Monday, February 5, 2001
Look for rain if your
dojo swims around
AT a recent dinner party, I met a man who mentioned
that years ago, he and his friends went to Oahu streams to dig for dojo.
"Dig for what?" I asked.
"Dojo. We used them for bait."
"What are they?"
"I don't know, exactly," he said.
"They look like little eels about this long." He held his
thumb and forefinger four or five inches apart. "You never heard of
them?"
"No."
He shrugged. "Well, it's been years. Maybe they
aren't here anymore."
They are. Dojo is the Japanese name for one of
several types of freshwater fish that Asian immigrants brought to Hawaii
for food in the 1800s. The fish dug right in, so to speak, and are now
found on Kauai, Oahu, Maui and the Big Island.
People don't usually eat dojo here anymore, but in
Japan they are considered a delicacy. The method of cooking these small
fish is unique.
Japanese cooks place live dojo in a pot containing
cool water and a block of tofu, then turn on the stove. When the water
starts getting warm, the fish burrow into the cool interior of the tofu.
Eventually the water boils, killing and cooking the fish inside the
block. Later, when the tofu is sliced, it contains embedded chunks of
dojo.
In Hawaii, people search for dojo to use as bait for
shore fishing. Dojo are most active at night, swimming around the murky
waters of streams and ponds, eating worms, shrimp, insects and any other
small animals they can catch. During the day, these fish bury themselves
in muddy bottoms, often among grass or leaf litter, with only their
heads showing.
DOJO are hearty fish. When the oxygen content of
their water gets low, these fish rise to the surface and take a gulp of
air. Their intestines absorb the swallowed oxygen.
Like goatfish and catfish, the dojo has taste-sensing
organs that look like whiskers protruding from around the mouth. Dojo
bodies are long and narrow and could easily be mistaken for eels.
Although dojo is the most common name for this fish
here, it has others. Its scientific name is Misgurnus anguillicaudatus,
the latter word meaning eel tail in Latin. The fish's English names are
weather loach and oriental weatherfish.
People call dojo weatherfish because when stormy
weather is approaching, aquarium dojo begin swimming around their tank
like crazy. This happens because when the air pressure drops rapidly, as
it does during a storm, the dojo's air-filled swimbladder (the buoyancy
organ inside its body) expands. More air in the swimbladder means it's
harder for the fish to stay on the bottom. Therefore, the usually
sedentary fish swims around the aquarium.
Sometimes, during a large pressure drop, a dojo will
release air through its mouth or anus. A burping, gas-passing dojo is a
signal that it's time to close your louvers.
