Lou Han, an expensive fish for good luck

Apriadi Gunawan, Contributor, Medan

Aquarium fish owners have found a new addition for their tanks. The Lou Han, a fish with a protruding forehead, has scales that give it a tattoo-like pattern on its body and is believed to bring good fortune to its owners.

"I haven't experienced any good luck yet myself. It's all right to believe in that, but I love my Lou Han not because it brings me luck but because it's pretty and can play with us," said Antony Jayawardana, an owner.

The fish has a long line of admirers. Recently, 225 participants from Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia came to Medan to take part in an international Lou Han contest.

Antony, who is also the contest's advisor, said the event, held in cooperation with the North Sumatra Police, was intended to bring together the breeders, keepers and vendors of Lou Han, while at the same time showing that the country and North Sumatra in particular, was a safe place to hold international events.

The contest was divided into four categories according to the grade down the middle of the fish's body: big grade, small grade, medium grade and average grade. Sugianto, a Medan resident, won first prize in the big grade category and brought home a cash prize of over Rp 8.8 million.

Sugianto's winning fish, the Super Golden Mercury, was purchased from Malaysia six months earlier for Rp 40 million, when it was only about three months old. With a red body and shimmering pearlescent scales on its head, the fish can carry a price tag of up to Rp 100 million.

A Lou Han at the market can fetch prizes of up to hundreds of millions of rupiah, or even billions, especially if it wins.

Antony, who has been keeping Lou Han for the past year, said the highest price one of them had ever fetched in Malaysia was about Rp 1.3 billion. The fish, which is of the Mernit species, has Chinese characters covering its body. In Indonesia, the highest price ever paid for a Lou Han is Rp 1 billion.

Antony said there were good marketing prospects for Lou Han in Indonesia as the fish was popular not only among the Chinese but those from other ethnic groups.

He said that the Lou Han had come to Medan from Malaysia about a year earlier. Over that year, the fish had become well-known in Jakarta and Surabaya. "In North Sumatra alone, Lou Han fans number in the thousands," said Antony, who is also the chairman of the Medan Aquarium Fish Association.

I Made Kabinawa of Jakarta, one of the judges in the contest, said a person only needs to be willing and creative to become a Lou Han breeder. Most breeders, he said, prefer to go abroad in search of Lou Han fish with new patterns. "If there were only some Indonesian breeders, this nation could become a source of good Lou Han stock," he said.

By comparison, Tan, another judge in the contest, said that Malaysians had become greatly interested in breeding Lou Han over the past five years. Almost every household in Malaysia breeds the fish, he claimed, adding that the biggest number of Lou Han breeders were found in Penang and Ipoh.

"Lou Han breeding is just like a home industry," he said.

Tips for Lou Han breeders

* Make sure your aquarium is large enough for your Lou Han. If the aquarium is too big, it will get dirty quickly and the fish will become susceptible to disease.

An aquarium that measures 50 cm by 50 cm by 50 cm, or one which holds up to 70 liters of water, is enough for eight Lou Han measuring between 8.5 cm and 9 cm each or 14 Lou Han that are from 5.5 cm to 6 cm each in size. This aquarium is also suitable for 20 Lou Han measuring between 3 cm and 4 cm each. The aquarium should not get overcrowded with fish.

* When selecting fish for breeding, choose a female Lou Han with care. Find a superior female that has the following characteristics: It is healthy, its scales are properly aligned and it has round, sturdy fins. The fish should swim about naturally and not too slowly. Their eyes should protrude slightly, but not be too wide. The body should be round, and not an elongated shape.

* The female selected for breeding should be well cared for and its aquarium should be cleaned daily to keep it free from its waste and leftover food. Some 20 percent to 40 percent of the water should be replaced every day. The fish needs to be fed four times a day and the food needs to be nutritious.

* The aquarium water has to be of a good quality. The acidity, temperature, salt content and hardness also need to be kept at the right level;. Good water has to contain enough oxygen, which the Lou Han needs for its metabolism. The water in the aquarium has to contain 2 parts per million (ppm) to 5 ppm of oxygen. For small Lou Han, more oxygen is needed.