betta splenden

when i was a kid, my father would often take me to the fish shop to stock up on his aquarium. that was when i first saw these dull fishes in jam jars, stacked on a shelf.

my father removed the card in between the jars and the fishes immediately went mad. their colours became bright and their gills flared up.

he told my those were fighting fishes and they would fight to their death if they were put together, that's why they had to be kept in individual containers.

years later when i was in primary school, we saw some fighting fishes at a fish shop near our home so my siblings and i each bought one. the moment we got home, what else could we do with fighting fishes?

we let them fight for a while but stopped because we were worried they would die. the fins got pretty battered but otherwise they seemed fine and still lived for quite a long time. that was the only time we let them fight because it seemed unnecessarily brutal.

then during my secondary school days i was re-introduced to them again and got into a bit of a craze because i found them to be quite beautiful. i tried breeding them a few times but all the hundreds of tiny little fishes died within days.

a couple of years back i went to the fish farm and came across fighting fishes again. this time they were even more beautiful than before, and the prices for the special breeds had fallen too.

i remembered during my secondary school craze i used to lust over them online and each cost around us$50. now it was barely s$20 (the common ones that i used to get from fish shops were like $2.50). i resisted the urge to buy some.

yesterday i came across this image on tumblr and once again was reminded of these beautiful fishes. to me they're really the most beautiful and elegant fish. now i think i shall buy a couple when my exams are over.