►SUBSCRIBE - goo.gl/1OeGu
Facebook - / bolly12345
Forum - www.africancichlidhub.com/forum
Website - africancichlidhub.com
Red Zebra Tours is located at Kambiri Point right on the lakeshore in Senga Bay, Salima. The main focus is on Lake Malawi safaris with tour participants usually observing the fascinating underwater habitat that is the home of the world-renowned Lake Malawi cichlids.
Collecting;
The collection is the first task in a long line of tasks all essential in an extended and contiguous chain of processes whereby the fish eventually arrive at a pet shop overseas.
The divers do not use aqualungs - they use a simple "hookah" arrangement, which consists of a small petrol engine driving an oil-less compressor feeding compressed air into a reserve air tank. From the tank two-outlet hoses 150 feet long terminate in diver's chest/back harnesses with a standard aqualung second stage regulator furnishing the air to the diver. Normally two divers are "down" at one time - each assisting the other - and the air hose doubles as a safety line in an emergency.
The fish are caught in fine-meshed nets - ten meters long and two meters deep - and local divers develop a definite skill in handling the nets at depths of up to twenty-five meters over the rocky lakebed. It is necessary to decompress the fish (no question of whistling them up directly from 25 meters to the surface!) and to achieve this they are caught by hand in the long net by the divers and placed in 50 liter plastic blue drums with mesh netting over the drums orifice. The drums are then progressively raised in stages for the next day or so. In collecting, both male and female fish are needed since Malawian fish are usually sold in pairs.
The divers will "work" several sites leaving the drums on a chain and float. After all the fish have been caught and decompressed, they are brought on board the dive boat - with non-stop water changing being the rule till arrival at the appropriate holding station.
Collection stations;
Different fish from different locations. This is the key to variety and it thus follows that to get the variety - the ground has to be covered. To this aim stations have been established on an almost lake-wide basis with their divers radiating out to known dive sites. These stations supply the fish to HQ at Kambiri Point by lake and by road.
Likoma Island is the largest collecting station. Two teams of four divers cover Likoma and the adjacent island of Chizumulu - a two-boat operation. A company building holds all gear, equipment and fuel close to where the Ilala anchors on its weekly north and southbound lake schedule.
Nkhata Bay is the oldest northern collecting station. One team covers a large area from Ruarwe/Charo north of the Bay to Kande Island southwards. On the beach a store holds gear, equipment and fuel - divers staff quarters are nearby. This station is now a pickup point where fish from Chilumba, Likoma come in on the MS 'Ilala'. The fish from Nkhata Bay station, and Chilumba and Likoma are loaded on the truck and driven 450 km south to Kambiri Point.
Chilumba is the northernmost collecting station covering an area from Ngara to the north to Chitimba southwards. Here there is a team of four divers with one boat. This area holds an interesting variety of fish species and as is the case with Nkhata Bay there is a Lake Service Dock/Jetty/Office that is used by the MV Ilala on its weekly lake schedule. Fish from Chilumba station travel to Nkhata Bay on the 'Ilala' on its southbound journey.
Fish House;
Not counting the glass aquaria and holding facilities in the main fish house building, some 370 concrete tubs are in existence, with two thirds of these being either 1,200 or 1,000 litres capacity. The smaller 500 litre tubs are suitable for smaller collections of fish. Every tub has an air supply and most have automatic water reticulation.
The ponds are ideal for holding "numbers" fish and also for open water fish that do not take kindly to making the change from open lake to captivity
Two large air blowers power the filters. The filters are simple but effective - and a good throughput of water develops through the funnels drilled around their periphery. Every morning some 50 tubs' filters are cleaned in a roster basis by the fish house personnel, ensuring all to be covered with a seven-day period. The better the cleaning - less daily DOA - as simple as that.
If and when a particular tub/problem develops the filters are laid out in the sun and dried out completely - allowing the ultra-violet rays of the sun to thoroughly kill off any residual bacteria or micro-organisms.
The white centre pipe carries air to all of the concrete tubs - the black piping supplies the water - pumped from two 86,000 litre reservoirs which are filled from the lake.
Text source
www.lakemalawi.com