KAGUM was involved in a Water 2010 Seminar at UM today. Among the exhibitors was the Dept. of Irrigation and Drainage (JPS) who has now produced a very informative and valuable “Guide to Fresh water Invertebrates of Ponds and Streams in Malaysia.” Its a waterproof 10 page (folding) identification guide.
The people manning the booth were extremely friendly and helpful … pity that information like this is not easily available to us flyfishers. It covers the main four groups, worms, molluscs, crustaceans and insects.
Flyfishos who are serious about knowing more of the food of Malaysian Freshwater Fishes, and want to tie “Malaysian” flies ( nymphs esp.) must get a copy of this simple guide.
Perhaps Sild can assist in getting more copies for those interested.?
I’ll be visiting JPS HQ this Friday for a meeting. I’ll get some infomation if not copies of this.
BUT i found that “Freshwater Invertebrate of the Malaysia Region” 861 pages, published by Academy Of Science Malaysia to be the best referrence book so far. I have a copy and please let me know if anybody wish to browse it. I bought mine at Akademi Sains Malaysia at Jalan Tun Ismail, KL.
Do get as many copies as you can for distribution to interested fly fishos. I’ve left a copy in Nick’s place for all to have a look. Its a simplified version with nice colored pictures of the invertebrates.
I recall you recommending the 861 page tome, but I have not seen it as yet…maybe can borrow to have a look see sometime…but also scared that it might be scientifically overpowering for us with unscientific background.[:)]
What I would really want to know is …1. the incidence of the various nymphs in our streams…and 2. the sizes of the actuals, so that we can use the appropriate hooks for our flies… many tks for your input, Sild.
Sorry didn’t make it for last Friday meeting. Am planning to visit them soon.
As you know EPT (Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Tricoptera) groups roams mainly the pristine nice river and were used to classify the river based on their occurance. Water quality classification can then be link to this as well. There are several index used for it.
Most of the nymphs that we have here is darh, brow, grey and not as colourful as our preference with gold bead head etc etc. And mostly tiny. But i’ve seen really huge nymphs before that really scare me off. Those stone flies, mayflies are normally small suiable for our 12-16 hook size but there are also huge one similar to dragon flies nymph.(no 10-8).
I have this book, let me know when you want it. Maybe i can just leave it at TB?
You’re right Zambri, these are good indicators of the health of the rivers. As a comparison, everytime you lift up a piece of flattish rock in the chalkstreams of UK, you’re bound to see these nymphs. In our streams however, even the cleaner and clearer ones seem to lack this fertility of invetebrate life.
Size 12 to 16 nymphs are fine …and yes, the dragonfly nymphs are dark, big, aggressive and ugly. [:)] And many thanks for the book … its expensive, so better put into a big envelope, tie it up tight and leave it at Nick’s.[:D]
yup..notice the nymph size in our rivers are really small…only those dragonfly nymphs are huge…i managed to capture some pics of the nypmhs turning to dragonfly…will post them later…(found them at saltwater paypond)
[IMG]