Koi Carp, Taiwan for Saturday Critter

 

They appeared happy and relaxed as they glided through the clear, sunlit water. These koi carp were spotted in the front pond of a museum I visited during my trip to central Taiwan earlier this year.

Koi carp hold a special place in Asian culture, revered not merely for their beauty but also for their symbolic significance. Originating from Japan and China, they are often associated with perseverance, strength, and the pursuit of excellence—qualities drawn from an old legend about koi swimming upstream against powerful currents to transform into dragons. Their vibrant colours—ranging from pure white to deep crimson, gold, and black—represent various virtues such as love, prosperity, and success.

In temple gardens, courtyards, and museum ponds alike, koi are kept as living works of art, embodying a serene balance between nature and human cultivation. Watching them move gracefully beneath the water’s surface evokes a sense of calm and continuity—an ancient symbol of harmony still treasured in the modern world.

Sony A7RV

FE 20-70mm f4 G

Linking Saturday Critter

Mudskipper found in Taiwan East Coast for Saturday Critter

 

For some time now, I have been drawing upon images from my archives. This particular photograph features a mudskipper, which I encountered along the east coast of Taiwan—an especially fascinating discovery at the time. Mudskippers are extraordinary amphibious fish, noted for their ability to live both in water and on land. Commonly found in intertidal zones, mangrove swamps, and muddy riverbanks, they employ their muscular pectoral fins to “walk” across surfaces. Their prominent, elevated eyes provide a wide field of vision above the water, while their capacity to breathe through both gills and skin enables them to flourish in the dynamic environments where sea and land converge.

Sony A7RV

FE 20-70mm f4 G

Linking Saturday Critter

Piranha in Taipei Aquarium for Saturday Critter

 

While visiting an aquarium in Taipei, I came face-to-face with a creature that’s as infamous as it is fascinating — a piranha. Nestled behind the glass of its tank, the fish hovered with a stillness that somehow made it even more unsettling. Its sleek, silvery body shimmered under the tank lights, but what truly drew my attention were its teeth.

Razor-sharp and tightly packed, the piranha's teeth looked like something out of a horror movie. Even from behind glass, they gave off a sense of menace. It wasn’t hard to imagine how they earned their reputation — built for tearing flesh with frightening efficiency, they seemed almost too intense for such a small creature.

Despite their fearsome appearance, I found myself captivated rather than afraid. There was something mesmerizing about the contrast between their calm, quiet movement and the violence their teeth implied. In that moment, I realized why the piranha has such a legendary place in the natural world — it's a perfect example of nature’s balance between beauty and danger.

Sony A7RV

FE 20-70mm f4 G

Linking Saturday Critter

It has been raining heavily in Swan Hill, and the inclement weather is expected to persist throughout the weekend. I have just completed watching the entire series The Penguin. It is a most riveting production, steeped in anguish and tragedy, and peopled with eccentric, often unpredictable characters.

Koi in Taipei for Saturday Critter

 

A Still Pond and Gasping Koi: A Story of Life Below the Surface

In the tranquil gardens of Taipei, where the scent of orchids lingers and the air hums with the rhythm of cicadas, the pond in front of the botanic garden shimmered like glass. Beneath the surface, a mass of koi glided flashes of gold, amber, and crimson weaving between ripples and bubbles.

But there was something unusual. The koi, instead of cruising lazily through the water, clustered near the surface, mouths gaping repeatedly in what looked like gasps for air.

This wasn’t just feeding behavior. It was a silent biological cry for help.

Koi, like all fish, rely on dissolved oxygen in the water to breathe. Their gills extract oxygen molecules from the water as it passes over delicate filaments. Under normal circumstances, koi are content near the bottom or mid-layers of a pond, surfacing only occasionally to feed.

However, when oxygen levels in the water drop—especially in warm, stagnant ponds with a high density of fish—koi are forced to the surface, where oxygen is slightly more abundant due to air-water exchange. This behavior is called surface gasping, and it’s a classic sign of hypoxia—low dissolved oxygen.

