Interview with Ley Choon Arowana Farm by BlackBlade and XiiaoBen

[BlackBlade]

Ley Choon Dragon Fish Industry Pte Ltd is a CITES registered farm , dedicated to the breeding of Asian Arowanas. We had the honour to visit the farm for an interview , and also document some excellent fishes that they have there , and also the intriguing and intelligent setups that they have.



This is the Director of the farm , Mr Toh Chew Leong. He's a very friendly and nice guy, who warmly welcomed as he gave a comprehesive tour around his farm. He came in contact with Arowanas only 4 years ago. Before that , he did not even know what an Arowana was ! He learnt and researched passionately through the years , and managed to setup his farm last year. From there , he has been actively breeding and selling his Arowanas , and has also been working on improving the quality of his fishes.

His humble words that touched our hearts was," I am not well educated, therefore I find it hard to understand certain terms and abbreviations found in texts. However, What you see here is my efforts through many experiences in the study of the Arowana fish."

We cannot help but applaud his spirit and passion for his hobby and business. Hope readers do enjoy this article.


Firstly , we were taken into the display room. Here are a few pictures of the type of fishes that he has there.











Ley Choon specialises in Golds now , and will be proceeding to Reds in the near future. They have very high standards for their Golds , especially the Red-Tailed Goldens. Just take a look at the pieces above , can you differentiate the RTGs from the X-Backs ?

Other than the Asian varieties , Mr Toh has also been working on and developing on the South American varieties of Arowanas. He has a very solid line of Silver Arowanas , which have their silver almost platinum. He is also working on Black arowanas now , but they are still very young so I guess we have to wait a few more years before Ley Choon's Blacks are released into the local market. The silvers they produce are definitely far from ordinary .. Take a look at this Semi-Short Bodied Silver Arowana !



Impressive isn't it ? It isn't the best yet , the better one will be up later.


Mr Toh kindly allowed us to enter the fry room , which was a sight to behold. Due to it being a private sector of the farm which does not allow members of the public to view or enter , I will not post any pictures of the setup in the room , but this would be the most I can reveal...



Fries !

Yes , these little cute babies are barely a month old , still unable to swim and depending on their egg sacs. It was a first in my entire life !

Next , Mr Toh took us to visit his ponds , where he grows his brooding stock , as well have some private collections of his own. The ponds had very clear water , and were around 20ft by 9ft long , with a depth of approximately 4ft , purely made of mud. Mr Toh was sharing that the time to prepare the ponds took months as he left them to dry in the sun for at least a month to stabilise before filling it with water. He makes use of rainwater and collects them in a large reservoir at this section of the farm. Here are some photos of the reservoir.



The large pump ..



After that , it was the first most stunning experience in the whole trip. Short-Bodied Silver Arowanas. Mr Toh was still saying that the Semi-Shorts were not the best that he has even though we were drooling at it. Take a look at this baby !





Mr Toh has successfully developed this variety , and it's the first time we have ever seen it. He has a whole pond of them , some Semi-Shorts and some Shorts , and he hopes to use them as brooders and produce more similar fishes. Impressive !


Next , he took us to visit their closed-door showroom , which is only catered to buyers like wholesalers and LFS owners actually. We were welcomed by an astounding 6ft Cabinet Tank with a community of Arowanas inside. They were awesome , have a look !





We looked around the compound and spotted this particular piece , and this is just a normal RTG produced from Ley Choon. This is supposedly the best in that batch , and we will be monitoring this particular piece for further developments and such. At such a young age , it already has developed on it's 6th Level of scaling , and the shine is intense and solid. This piece has specks of gold on the head and Mr Toh doesn't consider it as a Gold Head RTG because he has produced the fully gold-headed RTGs before.



Lastly , we proceeded to see the Restricted area of the farm , where the breeders are. Mr Toh's water system at this side of the farm is even more impressive ! He uses rainwater in a large reservoir , and water overflows into a compartment and it is pumped through a large heavy-duty pump into the piping set into rainbars above the Ponds , and the high pressure forces the water out and turns into a rain-like effect ! It is the most innovative and impressive setup we have ever seen !

After viewing the impressive setup , we moved on to view a few breeding ponds. Here's a snapshot of his Crossback Breeding Pond.



Mr Toh showed us a brooding male , which was also a first time for me personally ! It was an eye-opener to both of us , and definitely an unforgettable experience. The fishes sure enjoyed the houses that Ley Choon has prepared for them ! On our way back , we came across a batch of large black drums (really huge , maybe 7ft in diameter and around 2m tall !) , which Mr Toh would use in the neat future as filters with large amounts of cotton wool inside to filter the waste materials from the reservoir and ponds.

Not to forget ! Mr Toh is an avid keeper of oddballs and Monster Fishes too ! Irwini , Datnoids , Bichirs , Eels , Snakeheads .. You can find them all at his farm ! Not to mention that secret pond of Tiger Shovelnoses and Red-Tailed Catfishes .. Here are some pictures of his other fishes that I got.

[BlackBlade]

Dear Bro(s) and Sis(s),

We hope you enjoy our interview...more farms to come...and pls...My Red is not from this farm....lol....neither are we in connections with Ley Choon...This is our Part as Hobbyists to the Arowana community...Cheers...

[wanaer]

Nice interview!

Thanks for sharing.

[wanaer]

Are they selling their aros already?

[ratel]

Thanks for sharing

[Hendri]

very nice interview, thanks for sharing. upz u !