Ikan haruan (snake head fish)
Lipat Kajang was rich in water creatures until ………… the people got greedy and the environment was damaged.
These water creatures such as the abundant of river, pond and ‘sawah’ fishes, water nymphs of some insects, prawns (big and small), fresh water clamps, tortoises and even crocodiles.
When I was a young lad in the kampong, every time we wanted fish my grandmother just used to go to our big pond a few hundred meters from our house and just drop a fishing line. After a few hours she would come back with bagful of pond fish such as ‘ikan potak’ (a small version of ‘belida’) and ‘ikan kepar’ (a small version of black tilapia) or sometime bigger fish like ‘terboi’ or ‘temperas’. When we wanted more fish my uncle used to cast net in that pond and we got more fish, sometime he got big fishes like ‘ikan haruan’ (snake head fish) sometime called ‘ikan bercat’ by the kampong folks and the fries (and bigger) called ‘anak boteng’ or ‘ikan keli’ (cat fish) or even ‘ikan kelabau’. ‘Haruan’ was easier to catch, by setting night hooked line trap or if we wanted immediate ‘haruan’ my uncles used cast and drag fishing methods. In some shallow clear and slow flowing waters one may even see beautiful fighting fish called ‘ikan mengkarin’ by the local. ‘Ikan sepat ronggeng’ may also be found by the plenty in the shallow ponds or the ‘sawah’.
And the big and fast flowing Pahang River had more fish, bigger fish. ‘Ikan lampang’ for the wanting, cast you net and you get a basketful of them. ‘ikan tilan’ (a family of the eels), and other smaller fish. My uncle used to use hooked and baited line traps to hook bigger fish like ‘ikan kerai’ ‘ikan pating’ or ‘ikan juara’, ‘ikan belida’, ‘ikan tenggalan’, ‘ikan lais’ or even bigger fish such as ‘ikan tamalian’ (rarely though) and ‘ikan kaloi’. These were big fishes, maybe a few kg in weight.
Crocodiles and alligators, they say that there a few of them in this part of the Pahang River but they never (cross your fingers or touch wood) bothered us..
One of the creatures which we like to catch in our big fresh water pond was the nymphs of dragon flies. They were easy to catch, in the shallow waters of the ponds and they are good for bait. We could catch small fresh water shrimps at the same location as bait too.
We used to get a lot of river prawns, big size they were, with long claws. These were easy to catch, mostly from the holes in floating logs (which were normally tied together to form a secured jetty from where we did everything, from bathing on to using the downriver end as a toilet. And sometimes we caught these prawns in the holes of big bamboo left stationery on the river bed. And sometimes by using casting net especially in the shallower part of the river. But be warned, they say that if there were a lot of these big prawns, a crocodile is always lurking nearby.
One kind of fresh water clamp was always available (when the river water is low) in the Pahang River. The local called them ‘kijin’, the bigger ones were about 4 in. in diameter but mostly only about 2 to 3 in in diameter, on average. At least those that we could catch. These clamps normally bury themselves in the mud or sandy soil by the river’s edge; and to get at them they used to inch their way on these river edges. On a half days work they might catch a basketful. These clamps were found especially under rotten fallen logs on these river edges. Cases have been known where crocodiles disguised as a log and a person may hug that ‘log’ to search for clamps. The ‘log’ just moved away but no case have been known in the kampong where crocodile harmed anyone.
Alas now such easy fishing is no more as people (the public) get greedy. Firstly the river water is all polluted due to logging and development upriver. And there are cases of overfishing for commercial purposes. Fish do not grow to big sizes anymore, they get caught before they are even big enough. Prawns may still be available but they also do not grow big enough due to overcatch.
Many fresh water ponds have now dried up (maybe due to hotter weather) so there is no longer fish available in these. Where ponds do not dry up, kampong people tend to overfish. This results in such ponds failing to sustain fish (and other creatures). The ‘sawah’ or padi fields are no longer worked so that the source of food for many species of fishes are not there now, source of food such as young padi stem or padi root. And when they use insecticide or over fertilized with chemical fertilizers if they plant padi they kill the fish fries and thus no big fish is made available.
Probably the only water creatures that survive are the frogs. There are plenty of them in the kampong. And in smaller rivers in the kampong frogs can grow quite large and are caught (for their legs) by some youth to be sold to the Chinese for good price.
Water creatures in the kampong may just be a history one of these days, and the younger generations in the kampong may not even see any of them in the future. Or if they see them they may not even be able to identify them or to name them.
Of tortoises? I don’t know if they are still around. They used to be quite plentiful.
Lipat Kajang people (or decendents) are encouraged to participate& contribute (Orang Lipat Kajang, atau keturunan, di jemput memberi sumbangan idea)
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