Chapter 359 The Famous Conch
Liang Ziqiang continued to look around the reefs, trying to find more clownfish among the colorful anemones. In theory, since there are clownfish hiding in the anemones here, there should be a lot of them.
However, the fish hide in the anemones and are not so easy to be discovered, so it is quite difficult to find them.
Suddenly, a bunch of anemones swayed as if blown by the wind, and two fish about ten centimeters long swam out.
The fish is a blend of black and dark orange, with two light blue stripes.
"Blue-striped clownfish?"
In the blink of an eye, more blue-striped clownfish swam out from among several clusters of pink and yellow anemones.
Since the blue stripes were not consistent in color with the surrounding anemones, it was easy to find this time and was spotted by Liang Ziqiang as soon as it appeared.
Although the color of the blue-striped clownfish is not bright and fresh enough, the price of this fish is not cheaper than the most common male clownfish, and may even be a little more expensive.
Groups of blue-lined clownfish swam to the surface, indicating that there were more hidden among the reefs and anemones.
But this time Liang Ziqiang was a little worried because the fish were hiding in the intertwined sea anemones, making it difficult to catch them. Even if he used a hand net, he couldn't catch a lot of fish like he did last time at Killer Whale Reef Island.
But since I have come across it, of course I have to give it a try. Ornamental fish are more valuable than ordinary edible fish.
"You've worked hard for several days. Today, I'll give you two hours to go fishing! Go to the boat and get your fishing rods. As usual, whoever catches the clownfish gets it. Jiang Wenang will take it!"
Liang Ziqiang looked at the other five people and announced loudly.
During the past few days at the wintering fishing grounds, the hard work of several people was obvious. Although Liang Ziqiang readily increased their wages, their initiative in working should definitely be compensated and encouraged as long as there is an appropriate opportunity.
Sure enough, as soon as the words came out, the five people were all delighted and ran towards the boat.
"There are spare thin fish hooks on the boat. Everyone knows where they are, right? This kind of fish is small, so it is easier to catch with small hooks and bait!" Liang Ziqiang added towards their backs.
In fact, he didn't even need to give any instructions. Several people quickly changed to small hooks, not to mention bait. The thing that was most abundant on the boat was fish and shrimp, some of which were very small krill and mysid shrimps that were suitable as bait for small fish.
Liang Ziqiang then got on the boat and brought a hand-held net.
Walking back to the atoll, he walked carefully forward on the rugged rocks, looking for clownfish appearing among the anemones in the water.
At the beginning, three blue-striped clown fish were caught, and then another fish with a completely red body appeared.
It is bright orange, and looks like tomato red, except for a conspicuous white stripe on its cheek. This is the Tomato Clown.
I caught four or five clownfish one after another. So far, there are seven or eight clownfish in the bucket.
The speed was far from comparable to the time on Killer Whale Island, where dozens of fish could be caught with one scoop net. This time, due to the obstruction of the sea anemones, only two or three could be caught at most.
But compared to the speed of Deng Zhaocai and others fishing with fishing rods, it is still faster.
In addition, the prices of these clownfish cannot compare with those of black and white clownfish, diamond flounder, and heart-shaped clownfish, so the overall income may not reach the astonishing level as last time.
As we searched along the way, we finally found a valuable clownfish. This fish is light orange in color with a white stripe at the back of its head, and its body is light and graceful.
This is a rose clownfish. Although they are both clownfish, this one is much more valuable.
Although it cannot be compared with the outrageous price of the "Chicken Heart Pendant", it can at least be on par with the "Diamond Butterfly".
Several rose clownfish appeared one after another. Except for one that quickly turned around and hid back in the sea anemone, the other four were all caught by Liang Ziqiang with a hand net.
As we walked further, the anemones became fewer and fewer, and almost disappeared at the end. The sea water was gradually receding, revealing the reef below, on which there were many oysters attached.
In addition to oysters, mussels and snails that are stuck all over the reefs, there are also many shrimps and crabs poking their heads out from the cracks in the reefs.
Liang Ziqiang glanced past the stone crabs and red star crabs, as they were crabs worth very little money.
Suddenly, the view in front of me was bright, and between two large rocks, a bunch of colorful crabs quietly crawling came into view. These crabs gathered together, their bodies were extremely bright, and their shells were covered with deep red patterns that looked like traces of rust.
Red flower crab! After taking another look, he immediately confirmed that it was a red flower crab. This rust-like pattern is the unique mark of the red flower crab. For this reason, the red flower crab is also called "rusty crab".
The red flower crab has full meat, which is white, sweet and rich, with excellent color, aroma and taste, and is extremely nutritious. It has always been a top-notch crab. It is more valuable and rare than the deep-sea orchid crab, which is only one letter different!
Moreover, the red flower crabs are relatively plump, such as the pile in front of him. Unfortunately, Liang Ziqiang did not have the elbow pliers in his hand.
He immediately decided to return to the boat, fetched a pair of elbow tongs, and brought another empty bucket, because the crabs could not be placed in the same bucket as the clownfish, so they had to be placed in another bucket.
