# General > Events, field trips and gatherings >  Oriental Aquarium 2007 visit

## joteo

(I apologise for the delay in writing this up. Im not good with names of plants, so I hope that Kwek Leong and Gan can help me fill in the blanks with info, names and more pictures.)

A group of us  including Prof. Tan, Dr Zhu and some university students  were lucky enough to get a visit to Oriental Aquarium, the largest exporter of aquatic plants in the world. This little-known fact is a major feat considering this is a family-run company.

Oriental Aquarium has farms in Malaysia, China and Singapore. The China farms are their largest and the one in Singapore is their smallest. Even then, it took us quite a while to walk through the one in Singapore.

Despite their market share, Oriental Aquarium likes to play it low-key. Some of their farms dont even bear a sign and the one in Singapore is easy to miss.

Their largest markets still are in Europe. North America has very strict laws as well and this means that they have to put in extra effort to wash all the roots, that must be fully intact, properly and ship them without potting material.

We were very lucky to be guided personally through all aspects of the farms operations on one Sunday, the 4th of February.

Here are the packing operations. Busiest time for packing is on a Friday when most shipments are packed and sent off to reach the American and European markets on Mondays.



Shipments must be at least 10kg before it is worth shipping. (correction needed?)





These anubias reached this stage in 5-6 months grown from tissue culture.



At this stage, they are grown hydroponically and misted every few hours.



Hairgrass.



As it was a Sunday at the lab was closed, we were allowed in for a short visit to understand the process of tissue culture.

Taiwan moss produced from tissue culture.





4 stages of tissue culture: Initiation, Multiplication, Rooting, Hardening.

(Sorry about the crappy photo, but I hope you can make out some details.)


Cuttings are made from the mother plant and placed in a nutrient enriched liquid and agitated in a test tube to speed up the growth process. The agitation allows the tissue to mix with water and air to start growing / shoot. The nutrient enriched liquid is a secret formula and different plants respond to different recipes.

The shoots are then cut up and allowed to grow in a nutrient jelly. It looks like the jelly used in orchids sold in flasks. Again, this is a delicate balance, as too much nutrients in the jelly can cause the plant to fungus.

Then these will root and harden into real plants.

By initiating 25 plant bits, they will have 125 plants by the end of the four stages.

When plants fungus, they cannot just open the bottle and wash it. This is because the fungus will spread like wildfire through the air and affect the good plants. The fungused plants have to be placed, bottle and all into a machine that heats everything up to a high temperature and destroys everything before the bottle can be washed and reused.

These are the machines:



A through-the-glass view of clean room of plants at various stages of tissue culture.



Even pitcher plants (Nepenthes Rafflesiana?) are grown by tissue culture.


More Nepenthes, now potted.



It's interesting to note that what we consider to be cheap household plants are also tissue cultured. This is because it's easier to ship small plants and those get better value in overseas markets.

Coco peat?



Moss. Oriental specializes in two. Taiwan and Singapore. This gets the professor very interested.









Misting every few minutes. The wet-dry (nutrient/water - oxygen) treatment encourages speedy growth.



Sticky paper traps insects.



All sorts of echinodorus in evey size.






Pruning and cleaning plants for beginning of the shipping process.



Checking for insects and other more obvious signs of contaminents.



Just one of the many sheds.





These java ferns are tied down to old halves of coconut shells with moss. The coconut shells make good caves for shy fish. I think they're particularly pretty.



Moss sticks.



Well, that more or less sums up the visit. And I'm sure there are corrections to be made and additional details to be added. I hope you enjoyed it.

The gallery for this post is:
http://www.killies.com/forum/modules...bum.php&page=1

joanne

----------


## fish newb

Thats amazing thanks for sharing!

I've always been interested in seeing what it would take to import plants from their farms to the USA... Do you know where someone would want to contact them for that? I think they have a website correct?

And the tissue culturing moss is really really interesting.. I've thought of doing this myself. Did they mention how long it takes from culture to plant ready for sale?

