money in raising high-fin loaches. These fishes, at the time, cost SGD 100 to 200 each for a small specimen and the Yap family had been trying to bring the fish up to the desirable market size in order to sell them at a premium. However, tragedy struck whilst they expanded their premises. The move had caused a ‘shocking wave’ that travelled through the tanks of fish, subsequently killing all the high-fin loaches over a mere span of two to three days. This ‘shocking wave’, was in fact the vibrations given off by the power tools used to install new fish tanks. The family had not known that he fish happened to be highly sensitive to these vibrations. Once again, they were left with nothing but two grim lessons. As Kenny Yap recites time and again in his interviews, the lessons learnt were to not “put all your eggs in one basket” and to remember the importance of knowing a product well before investing in it. Hence, their mascot serves as a reminder to them of the mistakes they had made and to never make the same ones again. Awards and achievements Being awarded three ISO 9002s and an ISO 14001 were major achievements for Qian Hu as such awards were firsts for fish farms in Singapore and around the world. The ISO 9002 certification is given to companies that have outstanding quality management systems. Qian Hu's first ISO 9002 was awarded to Qian Hu Trading in 1996 by SGS Yarsley for their conditioning and packing of their ornamental fish for export.> The second came just a year after that, where Wan Hu division was awarded the ISO 9002 by Bureau Vertitas Quality International for their import and export, breeding, raising and quarantine procedures for the company's prided Dragon Fish. Then, in 2000, Yi Hu division was awarded the ISO 9002 certification by SGS Yarley for the retail and wholesale of aquarium and pet accessories locally and abroad. Having learnt from the guppy stock disaster in 1989, Qian Hu had their 42-hectare premises landscaped to avoid the overflowing of ponds and tanks that held their valuable stocks of fish. Runoffs of rainwater are collected and recycled for use in the ponds, tanks and even toilets. This one-of-a-kind system that reuses and recycles water was what earned Qian Hu the ISO 14001 certification. The ISO 14001 is awarded to companies that