On Wednesday, the event hall was not completely set up. PHOTO: COURTESY OF DAVE AI

The show will go on, even though there will be 150 empty tanks out of more than 1,000 at the first Aquasinga 2016 International Fish and Accessories Exhibition at Big Box in Jurong.

This comes after one of the 19 exhibitors pulled out over disagreements with the organiser.

Mr Dave Ai, 63, adviser of a luohan fish interest group, Flowerhorn Club Singapore, with 49 members who had planned to exhibit 150 luohan fish, said his group decided to pull out after the organiser failed to deliver on some promises. These included installing the 1,000 fish tanks in the event hall by Wednesday, and providing "proper conditions" for the ornamental fish.

Mr Ai said yesterday: "The tanks were only just set up, and even then, the conditions weren't right for our fish.

"The tanks were the wrong size, the lights weren't bright enough and the filters weren't strong enough."

His group had to pay an entry fee of $50 a fish.

Entry fee for the public to exhibit their fishes is $80.

Aquasinga is a competition-cum-exhibition for popular ornamental fish like arowana, Siamese fighting fish and discus.

It is open to the public from today to Sunday, at a 3,500 sq m event hall in Big Box in Jurong. Admission is $8, while children below 1.2m get in free.

Competitors had to bring their fishes to the event hall on Tuesday and Wednesday, and judging was supposed to have taken place on Wednesday and yesterday.

Mr Ai said some participants in his group came from Malaysia, and had to send their fish back after deciding to pull out.

One of them, Mr Hanne Lim, 35, a businessman, made plans to send his four luohan to Singapore from Malacca on Wednesday morning.

He said: "Runners picked up my four fish at 6am, from Malacca. They reached the venue at 12pm, but the set-up was still not ready."

Mr Lim said there was no water in the tanks, and no air pumps.

His prize-winning fish had no place to swim. Each is worth between $5,000 and $6,000, and were placed in plastic bags.

DELAY

When contacted, organiser Tan Tuck Hua from Aquasinga Exhibition Enterprise, admitted there was a slight delay in the set-up, but insisted that Flowerhorn Club need not have pulled out.

"Just a few fish tanks weren't done yet. It's our first time organising an event on this scale, and we had to set up about 1,000 fish tanks.

"There are more than 1,000 participants," he said.

Mr Tan said he hopes to discuss the matter with Flowerhorn Club.