Siamese Fighting Fish aka Betta splendens (scientific name)
Just a short intro:
I grew up in the Tropics (the cradle of bio-diversity) and I can never recall a day when we had no pet fish, that is, we always had an aquarium of tropical fish. In fact we often had more than one aquarium - in different parts of our home. And so did all our many relatives. Keeping tropical fishes were a favourite past-time of the locals.
In fact keeping any fish, and especially goldfish was very popular, especially if you owned a shop or restaurant as they were symbols of luck and good fortune. Walk into popular Chinese restaurants anywhere in the world whether you are in San Francisco, Hong Kong or Singapore, and you will often find an aquarium of goldfish.
I remember the time when I was knee-high to a grasshopper my uncles and cousins would bicycle off to the noisy, vibrant markets and then bring home plastic bags of water in which there would be a Siamese fighting fish in each bag.
These containers were ingenious because something such as a tiny, live fish would, for those less resourceful, pose a problem when it came to transportation after sale but these plastic bags with their little, pink, plasitc handles (the kind that were used to make plastic baskets that were so popular in those days) were just perfect - cheap, disposable, light-weight and oh, so handy as fish-containers because they fitted so well onto the handles of the bicycles that transported them home. [They haven't changed much with time except become 'globalised' (visit the Brisbane Sunday markets, etc., and you will find that this is how pet fish are also packaged) - like the zipper, it's one of the cleverest inventions around!]
You can bring your fish home without sloshing the contents around and traumatising the fish too much because these sellers were very adept at packaging them (airbag solution) using very simple and fast techniques. They were just as fascinating to watch as the fish they sold!
And so began my fascination for the Siamese Fighting Fish, guppies and other tropical pet fishes. These early impressions in your childhood never quite leave you ... a situation somewhat similar to gaming. (If you were introduced as a tiny tot to video games, you will be familiar with the feeling of being 'engaged' long term with your 'past-time'!) And who can forget the irridescent splendour of fins that fan out in all its vivid glory as they 'fight' their rivals albeit from separate glass jars?
Never mind the fact that you witnessed many of your adult relatives sharing this obsession for tropical, pet fish and it becomes ingrained into one's psyche growing up. Some impressions never quite leave one's personal landscape once formed.
And so the fascination for the Siamese Fighting Fish (SFF) continues ...
The Siamese Fighting Fish is better known by its generic name of Betta elsewhere in the world.
M L H