Thanks again!

-Andrew

----------


## AquaManCanada

Thanks for that very cool and informative virtual tour Joanne. It was quite an eye opener into how our plants are grown!

----------


## FC

Good job! An eye opening information.

----------


## RRG

Thank you, Joanne! Excellent job. It's very fascinating seeing how they grow those plants.

----------


## timebomb

Andrew, 

Oriental has a website and this is their url:

http://www.orientalaquarium.com/

Great post, Joanne. Your write-up on Oriental's method of tissue-culture was excellent. Couldn't have done a better job myself. 

I noticed during our tour that Oriental is doing some research work on how the various elements in the water of our tanks affect plant growth. You know, I've always thought this is one area the farms have little reason to show an interest. After all, most of their plants are grown emersed and Mr Teo of Teo's Aquatics have always joked that the faster the plants die in our tanks, the better it is for his business.  :Smile:  

Contrary to what I had thought, however, Oriental is serious about their research work on how to keep the plants healthy in both emersed and submersed conditions. Here are some pictures of their research tanks:





Oriental adds value to their plants by growing them on driftwoods. Now, they also have a whole new section dedicated to growing plants on coconut shells. These shells make perfect breeding homes for mouth-brooders. Joanne has already shown you a picture of such a shell but here's more:




I wonder if this Lotus is the same plant as the one on the cover of Oriental's book, the one called "The Aquarium Plant Handbook". Mine's a nicer picture, don't you think?  :Laughing: 


This last picture shows the group of people who visited Oriental that day. The person who gave us the guided tour is Gerald Pak who's the son-in-law of Oriental's founder. Besides Professor Benito Tan, the other professor that day was Professor Zhu Rui-Liang who hails from the Department of Biology in East China Normal University. Killies.com was represented by Gan C W, Joanne and myself. There were also 4 tertiary students there that day, one of whom is a Japanese girl called Chisio. Chisio is here in Singapore to understudy the professor and she's going to work on a project on DNA fingerprinting the various aquarium mosses. It sounds like an interesting project so I'll see if I can do a photo-essay on it later. 


Loh K L

----------


## retro_gk

Excellent photo essay! Thanks.

Is _N. rafflesiana_ the only pitcher plant being cultivated there?

----------


## fish newb

> Andrew, 
> 
> Oriental has a website and this is their url:
> 
> http://www.orientalaquarium.com/
> 
> 
> Contrary to what I had thought, however, Oriental is serious about their research work on how to keep the plants healthy in both emersed and submersed conditions. Here are some pictures of their research tanks:
> 
> ...


Loh thanks for the link I'll probably email them this week. 

I'm surprised Oriental is doing that. LOTS if not MOST of those types of tests have already been run. Mr. Tom Barr is a California local who has a huge interest in that type of stuff. He even has his own site and publishes the "Barr Report" I'll find the URL in a few minuets.

Please let us know how that project goes! And if they need north american mosses let me know I would love to help!


Thanks for all the pictures. Oh and Loh, Of course your's is better!
-Andrew

----------


## RRG

How do they grow their Hairgrass? Is the plant in between the mesh and they just let it float in the water? 

What do they use the peat for? Do they use that as part of the substrate for the aquatic plants, or--I'm just guessing here  :Laughing: --do they perhaps soaked it in water and extract the nutrient from it.

When all of you visited that placed, is the insect mostly mosquitoes?

----------


## timebomb

> Is _N. rafflesiana_ the only pitcher plant being cultivated there?


I don't know, Rahul but I remember asking the same question that day and Gerald said that although Oriental grows some terrestrial plants, the bulk of their business is still aquatic plants. Here are more pictures of their Pitcher plants:








> I'm surprised Oriental is doing that. LOTS if not MOST of those types of tests have already been run. Mr. Tom Barr is a California local who has a huge interest in that type of stuff. He even has his own site and publishes the "Barr Report" I'll find the URL in a few minuets.


