In Yesterdays Blog When I Said We Were Going To See Some Clowns,

I did not mean the ones in the circus,

or some of them that tip over the lorry they are driving!

we were going here, to the Percula clown farm,

the Percula Clownfish (Amphiprion percula) is one of 27 known species of Anemonefish that this fish farm breeds and sells, if you have seen the Captain Nemo movie he is one of the clown fish family, their web site is here, but it takes a while to load, but then my Internet connection is slower than a slow thing,

it is located on the sea front about 35 or so kilometers from Pattaya,

as you walk in there is this huge aquarium,

with a few black tipped reef sharks,

on the right a smaller aquarium with different clown fish,

as you walk through to the sea there are breeding and rearing tanks made from concrete rings, a very cost effective way of housing the fish,

small fish being grown on in one of the rings,

there are also larger concrete pools for some of the larger growing fish as it is not just clown fish that are breed there,

water is constantly being changed to keep the vats and pools clean,

the way all of these clowns came to the surface it must be near feeding time!

in the words of Will Robinson's robot, 'Warning! Warning!' the sign translates as 5,000 baht fine for putting your hand in the water, so do not do it!

looking across some of the growing ponds towards the off shore islands,

I was surprised to see these regal tangs, I had not realised they were being commercially breed in captivity,

there were also several types of algae and seaweeds being farmed here like this Valonia aegagropila, it has a strange bubble like structure,

at the back of the farm is a jetty leading to the boat we will be using later,

and in the distance the fishing fleet is tied up,

as we make our way to the jetty there are some clown triggers, (Balistoides conspicillum), a highly prized fish for the aquarium, also known not to like the company of others, so it was a surprise to see more than one in a pool,

then a huge outside pool of regal tangs, they were so beautiful to look at, naturally Diana wanted to take one home,

so strange to see so many from the surface in a pool and not in an aquarium, it was with great difficulty that I explained to Diana we just could not put some salt in a bowl to keep one,

there was also an indoor section, but that was for staff only,

up some steps, past more growing on pools,

then along to the jetty,

our boat in the distance,

the jetty is a bit wobbly at this end so hold on to the posts,

looking back the farm is a fair sized operation,

Diana looks quite calm, but we had already had a 'scary dairy' moment,

once in the boat we were away,

a security man's hut floating near the nets,

the nets are suspended from floating barrels, with bamboo walkways or planks of wood on top of them,

sitting in the boat it all looks very calm,

as soon as we stood on the walkways some of the fish came up to be feed,

some of them can be hand feed from the surface, like this shark,

the trick is keep fingers and toes out of the water!

and hope the shark does not get too enthusiastic,

it all looks quite steady, but even on a calm day like this there is always a swell so a sense of balance is a must have out here, there is nothing to hold on to,

and there is always some thing waiting for you to drop in!

and leaning forward to take a picture then standing up too quickly is guaranteed to make you dizzy!

we then started feeding the fish, this pool of trevely's became alive as quick as a flash once their food hit the water,

and this was their food, a bucket of chopped fish,

another handful goes in and another feeding frenzy erupts,

just behind us one of the fishing fleet puts out to sea,

so when the wash hits the floating cages it is hold hands for stability,

of course for the guy that is doing this every day, balance is not a problem, but to say I was a bit unsteady on this 6" wide plank was the understatement of the year!

one of the cages had a few reef sharks in it,

but unlike the other fish they were remarkably shy about taking the food,

he makes standing there look so easy but for me I constantly felt I would lose my balance,

the girls with a fishing boat (wait for the wave), and one of the islands in the distance,

each cage had different specie of fish in them, some growing on and I guess some as stock breeding fish, and some like these at about a meter long just for show, I am not sure what they are,

but they were big,

and fast when the food hit the water,

they just went, well, berserk!

the feeding frenzy was unbelievable,

the water just boiled,

after the food was finished we made our way back to the shore, the beach here was a bit dirty and littered with plastic bags, it appears that sand has been placed in bags to put on the beach to stop it washing away, but of course the bags have split making the place look a bit of a mess, but having said that the water was crystal clear,

on the way out I spotted this I guess water pump, I think it has seen better days! unlike inland saltwater fish farms in Europe and the States where the water quality is almost computer controlled, here water is just pumped out of the sea through the tanks so the fish and fry can take out nutrients and then returned to the sea, this approach makes good financial sense, the down side is that for exports the breeding facility must not be to far away from an airport or the travel time for the fish is too long,

on the way back we stopped at one of the markets to buy some food fish for Juu's arowana's,

but there were few fish for sale, here mainly shellfish and squid,

all of these are farmed locally,

but no fish!

on the way back the truck we saw earlier was still playing dead!

along the coast a bit we stopped off at one of the navy's beaches, 20 baht to enter, but if you buy some food in the restaurant you can claim the 20 baht back,

it is next to Sattahip navy yard, the jetty has fuel pipes running along it, the sand was clean and the sea clear, but there was some leaves and dead wood on the floor as last night it rained really hard,

we had breakfast in the restaurant, we left at 6.00 in the morning, at about 11.00 it was so hot standing on the floating cages it was a wise move to go early,

Diana in the shade, it has been so hot over here lately,

these are appearing every where, fish spa's, but this is the cheapest I have seen, 20 minuets for 50 baht, but I think 70 baht for a foreigner

we called in to Ban Ampur market on the way back for 6 kilos of fish to feed Juu's arowana's,

a little bit difficult to see, but they are getting bigger every time we see them,

this is the brochure from the farm, I have tried for the past 4 hours to upload to blogger the other side of it with the map, but the Internet is so slow I have given up so I will try again tomorrow.