indicators of earthquakes in indonesia (on 12 sept)

i visited my old friend tye thong's bachelor pad yesterday at potong pasir. when i stepped into his flat, i thought i was entering some museum or art collection centre. his living room was filled with souvenirs that he had accumulated over the years from all his travelling abroad, mainly to asian and south-east asian countries. there were a number of wind chimes hanging from the ceiling of his flat.

he had also two fish tanks, one housing black goldfish -referrred to as black butterflies- and one, small oscars. during the walk at treetop that morning, song chia - his bendemeer colleague - had teased him about buying fish every other week. he suggested to tye thong that he should get a net and catch the barbs in the stream at venus drive. when i went into the kitchen, i saw another five tanks of varying sizes filled with fish.

tye thong told me that his wind chimes and fish tanks were better than any instrument for indicating tremors. every time there is a strong earthquake in the region, the wind chimes inside his flat will make a lot of noise and the water in the fish tanks will move in waves. the louder the chime and the higher the waves means the stronger the quake.

i asked if he had any of those experiences lately and was told that there had not been any the last few months. however, some tremors could have occurred while he was not in the flat.

as if to answer my question, that same evening i came home to hear on the news that two strong earthquakes had hit indonesia. when i checked with tye thong, he told me that the quakes had to be very strong because the water in the fish tanks spilled onto the floor at both ends.