We have always read how fun Longkang Fishing was and how great it was as a family bonding activity. So this had always been in our "to-do-list" as a family. A family friend told us about Bloop Bloop from People Up, but unfortunately it was no longer operating, so we went to Nature Kindred (Jurong outlet) instead.
The outlet we went to was not the main outlet so it was basically a pond with guppies and goldfishes. For $18, we were given a net and a pail to fish for an hour and you could only bring home 4 fishes. We topped up for another $12 more for the Lego fish tank and some lightings. It was really pretty, but note of caution it is way too small to be a permanent home for the fishes.
Initially, I felt the 1 hour was insufficient, especially when the fishes could swim really fast. It was seemingly hard to catch. But the truth was the kids got bored within 30 mins. I managed to get the hang of the the technique and was soon catching buckets of fishes. To be quite fair, it was really fun but my wise son told me "there was no need to catch more than needed and it was cruel to put them into unnecessary stress".
From an education perspective, because I was so bad at it initially, I think it made a good case of "practice and you will achieve". I tried to use this to let the children know that nobody was born skilled and we just need to put in effort to excel. And it was great when the mother was a living testament to it, LOL!
What we wished everyone could be more truthful about was that these creatures don't really live well in captive. Within a day, half of our fishes died in its tiny tank. Initially, we wanted to slowly introduce them to the new water in the bigger tank. But, we didn't really have the luxury to do that. The emotional trauma that I went through was real. The kids were a bit cooler telling me they would breed, but I did have doubts that they could survive till then.
I was later told by other fish lovers that such fishes tend to be under a lot of stress and require the bacteria in the pond to survive. For the Longkang fishing place we went, there was the option to release back. And I wished we had picked that option. Fortunately, we managed to keep the remaining 3 alive. But to be frank, they still behave very differently from our reared fishes. They prefer scouting for food at the bottom and display signs of anxiety. To be quite frank, this might be the last time we do this activity.
