Bishan Park, Pond Gardens

Hi!
    Well, woke up at 6 today for the opening of Bishan Park 1, or Pond Gardens. :) Haha, had to lead Deyi around for the trail and here are some of the interesting Aquatic Snails found there. And of course, many other photos :)

 So this is it, the Cleansing Biotope. Some of the plants incuded are the water canna, papyrus, paper reed, pickerel weed etc. These plants arre able to absorb the chemicals and convert it. Cool eh? the water comes from the main river of which some is diverted over here to be cleansed.

 Some mini flowers spotted on the floor, took some up for a snapshot.

 Mrs Low Mei Choo, our Science HOD, recieving the certificate of our adoption of the Bishan River! YAY. Thats Miss Azura talking to her. Really cool because we've been working on this project for more than a year so far. :)

 SNAIL EGGS!!! These belong to the Giant Apple Snail, Pomacea canaliculata. We had to constantly remind the public NOT to step on these things!!!

 Haha! A unidentified shell. Probably of the common lawn snail, native to Singapore.

 AAHHH!!! The final product of the Cleansing Biotope!!! The water is so clean! essentially, the water is about 1m deep from at the banks and 2 m deep in the middle. Cool eh?

 Looks like a scene from a chinese movie, somewhat like Jiang Nan or similar. This is near the amphitheatre. There was a performance behind and the participants did not want to pay attention to us! :(

 Another shot from the amphitheatre.

 These are the apple snails that i was talking about before. It is doot to note the 2 different varieties present, the Common Apple Snail, 4 out of the 5 are Common Apple Snails due to their darker shell colour and the Golden Apple Snail, which is the one which has a yellowish coloured shell. All of these were alive:D

 The Snail again...

 Nice shot? I managed to get the flowers and snapped a photo . :)

 The Apple Snail extending its feelers. It is one of the most common animals in the river, along with the Tilapias and Guppies. All these animal are however, non-native...

 The Apple Snail again...

 This is the outlet for the water.

 And a cute Molly is spotted too! it was the most colourful of them all and i quickly got a shot of it.

The clean water of the cleansing biotope. I guess this is a real success because the water managed to maintain its clarity despite it running for long time.

Haha, we got some goodie bags at the and a small bucket too. Probably for collecting seashells. Despite not finding any shells today, i guess this was a fruitful trip. I did manage to collect Apple Snail shells though during the last few visits. Another place i would recommend to collect Freshwater Snail shells would be Bedok reservoir. Managed to collect come Japanese Trapdoor Snail shells there after my cross country race last year. :D Enjoy

Singapore 6 Bivalves Edition

你好!
    Haven't been going to the beach lately. Really busy with school stuff and training. But in any case, i still managed to do something with some of the shells that I have and Here it is! Presenting you the SINGAPORE 6, BIVALVES EDITION :)
So why Singapore 6? well, i guess this is the 6 most common bivalves eaten in Singapore. Firstly, if you do eat everyone of them. well, you have probably tasted much of the representative dishes in Singapore (and I will tell you why later.) Secondly, ya. I have them in my collection and the best part is, all of them can be found in Singapore waters!!! YAY :)

 THE SINGAPORE 6: Top; Perna viridis, Green Mussel
                                      Middle; Paphia alapapilionis, Butterfly Venus. Meretrix meretrix, Venus Clam or White Clam
                                      Bottom; Paphia textile, Textile Clam. Glauconome virens, Mud Clam. Anadara granosa, Blood cockle

 Meretrix meretrix (left) Venus clam or White clam. called La La "啦啦" (Hokkien). Included in many dishes like 面线 and others. Hokkien cuisine. Also, the zichar stalls, Malay and Chinese, sell this as a dish it self. Found along Punggol park, Changi, Pasir Ris
Anadara granosa (right) Blood cockle. Called Chee Haam (福建 Hokkien), krang (Malay) or See haam in other dialects.鲜蚶. one of the most delicious dishes on its own, it is also sold with fried rice and the famous 炒粿条 Char Kway Teow (潮州 Teochew), the most delicious dish in Singapore!!! Found almost everywhere but usually on mudflats. Punggol, Pasir Ris, Changi but suprisingly common near the food centre at East Coast, hmm... :P

