A visit to Mainland Tropical Fish Farm in Pasir Ris.

I recently discovered that Jerry has a love for fishes. I think his first few interactions with live fishes (not those we put on the table) are from the koi pond in his favourite uncle’s house (a relative’s place). They used to have a huge koi pond beneath their balcony and Jerry gets to catch the small fishes with a small net.

They have since renovated their house and had the koi pond removed and Jerry has been asking for fishes every single time we are there. So last week, after a somewhat packed saturday (cooking class in the morning, family photo shoot at noon and a workshop in the afternoon – all of which i would blog about soon), i decided to lug the kids to experience a fish farm and do some fish watching.

Actually, i have been wanting to do that for eons, just that we never got the chance/opportunity and even though the boys were not dressed for it, I decided to go ahead anyway.

it was an eye opening experience for the husband and me as well, and i even met a old school classmate who was there judging fighting fish competition that was going on. There were huge ponds with large kois all over and many other ponds with various fishes that we never got round to exploring.  We bought fish food so that the kids can feed the fishes.

If you are keen in bringing your kids to experience it, the fish feed comes in $1 or $3 packets and is available at the farm. Thats about the only thing that you can feed the fishes with. I love, love fishes and watching them swim in the water. It calms me down and i can spend hours at it, which is why visiting aquariums is one my favourite things to do while overseas.

Jerry experiencing some Longkang Fishing

Jerry got to experience some Longkang fishing (fishing from the drain) as well, something we do very often as kids in my generation but totally unheard of by the kids now. Anyhow, it is a controlled environment where there are plenty of pretty fishes to catch. The longkang fishing is $4 for half an hour and you are given a tiny net and a bucket and Jerry attempts to catch some fishes. Well, he actually caught a few…

Totally fun and exciting for him. He had a lot of fun watching the big brothers do it and copied what they do. It’s so cute to watch and fun to laugh at.

Both der & me tried our hands at longkang fishing as well.. and can i say… it’s NOT easy! The fishes are swimming rapidly and the biggest obstacle is that the net is so tiny puny! I feel because they are in the “longkang” for people to catch, the fishes are generally fearful. We cheated by giving some feed so that we can scoop them when they feast, but otherwise.. its tough work. The other trick is to be really really swift and just scoop at a huge school of fishes in the opposite direction that they are swimming in hope to catch a few.

Jerome was there too though he wasn’t in much of the fish catching action since we were scared that he drops into the pond…. but guess what? JERRY FELL INTO THE POND while we weren’t looking and we had a good laugh over it. The “longkang” isnt too deep and it’s about slight over Jerry’s waist so he could easily climb out.

Jerry is all wet, but we were unfazed since it was a day that we had many sets of spare clothes (remember we had a family shoot in the afternoon?) so we just let him be.

(argh, i’m annoyed that my camera strap keeps getting in the way of my pictures)

Jerry is also feeding the fishes within our bucket. Its so cute watching them and at one point, Jerry almost poured everything back into the longkang! By the way, you get to keep the fishes you caught and i think that’s pretty cool!

The husband eventually gave up and let me have the net because he realises that i can catch a lot more fishes than he does.. I’m quite a pro in longkang fishes when i was a kid and well, i grew up in plantations where i was constantly in the stream catching wild fishes so it was fun having to relive all these moments for me as well. But i think i overstrained myself and was suffering from body aches for a few days thereafter but we caught a grand total of 87 fishes!

Well, since the kid was all wet, when the time was up, we went to pack the fishes, bought a small tank and decided to head home quickly before he catches a cold… but the kid had a MAJOR MELTDOWN and refused to leave the place. He wants to continue fishing…. so i think he had a lot of fun!

There are a lot more ponds where we didnt have the time nor chance to pop over. They also sell quite a bit of tropical fishes, all items pertaining to fish rearing and i reckon we will be back soon. I prefer bringing the kids outdoors to places like that than shopping malls so the husband and me made a pact to do that more often.

If you are keen, you can bring the kids there too! They also have fish spa therapy, prawn fishing and the largest arapimas in its vicinity (according to their website). Here’s the address:

Mainland Tropical Fish Farm
No.1 Pasir Ris Farmway 1,
Singapore 519352
Telephone: (65) 62873883, 65843643, 65812550
Fax (65) 62884200

Opening hours – 8.30am to 7pm daily.

P.s. we now have a mini aquarium at home and i think i am the happiest person. I can watch the fishes swim!