Several biological and environmental factors could be at play here:

• High stocking density: A large school of koi in a confined space consumes a significant amount of oxygen, especially at night when plants and algae also switch to respiration and compete for oxygen.

• Warm temperatures: Warmer water holds less dissolved oxygen. In summer, especially in tropical or subtropical climates like Taipei's, ponds heat up quickly, reducing available oxygen even further.

• Poor circulation: Without proper aeration or water movement, oxygen does not circulate well, and the lower layers of the pond can become hypoxic or even anoxic (completely lacking oxygen).

• Water quality issues: Accumulation of waste from the koi (ammonia, nitrates) and decaying plant material can lead to eutrophication—a nutrient overload that triggers algae blooms. These blooms, when they die off, consume massive amounts of oxygen during decomposition.

Sony A7RV

FE 20-70mm f4 G

Linking Saturday Critter

I am restarting the whole 8 seasons of Brooklyn Nine-Nine. It reminds me of university years. 

Lismore Mural for Mural Monday

 

In a small alley while I strolled into accidentally

Sony A7RV

FE 20-70mm f4 G

Linking Mural Monday

Grilled Shishamo in Ikaho Japan for Sign2

 

The sign says a school of grill technique by salt for Shishamo, which is a silvery fish commonly found in Japan Rivers in mountains. These fish contain roes that made the taste even better. This region was reknown for this.

Fujifilm Pro2

16-55mm f2.8

Linking Sign2

Fitzroy Mural for Mural Monday

 

The lips are very thick in this fish. The eyes look possessed too. 

Sony A7RV

Sigma 17mm f4 

Linking Mural Monday

An old mural at AC/DC lane of Melbourne

 

I often felt like a fish trying to avoid the unavoidable!

Let it be authority, line manager or just the cruelty of life

I was watching a movie about a professor whose interest is into sleep paralysis and dreams. Then I thought my hobby in photography can be classified as art research! I just need donors to fund my equipment and inner artistic being!

Panasonic G9

Leica 12-60mm f2.8-4

Monday Mural Event

Grilled Ocean Trout flooded in lemon juice

The special of the day from a restaurant on Glenferrie st in Hawthorn

A lot of posh looking ladies trying to eat similar dish in there. This plate is full of lemon!!! So sour that I want to cry

Shishamo BBQ

This photo was captured in the middle of Japan - Honshu where local vendor sells various local produce from the region.

I just want to make a note regarding a list of places I want to visit over the next few weeks in Melbourne.

1. Soft Tacos Chingon Cantina y Tanqueria - 413 Swan St, Richmond Ph 94295695

2. Meyer Lemon Tart - Albert St Food & Wine 382 Sydney rd Brunswick Ph 83546600

3. Aylesbury Duck Wayside Inn - 446 City Rd, South Melbourne Ph 9682 9199

Pergola

This is taken by Pentax Fish Eye 10-16mm

Who says Fish Eye lens being quite bizarre and obsolete in photography?

I love twisted view just like how I view almost everything else in life.

Bewildered! What a view!

Steamed Shark, Lake Entrance, Victoria, Australia

This image is taken by Voigtlander 40mm f2 SL

This is a dish hard to forget. The reason being so unforgettable is the way it is discovered in a tourist coastal town of Victoria - Lake Entrance.

This place is reknown for its estuary exit of a river called Murray. The place is nothing but wattle trees. Yet most of the shop keepers liked to consider me as a Japanese speaking the twisted Japanese to me "O denki Deska?" Whatever. I even treated your regional health director in your regional hospital and stopped generalising me as a tourist!

This dish is sampled locally from the local fish market. Usually shark cannot be steamed for the very reason that it has contained high urea concentration within the flesh. The taste is not really pleasant if not deep fried like the good old time fish n chips.

But this plate of food was one of the best dishes I had in the region. Cost like 39 dollars but it was well worth it. Again, this type of refreshing bright colour can only derive from Voigtlander lens. So much clarity and rich intense colour.

Well, the restaurant had a chef that was originally working in a French restaurant in France. My question to the chef was why the heck he wanted to move to such a coastal town at all?