*Note: The origin of Golden Monkey is often hotly contested. Civil open debate will always be encouraged, but there is a place for everthing. Discussion of this article can be posted under the General Discussion Forum, while the article will remain closed.

“The real Golden Monkey or KAMALAU is bred by Mr. Lam Seah and Lam Soon in Bercham, Ipoh, Malaysia. The last Generation is GEN 3 and all of them were sold to A-1 Aquarium during the year 2001. This type of flowerhorn is a LOUHAN based fish and not a mixed type Zenzhu or Kamfa.”

Accordingly,

“The entire 3rd GENERATION was composed of 320 fry of which only 12 pieces turned out to be true Golden Monkey or KAMALAU. The rest were then culled by A-1 AQUARIUM. The cost during that time for the entire batch was RM 50,000 or US $13,513.51.”



Now this is the main controversy, if the fish is not from LAM SEAH, its 100% not Golden Monkey or Kamalau. Where the same goes for the saying, if it is not from Ah Soon it is 100% not a Golden Apple or JPG.

From my sources and original breeders, there is a line that has held a percentage of the bloodline constant. Hence the reason why there is no True Golden Monkey or Kamalau but an offspring of that classification or GMF2 nomenclature. This being due to the constant crossing of new bloodlines.

“All the TOTAL KAMALAU in the world in the year 2001 were only 48 FHs...each one being recorded by A-1 Aquarium as they bought 2 of the GENERATIONS. The first GEN is only 10 flowerhorn which were all bought by an Indonesian businessman during the year 2001. The total price for the 10 FHs at the time was US $100,000.”

Here’s the biggest flaw in trying to attain the original line.

“There were 18 females being used....until recently with only 2 remaining. The rest has already reported in Heaven”

“One of the females was being used in producing the pendians of the JPG and the other one was still with Lam Seah”

Now, even Mr. Seah has had problems trying to achieve the origin.

“The last few years, he has been trying his best...but the batches have not been successful.”

“To produce the original parents you need about 4 to 5 years... 3 Generations...
Not breeder friendly to the Kamalau and the JPGs, taking them much longer to breed.”

“For a Kamfa to get the best stock usually around F4 class, the best of the best of 3 batches have to be picked, grown, and bred how many times to produce the best fishes.”

“It took them nearly 12 years just to create the Golden Apple or JPG. For the original Kamalau it took them 2 years later to make, not as easy as you think.

“The 4 months that you think about how easy it is to breed the Zhen Zhu strain think about this young Kamfa and the time it takes for it to reach sexual maturity, 3 years!”



This was disclosed to me during my research of the Kamalau.

“The Kamalau and the KGM are not the same. The KGM which I have now is more of a Zenzhu X Kamfa based fish.”

KAMALAU as Lam Seah do it again yet. The other qualities that we see are almost like the full pearl Kamfa's and the rest with full pearls markings, but are not LOUHAN based fish...

The Golden Apple was the nearest to the class of the real Kamalau.

The way I understand it is “Yes” a JPG is a Luohan based Flowerhorn and has a similar body structure.


With respect to the Golden Monkey breeder...anyway you look at it, the Kamalau strain could be revived if one looks beyond the breeder Mr. Lam Seah. What I mean is Lam Seah may be the breeder of Golden Monkey but not the creator of Golden Monkey (you may want to ask him yourself).

That's why up to this day, he still cannot figure out what are the genetic compositions of this great strain and how to reproduce it.

What is then what we have heard about KAMALAU..?

“The new Kamalau that we see today is a replacement for the earlier fish.”

“But sad to say, the new GMF2s do not represent the real thing...both fish have pearls, but the real KAMALAU has more than that....the metallic sheen in the whole fish...the real quality of the LOUHAN is not represented.”

“The KAMALAU is also the KGM of Indonesia and also called Kamfa-Malau. This type of fish is a mix between the full pearl Kamfa and a Zenzhu which we called the TORNADO EFFECT (Disclosure). Hope people will understand regarding this.”

“Correct me if I am wrong, the quality of a real Kamalau has to be like the JPG right? Since JPG is also one of the few, if not the only, Luohan based Flowerhorn presently around.

“The main difference between the Kamalau (Golden Monkey) and the JPG (Golden Apple) is the base color of the JPG being metalic in some generations.”

“Fundamentally, correct me if I am wrong, if it is bred by Lam Seah, he calls it Kamalau or Golden Monkey but if it is bred by Ah Soon, he calls it JPG or Golden Monkey.”


Picture one of the real Kamalau from A-1 Aquarium



Look at the face...the face looks also like the JPG...



Look at the head....



The way it is understood, JPG is a Luohan based Flowerhorn and has a similar body structure.

For pearls, you have the Gen 1 KGM's and the King Bacara's. There is also the Kamalau.

The problem is all 3 mentioned above are also expensive.