More than One Month in Captivity

 Hey guys,

Today, I want to let you know that the viable fries of the Ikan Bandaraya have been over a month in the tank. Check out the video I posted here. Guess what, they thrived well and started growing. I could see from the filter box that it could last only less that one day if overfed them. But I am very happy that they are growing! Seems that my diet formulation and rearing setup are adapted for them. For instance, when I feed them with blench water spinach, their poops were green as you can see in the picture. Keep growing fellas to be my subjects of CRISPR gene editing experiment soon!

    

After 2 Weeks of Acclimatization in Captivity

After 2 weeks of acclimatization in captivity, 9 of the fried died because of stress which could be seen from their amputated fins and body color that turned red. So, after that, no dead or stress fries were detected. The 38 fries are now enjoying eating on diets I formulated with different kinds of food. Yesterday, I placed the Pterygoplichtys tank inside my mini molecular lab at home! Hopefully, they can thrive and grow well for the next couple of months. Crossing fingers to this~~

 

 

 

Retrieving Baby (Fry) Sailfin Catfish from the Wild

Hello guys, this year and forth, I am embarking on a new direction of CRISPR-Cas9 research on Sailfin Catfish, Pterygoplichtys disjunctivus and pardalis! After a 6 year experience in working with CRISPR, I am now applying it on the fish species to be applied as a genetic biocontrol agent. Well, for your information, this fish is highly invasive around the world including Malaysia and there is a call to eradicate them for good! Lets do this! So, I started out by getting the babies, or should I say the fries form one of the locals in Nibong Tebal Penang on August, 16th 2025. It was not easy to obtain the early stage of P. disjunctivus as many were caught as adult. Thanks to him, I got my hands on them and brought them back temporarily at home for acclimatization. And of course, the fries were totally in stress! Lets hope by placing them in a plastic tank (medium size) with aeration and filtration would help them to recover from the stress and get used to captivity.