Lou Han breeding is lucrative business

Not all aquarium fish are as pricey as Lou Han: A Lou Han can fetch millions of rupiah. And with training, one can successfully breed the fish.

Usually, the fish is a crossbreed, a female Lou Han fish and a male fish of another species. In many cases, an unintentional mistake in crossbreeding Lou Han produces a new species, for instance the Blacktail, which will fetch a high price in the market since most Lou Han keepers are interested in the latest species.

Good Lou Han on sale here are mostly imported from Malaysia and Thailand, then are crossbred here, for example Golden Mercury and Golden Mercury, or Golden Mercury with Golden Buddha.

The match for a female Lou Han must be well selected, otherwise, the crossbreeding will not produce the expected result.

Antony Jayawardana, a Lou Han breeder and owner in Medan, has also adopted his own method of selection.

A female Lou Han, he asserts, determines her own mate. When a female and male Lou Han show great intimacy in an aquarium, this means they are a good match. Otherwise, the fish will fight each other. Keep in mind that Lou Han hates forced mating, he added.

Antony said Lou Han of the same species, for example, a Texas and a Texas, are usually a good match. Before they mate, Lou Han fish must be of adult size so that the young will be of good quality.

"Usually, they are old enough for mating at between one-and-a- half years old and two years old," he said. Early mating will not produce a satisfactory result, he said.

Crossbreeding of the fish, and as shown in the recent Lou Han contest in Medan, has resulted in at least 88 species of superior and selected Lou Han in the world like Diamond Leopard, Jongkong Mas and Monkey Face.

During the breeding period, a glass or ceramic plate must be placed at the bottom of the aquarium for the 30,000-odd eggs that a Lou Han lays. These eggs will stick strongly to the plate and must then be moved to another aquarium where the temperature is kept at 28 degrees centigrade. After a few days, the eggs will turn into tiny Lou Han.

According to Tan, a breeder from Malaysia and Prof. I. Nyoman Kabinawa, a breeder from Jakarta, the fertilization and egg- laying process can take place naturally without the use of a plate to separate the eggs from the mother. "The eggs will be fertilized many times by the male fish. Even up to 10 times," Tan said.

After its eggs have been fertilized, the female Lou Han can remain together with the eggs. Here, there is a natural selection process. "It is true the mother fish will eat the eggs but actually she knows what she is doing. She eats only bad or infertile eggs," Kabinawa said.

Once the eggs turn into tiny Lou Han, they need food. They may be given water lice or plankton. After two months, good Lou Han are separated from the bad ones. This selection follows the grade that begins to be visible along the body of the Lou Han, and also its color. Usually, only 5 percent of small Lou Han will meet the selection standard. The small Lou Han eats tiny shrimps or small worms depending on what it is fed by the keepers.

It is this 5 percent of Lou Han that will fetch a very high price later.

"When they are two months old they can be sold at between Rp 50,000 and Rp 200,000 each," said Antony, stressing that when a Lou Han is between six and eight months old, the price will rise depending on its pattern, pearl essence and other emerging characteristics.

Around 5 percent of the entire number of eggs (usually 30,000) result in Lou Han that can be sold to buyers. In terms of rupiah, this is worth between Rp 75 million and Rp 300 million. A few weeks after laying its eggs, the female Lou Han is again ready for mating. In this way, the Lou Han population will increase within a short time.

Good results from crossbreeding will not come easy. Lou Han breeders say, good Lou Han will be obtained only after it is bred four or five times. -- Apriadi Gunawan