May 9, 2017

Sibu Tales : Tapah

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Tapah is one of the best river fish in SArawak. Its flesh is white and it is sweet. There is not fishy smell at all.

The tapah as a fish is not a pretty fish. It belongs to the catfish family and is sometimes called a Fresh River Monster Fish.

There is even a town in West Malaysia named after the fish, Tapah.

Tapah can weigh from 3 kg to even 100 kg. Many fishermen organize expeditions to look for them, in Perak, Pahang and Trengganu in West Malaysia. The Baram, Limbang, Rajang and Lupar rivers have this fish. It likes to swim in clear water. Any sign of pollution will not encourage tapah to spawn.
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When we were young, many small streams were be fenced up by guillotine-like fence.When the water was rising the fence was lifted to allow all sorts of fish to swim into the small streams. When the tide had reached its final height the fence was lowered. Thus the tide was low it was lovely to see all sorts of fish squirming on the mud flats.

The Foochows call this kind of trapping fish, Jek Ngii. Jek means to block.

There would be brown tapah, and black tapah, some ikan keli and other fish. Brown tapah was best. So it was a good time for family members to go down to the mud flats to catch their fish.

It is about time to conserve the fish and encourage its breeding.

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