 Paphia textile (left) Textile Clam. Sold in some Japanese soup and much of other dishes including clam. A common substitute for Meretrix meretrix. Also sold as a dish by itself with garlic :) delicious found at Changi :P
Galuconome virens (right) Mud Clam. Called 大头 dtua-tau (福建 Hokkien). This is one of the only 6 that is sold as a dish by itself with similar cooking styles as the rest but can also be cooked in chilli 辣椒大头Similar habitat as Anadara :)

Paphia alapapilionis (left) Butterfly Venus. No common names but usually called haam (general name for clams) Found in  兴化面 (HengHua Mee) or can be substituted by Paphia textile, subject to availability. Never seen in Singapore but probably on Ubin.
Perna Viridis (right) Green Mussel.才卵 or cai (二声) luan (一声) (福建 Hokkien) A common fouling organism found along the coast. Used to colonise the pier at Ubin but I guess they were removed and sold somewhere. Can be found along the northern coast of Singapore.

So there you have it, your Singapore 6. Do remember if you ever visit Singapore YOU MUST TRY THESE :D

Punggol Point Trip 2

Hello!

    Woke up at 7.30a.m. to go to school for project work and in the end only spent 7 minutes there... kinda like a waste of time. Anyway, I called my parents and asked if they could pick me up and realised that they were going to Punggol Point to run. COOL!!! and the best part is, it was in the morning and no one was at teh beach so i probably had the whole coastline to myself and  although i was not really equipted with my seashell bucket and stuff, still managed to get a pretty good haul... :D

reached there at about 10.15a.m. and the tide was receeding. My apologies for the lack of photos as I did not have a camera and my dad's handphone camera died somehow... but 祸兮福之所倚. i guess if i had brought that camera along i would not have enough hans to keep these shells. :)

Spent about an hour there but managed to get some pretty good shells. And the pater was clean today so i could see the bottom.

So here they are :) :

 The few usual never fail to appear... Green mussels, blood cockles but surprisingly, managed to find cowrie shells among the rocks today... and of course, many others. 3 lineated nerites and alot of monodonts I think. There are also 2 land snail shells and a mangrove seed. :D haha, picked that up for fun...

 Another photo just in case the previous one was not clear enough. :D

 Haul of the day: Fig shell, Black-lipped conch/little bear conch and a marginella shell. Not to sure if the fig shell here is a common one and for the marginella, i could not find any species that looks exactly like it... did it arrive via the new reclaimed sand?

 The mouth of  each shell...

 The fig Shell (ficus sp.), i am still unsure of the species... any help? :D

 black lipped conch...

 marginella...

Well, there are also many jingle shells and barnacles. Really impressed at what Punggol point has as looking from the situation at the beach, hmm... total opposite from places like cherating, cebu, sanibel etc. :)

My shells

Hello again!

Sorry for the long dormancy but really did not have the opportunity to visit the beach or do stuff lately... had a few exams the last few weeks and had to study for them considerin gthe fact that for one of the subjects the teacher can't teach... so today, i decided to snap some photos of my favourite shells here they are :)

 Orchid Murex, Chicoreus orchidiflorus

this guy is from Taiwan. guess i have explained the story in one of my previous post. :D it looks better without the snapshot as i could not find the right lighting for the shell. Came across this species like 3 years ago and really wished i had it and YAY!!! after 3 years...

Miyoko's Murex, Pterynotus miyokae

This other guy also comes from Taiwan. Second fav of the whole collection. i love the murexes the most but have a big problem trying to collect them simce they are quite hard to find...

Other shells that is wish I had:



Saffran Murex, Murex crocatus

Pendant Murex, Murex Aculeatus

And many others :)