First, I used a hand net to catch five or six crabs. If the remaining crabs tried to escape, I would use the bent iron tongs to catch them one by one. In a blink of an eye, there were already more than ten crabs in the bucket.
What he never expected was that, perhaps because he made too much noise, there was another big creature hiding behind the big rock. It jumped out in panic, scraping the gravel so hard that it made a rustling sound.
"Fuck, it's this big?!"
Liang Ziqiang's eyes widened instantly. This was probably the largest red flower crab he had ever seen, probably weighing more than three kilograms.
No, this fat red flower crab is not a red flower crab, it is called an airplane crab! The price of airplane crab is not the same as that of ordinary red flower crab.
This is much bigger than the airplane crab he caught last year. There are indeed many top-notch treasures in the deep sea!
Of course, he was determined to get this valuable cargo. He picked up the bent iron pliers and chased after it. Unfortunately, he was a step too slow. After two consecutive attacks, he fell behind and the airplane crab escaped. Finally, the big guy dived into a circular cave surrounded by several reefs.
The cave was quite large, about the size of the mouth of a large bowl. Liang Ziqiang thought he would miss the opportunity this time.
Just as I was feeling regretful, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the cave seemed to be large on the outside but small on the inside. The airplane crab got halfway into the cave and could not go in anymore, with half of its big claw sticking out.
Liang Ziqiang suddenly felt that God was helping him, and he immediately followed with the bent pliers.
After being caught, the airplane crab was quite irritable, waving its claws and struggling, refusing to come out of the cave. But its arms were no match for its thighs, and it was still forcibly pulled out of the cave.
The unwilling crab kept scratching in the hole with its other big claw.
The next second, an unexpected scene appeared.
As the fat body of the airplane crab was pulled out, something else was pulled out of the cave by its big claws.
It is a snail shell, about seven or eight centimeters long.
In theory, the thing that is most abundant in the vast ocean is snail shells, so there is nothing surprising about finding snail shells in reef caves.
But this snail shell, with its beige background and interwoven red patterns, immediately caught Liang Ziqiang's attention.
He quickly threw the captured airplane crab into the bucket, then picked up the snail shell and placed it in front of him.
Looking closely, the shell appears to be very thick and solid, with an oval shape. The surface looks as if it has been coated with a layer of enamel using the most advanced technology, making it extremely smooth and lustrous.
The shell has a brocade pattern. The two lips of the snail roll inwards, and the edges have a row of neat, tooth-like patterns.
The more Liang Ziqiang looked at it, the more certain he became: Red Peony! Whether it was the introduction in Pang Jiahui's atlas or the information he saw on the ocean program in his previous life, they all overlapped with the exquisite shell in his hand. He believed that he had not made a mistake.
What I encountered in the deep-sea atoll was actually a famous red peony snail! The red peony snail lives in tropical and subtropical waters, often living on the seabed near islands and reefs, and sometimes likes to hide under reef rocks, in gaps and caves.
At first, people mistakenly believed that this kind of snail only existed in small quantities in the waters of a few small countries, but later someone discovered that it actually also appeared in our waters, but in very small numbers.
It is so famous because ordinary fishermen may not know it, but for those who really understand shells and snail shells, it is a household name!
According to the introduction in Pang Jiahui's atlas, the value of this conch is higher than that of ordinary shells and abalones. Among all kinds of precious and rare snail shells, the red peony conch can be ranked at least in the top ten.
After a slight wash with sea water, the shell became even more radiant. He put away the shell and now he didn't want to leave the atoll for the time being.
After all, the topography and climate of this atoll are quite special, and they are very different from most places in the deep sea. If you can encounter one conch, who knows if there will be a second or third one?
Looking up, Deng Zhaocai, Zhu Tianpeng and others were still fishing for clownfish. They were having a lot of fun and excited voices could be heard from time to time.
The agreed two hours was still early, so he decided to give up catching clownfish and red flower crabs and focus on looking for snail shells in the remaining time.
The entire atoll is quite long. As we continue to move forward, more reefs are revealed as the tide recedes.
Some places are hidden by seaweed and seagrass and are difficult to see clearly, while those parts that are not obscured are dotted with various conches and shellfish in groups of three or two.
Most of them are living snails, but there are also some snail shells and shells mixed in, all of different colors and shapes, looking like a colorful handicraft stall in later generations.
This really felt like panning for gold in the sand. He rummaged through a large number of shells and snail shells, not letting go of any glimmer of hope.
The snail shells similar in shape to the Red Peony Conch never appeared again, but two snail shells next to each other attracted his attention.
The two shells are different colors, one is light orange and the other is pink, both are bright, but their shapes are surprisingly consistent, and both have a strange beauty.
It looks like two star fruits, with rib-like protrusions arranged neatly on the surface. Although it is a natural shell, it looks more like an object that has been carefully carved.
Hundred-ribbed starfruit snails! And we found two at once!
Although the Hundred-ribbed Starfruit Snail is not as precious as the famous snail like the Red Peony, it is also a very valuable item.
This atoll has been in the deep sea for an unknown amount of time. It is not surprising that precious snail shells have appeared there over time.
