Over a year after otters killed and ate a resident’s koi in Bukit Timah, about eight of them returned to kill her arowana on the same property.
Images of the aftermath showed some of the fish with their eyes gouged out.
The otters had even left a dead arowana in the hallway of the house.
Speaking up about the incident, a resident at the property called for measures to control the population of otters.
Speaking to MS News, Tham Ying Yuen shared that after her koi fish were killed back in 2022, her property underwent assessment.
Due to the sheer size of its perimeter, Ying was told that she couldn’t fully guard the area against otters.
Any major renovation projects would also require a significant number of approvals.
As a result, Ying’s family decided to leave their ponds empty for six months, choosing not to keep any fish in case otters were still nearby.
However, the population of frogs in their ponds kept increasing and an acquaintance recommended they keep arowana instead due to such fish being less desirable to otters as a result of being boney.
After purchasing the arowana, nothing seemed amiss, according to Ying.
However, on the morning of 17 Jan sometime past 7am, the otters entered the property after Ying’s father left it for work and began attacking the arowana.
Ying’s helper had shouted at the animals before hiding in a room when they turned to look for her.
They subsequently entered the house from one of the ponds which extends into the living room.
Ying said that the damage the population of arowana had suffered was plenty. The corpses of the dead arowana were strewn around the perimeter and in the ponds.
Source: Tham Ying Yuen on Facebook
Another was left in the middle of the hallway.
Source: Tham Ying Yuen on Facebook
A total of 10 fish died with six others sustaining injuries, which included having their eyes gouged out, their fins removed and chins bitten.
Source: Tham Ying Yuen on Facebook
Ying added that the otters had not eaten any of the arowana, meaning that they had killed the fish for sport.
“Given the situation now, we will try to secure the smaller pond which leads into the house as it is very scary and dangerous for the people living inside,” Ying said.
“We have engaged a professional to see what can be done for that pond.”
As for the bigger pond, Ying admitted that nothing could be done to shield it from the otters due to its size and shape.
She has thus planned to stop keeping fish in it entirely.
Ying also sent the remaining injured arowana away to a fishery, noting that otters often returned soon after an attack.
“[I] didn’t want to take any more chances for [sic] the survivors,” she said, claiming that after finding no fish, the otters attacked those in the pond of another house instead.
In addition, Ying said she alerted the National Parks Board (NParks) about the incident, but noted that they were “unhelpful.”
After the first attack on her koi had occurred, they suggested keeping tiger barbs and guppies instead.
In a Facebook post detailing the incident, Ying urged for more measures to control the population of otters.
“I hope people can acknowledge these otters are indeed pests and a menace,” she said. “Something needs to be done to control their population.”
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Featured image adapted from Tham Ying Yuen on Facebook.
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