India import 06/17/09
- Thread starter fugupuff
- Start date
koop171;3209745; said:
I brought some in a few years back, they were not expensive, but you couldn't tell if they were going to be blue. after selling a bunch, a year later, I found some turned out to be pink turning red, i wanted to buy them back, but it was too late
the one that I have, my friend collected it himself from Malaysia and brought back to the states, that was over 6 years ago.
just remember, these tor mosals are some of the rarest tors out there. the fisherman had to risk his life just to get them. I'll post and excerpt from his email that details his collecting trip, this is what's involved in collecting these fish, not just scooping them out of a mud pond and shipping them out. You'll probably never see these offered here or anywhere else, any day soon.
Firstly, I went to an absolutely new area for fish collection and this place holds out a lot of promise in the coming days. We went to a different locale this time as the last area visited was not good in yielding healthy specimens moreover that river collection site had a sheer cliff side and bringing up packets of live fish and water uphill is a herculean task, it's O.K. to sling a basket on one's back filled with dead or dying fish and climbing up but NO good for us.
This place is quite hilly and has vast tracts of forested land and since I also have a passion in herps in the interim period between fish catching which was basically done in the night primarily to reduce stress on the fish and to beat the extreme heat ongoing at that time 46 C.
Every day I went into the bush to look for herps and Tarantulas, found quite a few though but something which never happened to me in the past ever in the jungle, I got bit by a pit viper on the shoulder, I was only wearing a singlet. We were in a very remote area where basic medical facilities do not amount to anything, furthermore, the antivenin serum available in India is polyvalent a combination of Cobra, Krait and Viper and largely effective against those mentioned but there is no antivenin for Pit Viper and King Cobra bites available in India.
The species which bit me was a Bamboo Pit Viper and though not fatal this was a very large specimen and as it had the advantage to strike from above, envenomation was full load. NOW, this happened on the third day of my trip and I had planned for a 10 day trip max. It is a 650 Km drive back to my city on rough roads which would have taken 8 - 10 hours without stopping. So I went to the nearest big city right in the opposite direction at 300 Km and had to spend 3 days in the hospital, it does not take this long for a pit viper nip to recover but to prevent necrosis to set in and damage tissue I had to heal well. The heat did'nt help either.
Anyway, partly recovered and justifiably reprimanded by my fellow team members who kept reminding I'm too old for trying to ape Steve (RIP) Irwin, (I'm 45 and don't feel that old and my reflexes are not that great now but I've been at this the same time that Steve started his passion or longer. Even the driver of the hired 4X4 refused to carry back snakes on the trip back to Kolkata after he witnessed this drama firsthand.
Back to the fish collection site and was pleasantly surprised to see a good haul.
Tor what I think could be mosal : golden sheen and orange caudals and anals, citrine ventrals/pectorals. We brought back around 20 pcs ranging from 14.5 - 19.5 cm.
Firstly, I went to an absolutely new area for fish collection and this place holds out a lot of promise in the coming days. We went to a different locale this time as the last area visited was not good in yielding healthy specimens moreover that river collection site had a sheer cliff side and bringing up packets of live fish and water uphill is a herculean task, it's O.K. to sling a basket on one's back filled with dead or dying fish and climbing up but NO good for us.
This place is quite hilly and has vast tracts of forested land and since I also have a passion in herps in the interim period between fish catching which was basically done in the night primarily to reduce stress on the fish and to beat the extreme heat ongoing at that time 46 C.
Every day I went into the bush to look for herps and Tarantulas, found quite a few though but something which never happened to me in the past ever in the jungle, I got bit by a pit viper on the shoulder, I was only wearing a singlet. We were in a very remote area where basic medical facilities do not amount to anything, furthermore, the antivenin serum available in India is polyvalent a combination of Cobra, Krait and Viper and largely effective against those mentioned but there is no antivenin for Pit Viper and King Cobra bites available in India.
The species which bit me was a Bamboo Pit Viper and though not fatal this was a very large specimen and as it had the advantage to strike from above, envenomation was full load. NOW, this happened on the third day of my trip and I had planned for a 10 day trip max. It is a 650 Km drive back to my city on rough roads which would have taken 8 - 10 hours without stopping. So I went to the nearest big city right in the opposite direction at 300 Km and had to spend 3 days in the hospital, it does not take this long for a pit viper nip to recover but to prevent necrosis to set in and damage tissue I had to heal well. The heat did'nt help either.
Anyway, partly recovered and justifiably reprimanded by my fellow team members who kept reminding I'm too old for trying to ape Steve (RIP) Irwin, (I'm 45 and don't feel that old and my reflexes are not that great now but I've been at this the same time that Steve started his passion or longer. Even the driver of the hired 4X4 refused to carry back snakes on the trip back to Kolkata after he witnessed this drama firsthand.
Back to the fish collection site and was pleasantly surprised to see a good haul.
Tor what I think could be mosal : golden sheen and orange caudals and anals, citrine ventrals/pectorals. We brought back around 20 pcs ranging from 14.5 - 19.5 cm.
