Tomans 101

Snakehead (Channidae) (ikan Haruan) are freshwater fish native to the region and much of Africa. Valued as a food fish in these parts, it is used in many Asian and Chinese dishes. The most popular is of course as sheng yu, or raw fish porridge. Apparently its also supposed to have restorative properties, especially for people recovering from operations (e.g. an operation to reattach your finger after it was bitten off by a snakehead which you were trying to catch in order to cook porridge).

Interestingly, the zoo keeps snakeheads...

Just in case you didn't believe that this was the zoo, here are pictures of some other fish the zoo keeps:

Alligator gar. That's the ugly one on the right. The ugly one on the left is me.

And the polarbear fish. You won't be able to see these in the zoo for now, because they're being moved to the upcoming River Safari.

Back to tomans. So we were at toman pond for the first time. Lots of busted lines because we didn't think to bring wire. But we managed to land a few.

Why no manly pic of someone holding up the toman by their fingers? Because my friend (of course not me la) dropped the thing whilst trying to hold it up, and it wriggled down the steps and back into the water!

Notice the zig zag water marks on the steps. Yes. Most embarrasing way to lose a fish EVER - it wriggled away from you.

Plans to return to the toman pond are already underway. =DDD