Liang Ziqiang knew that the environment here was special, and the extreme phenomenon of "dragon sucking water" was easy to occur during the hot summer. The violent suction of the dragon sucking water would definitely stir up the snails and shellfish in the deepest part of the seabed, causing some rare snails that originally only existed in the deepest part of the seabed to be rolled onto the reef.
This is probably why snail shells are so rare to find in reef piles.
This can be indirectly proved by the incomplete shape of many snail shells.
Continuing his search, Liang Ziqiang discovered many beautiful snail shells, some complete and some incomplete, but most of them did not have much economic value.
This is also the difficulty in finding valuable snail shells. There is no shortage of snail shells with beautiful shapes and colors, but not all snail shells with beautiful appearance are necessarily valuable.
The truly rare goods are recorded in the industry, and often some Southeast Asian players who specialize in them can list them all.
If Liang Ziqiang had not liked watching the Ocean Channel in his previous life, and had not had the picture album provided by Pang Jiahui, he would have been completely in the dark and unable to tell the difference.
At this moment, he turned over those distractingly beautiful shells and snail shells, and finally found two golden snails and a hundred-ribbed star fruit snail.
He looked at his watch and saw that two hours had almost passed. It was time to return to the boat. Although there might be valuable shells missing from the reef, he could not disrupt his plan and continued to search.
Anyway, I will continue to come to this sea area in the near future, so it won’t be a problem to find some time to look for it next time.
Walking back to where the guys were fishing for clownfish, Lin Liming looked into his bucket and was a little surprised:
"Aqiang, what did you do today? You walked so far ahead, but you only caught a dozen fish, which is much less than what we caught? Could it be that there are no anemone fish over there?"
Lu Song noticed the pile of red flower crabs in the other bucket, including a large, fat and colorful airplane crab: "Is there any need to ask? He definitely didn't care about it and was busy catching crabs! Don't underestimate these crabs. This airplane crab alone might be more valuable than those clownfish you caught!"
Deng Zhaocai noticed the snail shell in the same bucket as the clownfish and said curiously:
"Brother Qiang, you didn't catch many fish, but you picked up so many strange snail shells. There's no meat inside. What use are they?"
Liang Ziqiang didn't want to explain too much, so he said in general terms: "Some snail shells are more valuable than snail meat. I think these are special, maybe they can be exchanged for some money!"
Those people were not paying attention to this at all. They were competing to show Liang Ziqiang the clownfish they had caught in the bucket:
"Aqiang, take a look at these fish I caught. How much can they be sold for?"
Liang Ziqiang showed them one by one. In fact, the catches of the five of them were similar, with the most being the young clownfish, followed by the blue-striped clownfish, the red tomato clownfish, and the pink clownfish. As for the more valuable rose clownfish, each of them also caught one or two.
Each person caught about 20 fish. Unfortunately, except for the high price of the rose clown, the others were not as good as the Guandao, diamond flounder, and blue-mouthed bride. Last time, their income from fishing was around 100 yuan, but this time it might not be that high.
"It will definitely still be around fifty or sixty yuan, but it's incomparable to last time." Liang Ziqiang told them bluntly, so that they wouldn't have too high expectations and end up being even more disappointed when they sold it.
Several people were not too disappointed at this time. Lin Liming said: "Fifty or sixty is not enough? I used to earn about this amount of money after working outside for a month. It's only been a short time, just the time to smoke a few cigarettes, and I've earned a month's wages! I've been going out to sea with Aqiang for the past few months, so I can make some money quietly, and sell cigarettes and alcohol without having to worry about my wife's mood!"
As soon as he said this, it immediately became a handle. Deng Zhaocai, Liang Chun and others looked mean and grabbed his whip and pulled it hard: "Now it's exposed, it turns out you have been secretly saving money! Go back and tell your sister-in-law, and see if you can still hold on to even a penny!"
Lin Liming was really panicked, and immediately grasped at straws: "Damn it, you are surprised! Every man has some money for cigarettes and alcohol, why don't you ask Ah Song and see if he has any?!"
Deng Zhaocai and the others immediately grabbed Lu Song's whip again. Lu Song was so angry that he wanted to kick Lin Liming off the atoll to feed the sea anemones.
Several people packed up their fishing gear and buckets, and got on the boat while chattering non-stop. They were so chatty that you couldn't tell they had been working for four or five days and nights straight. It seemed that their tiredness was dispelled by the surprise harvest in the past two hours.
The morning sun shone into the azure water and onto the backs of the men who were climbing aboard. They were all triumphant.
As soon as we got on the boat, while everyone was in a good mood, Liang Ziqiang hurriedly reminded everyone: "There should be a lot of anemonefish in the atoll. If we don't catch all of them this time, we can continue fishing next time we go out to sea. As long as we keep our mouths shut and no one tells anyone about this place, the clownfish won't be taken away, and we will always have something to fish for!"
Although he reminded everyone not to leak the information on the first day at the wintering fishing grounds, it was different now.
Everyone can catch clownfish here, so who would want to reveal it? Needless to say, everyone will be extra careful and keep their mouths shut.
This wintering fishing ground is of great significance to Liang Ziqiang. With this as the foundation, he can embark on a longer and farther road in the future...
(End of this chapter)
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