Andrew, I've heard of Tom Barr and I am aware of his website. I'm quite sure Oriental knows who is Tom Barr too. Their former manager, Mr Unikrishna was a subscriber of the APD (Aquatic Plants Digest), a mailing list where Tom used to be very active. I'm not sure about this but I think Oriental believes it is better not to simply accept the results of tests carried out by another person/party. I do believe Oriental prefers to carry out the experiments themselves to verify the results. If you ask me, I think that's a smart thing to do. 




> How do they grow their Hairgrass? Is the plant in between the mesh and they just let it float in the water?


Randall, the Hairgrass is sandwiched between 2 pieces of mesh. They do the same for HC (_Hemianthus callitrichoides_). As far as I know, the plants are grown emersed. The mesh is placed just above water which is circulated regularly. Here are some pics:







> What do they use the peat for?


I think it's mixed with earth and fertiliser to be used as a media for growing the plants emersed. I'm not sure though but I was curious if the peat moss is the same as those we used to incubate our Killifish eggs. Gerald said it's Coco Peat but the problem with the Coco Peat name is almost every peat moss in the market is known by this name. Oriental has lots of this peat moss though:





> When all of you visited that placed, is the insect mostly mosquitoes?


No mosquitoes. I don't know how Oriental does it but the whole farm is mosquitoe-free. Although there's water everywhere and most of it is still water, I don't remember being bitten by mosquitoes. Maybe it's just me but I'm sure the girls would have complained if they had suffered any bites. You know how girls are  :Smile: 

Loh K L

----------


## retro_gk

Quite fascinating. Hydroponic cultivation of _Anubias_ is something I want to try at some point.

----------


## Green Baron

More photos from the trip ...

1. Mr Pak explaining the cloning process


2. Water in the experimental tanks are crystal clear !


3.Water lily bed


4. Exposed beddings


5. Nana petite


6. More Anubias


7. Mosses and Java Ferns


8. More beddings

----------


## WiNd08

Wow, was browsing through the older threads in the newly merged Killies.com and chanced upon this very interesting thread.

As I'm a biotechnology student from Temasek Polytechnic, the Plant Tissue Culture (PTC) techniques really interests me and makes me wants to learn more. I had previously done a project cultivating herbs through PTC as well as cultivating orchids which were distributed to Changi airport and botanical garden. 

Maybe I can share a little and place some inputs of my own about PTC. :Razz: 

Basically the plant cuttings derived from the mother plant are usually the shoots, buds or the roots which are called the highly mitotic regions of the plants as they are constantly growing, hence they are situable for tissue culture.

The tissue are then intensely sterilized to prevent any growth of fungus, using Hypochlorite solution from anything between ~15 to 30mins before being washed in detergent and finally cleaned with Deionized water(DI.H2O).

The main important ingredient for the initialization of the plants to growth would be Plant Hormones such as Gibberellins, Auxins and Cytokinins. This would induce callus formation (multiplication phase) which are cells with the ablity to grow into whole plants. 

The callus would then be placed in nutrient agar with glucose as core nutrient source so they do not need carbon dioxide as the glucose are already their carbon source. This condition would induce new plant formation (rooting and hardening phase), the plantlets are then gently and slowly introduced into the open environment which are non-sterile. As these plantlets have not been exposed to any microorganisms before, they are very highly sussceptable to infections and death, but the number of plants this PTC technique produces overwrites the number of deaths.

Plants infected with fungus are immediately disinfected by placing them into autoclave machines which heats up the jars up to 210degC in wet heat thus killing all fungus. 

Hope this would help people to understand how our planted tank plants are produced before they reach our tanks to become such a wonderful hobby to us!

Aquascapers, hooorayy!! :Grin:  :Grin:

----------


## blue33

Subscribed!  :Grin:  I'm going to do my own cultivating also...  :Laughing:

----------


## Merviso

Very interesting indeed...  :Well done:  
Anyway to organize another round of visit...  :Huh?:

----------


## Shadow

count me in if you do

----------


## WiNd08

me too me too!!

i will enquire if i can apply to be a trainee before i enlist NS :Laughing:

----------


## timebomb

On my first visit to Oriental, I did ask them if they were open to the idea of letting a hobbyist like me organised a "group visit" to their farm. They politely turned me down. It's not that they are stuck-up or anything but they have good reasons for not allowing hobbyists to visit their farm. 

