Just another day in my life.

This is my first post for this blog.

Anything special today? Nope. Just work all day long - even on a Sunday like today. I wish I could be home with my wife and son, but .....

Anyway, why did I create this blog in the first place? Hmm .....

Firstly, work is a bit slow today, so I have a lot of time to surf the net. Secondly, I just like to try and experience this blogging phenomena almost everyone talks about - nothing special so far though.

I also thought I could use this blog as a place to practice some writing. Being a Malay, I don't get to speak in English much; just don't want my English to get rusty.

And maybe, just maybe, I can get in touch with others who share my favourite past-time - that is keeping freshwater aquarium fish, especially those in Malaysia.

I've been keeping fish since I was a little boy. How I started this hobby was a bit weird, because before that nobody in my family had this hobby and there was no aquarium in my house. One day, when I was 6 years old, I just told my mom I wanted to rear fish. My first fish tank was just a big glass jar, and I bought 2 goldfish, 2 angelfish and 2 tiger barbs. Then, seeing that I was really serious about keeping fish, my father bought me my first aquarium - a 2' x 1' x 1' glass tank, with wooden cover and metal stand. Since then I had kept various kinds of fish.

Now, more than 30 years later, I have three aquariums in my own house in Rawang.

1. A 4' x 1.5' x 1.5' aquarium in the living room - african rift valley cichlids.
2. A 3' x 1.5' x 1.5' aquarium at the patio - asian riverine fish.
3. A 2' x 1' x 1' aquarium in my son's bedroom - miscellaneous tropical fish.

To me, to be successful in keeping fish, you must first have the passion and appropriate knowledge about the hobby. Anyone who decided to start keeping fish, must first resist the temptation of going to an aquarium shop and immediately start buying fish and tank. This will most certainly end in disaster, when the fish start to die after a few days in a new tank - a phenomenon aptly called New Tank Syndrome.

The first thing a new hobbyist should do is, yes, go to an aquarium shop; not to buy anything, but to survey and decide on the types of fish available, that you would like to keep eventually.

Once you've decided, then do some research on that particular fish. The best source of information is of course the internet. Just go to a search engine and type the name of the fish you wanted to rear. There are tons of information available for free. The other alternative is to buy books on fish-keeping, but this option can be quite hard on your pockets as fish-keeping books are notoriously expensive.

What you need to know is quite extensive; maybe I will dwell on that another day.

Armed with this knowledge, then you may go and buy your tank, accessories and finally fish. What you need after that is patience and preserverence, as this hobby is a long term commitment.

I think that enough for a first posting, better get back to work!