Pigek and Ludong: Artificial breeding of 2 very expensive fish species pushed

MANILA, Philippines - Pigek in Northern Mindanao and Ludong in Cagayan Valley are the two most expensive fish (costing P4,000 or more per kilo), and the most highly appreciated but the least available due to their scarcity. Both fish are called the President’s Fish because of their rarity and high price, enjoyed only by very special people such as the President.

Alex Reyes Jr. once donated Pigek to Cardinal Jaime Sin who thoroughly enjoyed it because of its different, delicious and unique taste.

Pigek and Ludong are both riverine and seasonal fish. They are catadromous in nature and migrate to the sea to breed and it is during the breeding season that they are caught by fishermen.

As is known to date, there is no successful way to breed the fish. But in 1984, initial practical trials to artificially breed the fish proved to be possible. This was carried out by a team of three, namely Alex Reyes Jr., financier Hilarion Angeles, as fish culturist and the author as technical adviser.

Equipment consisted of a Hi-Ace Toyota vehicle, portable plastic containers with battery-operated aerators, enamel-white dishes, feathers and hormone injection equipment.

At a chosen place near the river bank, the vehicle is parked for the evening. Fishermen are asked to bring “live” fish they catch in the river, placed in the portable plastic fish container with aerator. The fish are separated into females and males. The females are made to release their eggs and the males their milt, with hormone injection. The eggs and milt are mixed and stirred with feathers. The next morning, larvae are seen swimming at the white-enameled dishes and afterwards they are transferred to a clean plastic container with aerator. The larvae lived for a few days. The trial had shown that it is possible to breed the fish.

The trials were replicated in the two places in Northern Mindanao and Cagayan Valley, one after the other, with the same results. The author recommends that the same trials be conducted again if we are to artificially breed the two fishes, considering the threatened state of the declining catch over the years of the fish species. Let’s save the Pigek and Ludong, the most delicious and most expensive fish in the country.

The author is a former Deputy Commissioner of Fisheries (for research and technology) of the Philippine Fisheries Commission, 1967-1971. He is now an 83-year-old UN retiree, with 27 years of service with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, and three years with the World Bank.