - spotted gourami - Trichogaster trichopterus (ca. 50) and Pla grimkanglaj - kroaching gourami - Trichopsis vittatus (ca. 50).

Also a single specimen of Pla dasai - greenway barb - Mystaloceus greenwayi of 5 cm found the way into the net - as youngster and without filling the pond from the klong after the initial fill, it's a small mystery how this one came in..

Furthermore we got two adult Pla graj - spottetd featherback - Notopterus chitala ( 55 and 60 cm), like 5 smaller ones (15-20 cm) and one Pla chon - striped snakehead - Channa striata (55 cm). The second Pla chon caught was "only" 40 cm. One Pla chon of 55 cm still is in the remaining water and mudd but we had to stop due to darkness. Some often seen Pla chon of 20-30 cm have not been cought today but hopefully will be in tomorrow.

The biggest two catches are most probably Pla namlang (?), soldier river barb, Cyclocheilichtys enoplos with "only" 75-80 cm length and around 5 kg.

With the large predators in place no wonder that there were so few small and mid-sized Pla nin while the larger ones mainly went into the familys stomach

Attatched is a picture of the ones which most probably stay "at home with the family" because I had a small Pla chon like 30 years ago in my aquarium and the spotted featherbacks I just didn't buy because they were getting soooooo huge but I always liked them...

Bye,

Derk

[Dancealot]

Very nice! And you sparked my curiosity: Did you catch one of these as well?

[DerkMR]

Very nice! And you sparked my curiosity: Did you catch one of these as well?

Looks like my Pla chon - but in small

Bye,

Derk

[DerkMR]

So, today I tried to get workers who could dig a new deepest area for the pond as without dropping the pump into the mud and say goodbye to it we can't get out the rest of water which is like 50m3, so too much to do with buckets.

Offering 500 Bath per day wasn't enough to do the job while the water is in.

Getting a large excavator which can do it from above is impossible because it's just too few work (2 x 2 m and 1 m deep).

Getting a small excavator would be possible, but this would sure sink 1 m into the mud as with my 92 kg I'm 60 cm in at the desired place - so also not the way to go.

Seems like I have to let the pond dry out naturally and hope that the small leaking (about the old level of the rice paddy - SIL says it's ground water, I think it's the neighbouring pond in which the water from this got pumped) will not enlarge.

Selling the two big catches (ok not as guessed 5 kg but 3,5 kg) was for 65 B/kg while the Pla chon were not sold. Not because I kept the big one in the aquarium - as he escaped during the night three times and made a fist sized hole in the epoxy lampcover I dicided against keeping him - but because "the big one (2 kg) can't be sold", so MIL cooks him and the small one (800 g) is going to be FIL's dinner.

I would have preferred to fry some slices of the one laaaarge fish - sufficient for the whole family, sell the other and the two Pla chon.

Would have made 650 Bath instead of 440 and leaving me and the GF hungry

The Pla tongraj could not be sold because "too small", I think with 20-25 cm they should be adult, but who knows. As the couldn't be sold they are now swimming in the larger pond and have to be caught again when this is emptied. My wish was to use some for cooking and dry and smoke the rest as they do in Korat.

But who cares what I would do or are my whishes?

Bye,

Derk