Trip to Terengganu and Kelantan

[piscesilim]

This is an old thread posted on Jul 18, 2007, 9:58pm .

I did go to Terengganu for wild Betta hunting trip with Mr. Horst Linke (A Germany author for a book called Labyrinth Fish) last year. But I missed the place of Betta stigmosa because I join the trip on the second day. After that, I always plan to have a trip to Terengganu.

And 1 month before, I talk to Zahar (A wild Betta enthusiast who live in Terengganu) about the Terengganu trip. Then he told me that Michael Lo(A adventurer and photographer from Kuching) was planning a Terengganu trip too. Zahar suggested me to join him...

That's how the last week trip happened.

First day, I reached Jerteh at 4.30 am, a very early morning. I supposed to go straight to Kuala Terengganu, but the ticket from Butterworth to Kuala Terengganu was sold out. I waited there for about 2 hours, then I took a first bus from Jerteh to Kuala Terengganu at 7.00 am.
At that time, Michael already reached Kuala Terengganu. But from Jerteh to Kuala Terengganu, need about 2 hours. So, Michael and Zahar took breakfast first while waiting for me.

9.00 am, I reached Kuala Terengganu Bus station, Zahar and Michael came and fetched me for breakfast. After having the breakfast with Nasi goreng, we went straight to a waterfall near Kuala Berang.



There are a lot of flora and fauna around this waterfall.


Some nice moss.


Metallic blue plant!!


Unknown plant

[piscesilim]

Ginger flower




Eh... Siapa ludah kat sini?


Ha ha.. Not me! But this spit is belongs to this spit bug!! Cool is it?


Check this link for more info about the spit bugs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Froghopper

[piscesilim]

According to Zahar, the Betta stigmosa can be found in this stream.

[piscesilim]

After doing some catching, I got some common fish like:

Puntius binotatus


Rasbora notura


Hemirhamphodon pogonognathus


A kind of freshwater crab


And finally...

The Betta stigmosa!! Hurray!!


The Betta stigmosa is a kind of wild betta which just described in 2005. It is endemic to Terengganu and only can be found in this waterfall.

[shawnintland]

Looks like a fun trip! Congratulations on finding the Betas you were looking for! That Metallic blue plant plant is interesting...I have two other "blue" species of plants and would love to plant a small garden area or large planter with just Blue plants. Any ideas about what it was? It doe not look fern-like nor palm but maybe similar to a pandanus or dracena relative? The last one looks like a form of Maranta.

[kentosaurs]

What happen to the CPs??

Ken

[piscesilim]

Besides those fish, my legs caught some leeches too!!


What a well fed leech!!

[piscesilim]

After that waterfall, we heading to one stream where Zahar saw a lot of Cryptocoryne affinis last year. A native aquatic plants which famous among aquarists.
http://www.nationaalherbarium.nl/Cry...y/aff/aff.html

When we reached this stream, the water is muddy and very fast flowing. We went down to this stream but nothing were found. According to Zahar, the stream should be full of C. affinis. There were more than thousand of it. But now not even a single plant was found. Thanks to the road construction nearby!!


Then, we investigated the rubber plantation along the bank.


I saw this interesting plant!


Caught this katydid.


Hmm... that plant on the tree look familiar...


Ant fern?


Oh, Yes! It's ant fern!! Lecanopteris sinuosa. There were a lot of ants when I took it down from the tree. Ha ha...

[piscesilim]

The time being late. We have to go to the hotel in Kemaman before dark. On the way to Kemaman, we passed through Dungun.


We noticed some nice stream at the roadside. We decided to stop for a while to check out that stream. Because this place is close to the area where KUSTEM researcher found the Paedocypris sp. One of the smallest freshwater fish.


To reach that stream we have to walk down from this steep slope!


The stream look nice. But we just managed to catch some common fish like Rasbora gracilis, Rasbora einthovenii and Hemirhamphodon pogonognathus.


So, I decided to go back to the car. Now I have to climb up this slope. Very steep and rocky slope!!

[piscesilim]

On the way climbing back to the car...

Suddenly, I saw some pitchers just infront me at the slope!!

It is Nepenthes gracilis !!! But......