One, the size of their farm is huge. In terms of area, they are about 30 times bigger than Teo's Aquatics. Unlike Teo's, there's no way Oriental can keep an eye on visitors to their farm. It's so big you can camp overnight in one corner and nobody would notice  :Laughing:  Oriental told me they do not have the staff nor the resources to allow group visits as it will take quite a number of employees to monitor the movements of a large group of people. Moreover, group visits would likely be held on weekends - the days when they are most busy packing and exporting plants.

Two, in some parts of the farm, the ground is very wet and slippery. Oriental is concerned that if a visitor falls and hurts himself, they may find themselves embroilled in a lawsuit. 

So too bad, guys. As a hobbyist myself, I can understand why you would find a visit to Oriental exciting. But we have to try and see things from their perspective. It's not like they don't welcome us but it will be a big logistical headache for them if a large group of us were to visit their farm. Truth is, most of their retailers (the fish shop owners) have never once stepped inside Oriental too.

Loh K L

----------


## WiNd08

that's too bad bro,

any idea if they are willing to take in a lab technician / trainee which have relavant knowledge in tissue culture?? :Razz:

----------


## blue33

Anyone notice the very first picture, the man looks like Richard from Colourful Aquarium.  :Laughing:

----------


## timebomb

> any idea if they are willing to take in a lab technician / trainee which have relavant knowledge in tissue culture??


I'm afraid I don't know if Oriental has an opening for someone like you. I would suggest you write to them to find out. Oriental is a bit out of the way so they probably have problems hiring people. My guess is if there's an opening, you would stand a pretty good chance.

Loh K L

----------


## Merviso

Hi Bro KL, thanks for the insight... I must really admit that their concern is very valid...  :Crying:  

WiNd08, why not apply to do your vacation industrial training with them...  :Jump for joy:

----------


## WiNd08

> I'm afraid I don't know if Oriental has an opening for someone like you. I would suggest you write to them to find out. Oriental is a bit out of the way so they probably have problems hiring people. My guess is if there's an opening, you would stand a pretty good chance.
> 
> Loh K L


yeah, i realised they're located deep inside Lim Chu Kang  :Crying:  :Crying: , I did send them an e-mail regarding the issue. Usually such organisations have their private transport from the nearest MRT station.

I am trying to look for a vocation as a trainee there as I can stay only for a few months before NS :Sad: 




> Hi Bro KL, thanks for the insight... I must really admit that their concern is very valid...  
> 
> WiNd08, why not apply to do your vacation industrial training with them...


Hi, I am currently having my training at a Pharmaceautical company so I can't apply as an intern  :Sad: , have e-mailed them and hope they do reply me with some good news! :Grin: 

If I've known about this company before I started my internships, I could've requested Oriental Aquarium to take me in! *sigh*

----------


## aquaculturekenya

Hello all you beautiful people out there, I have my own TC lab here in Nairobi, Kenya and will soon embark on TC on aquatic plants. I by the way run one of the biggest aquarium shops in this part of the world. Recently importing live plants from outside has become a nightmare situation for us due to the lack of knowledge within our local government offices, so there are many restrictions for us here. the importance for keeping beautiful planted tanks always require aquatic plants, without plants the aquariums look empty and bare, and its just not a cosmetic thing but also provides fish a real home.

Therefore, producing a small section of plants here would be wise. However, we have other constriants, knowledge. I have successfully grown orchids, ferns, begonias and strawberries and many, many other plants through TC but I need more infromation on *TC of aquatic plants.* Can anyone of you help me, specially Joane who has visited oriental as posted here.

i would really appreciate some help please from anyone who has it.

regards,

Saif - from Safari country.

----------

