23/05/2022
THE HISTORY OF THE SIAMESE FIGHTING FISH
Betta fish were first discovered in Southeast Asia. Betta fish are found in warm water and are native to Siam (now Thailand), Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, and parts of China. Bettas are primarily found in the Mekong River and the Chao Phraya River, both of which traverse through a number of Southeast Asian countries.
When the people of Siam first began collecting Bettas in the 1800s, they had no intention of accessorizing with fish. Bettas, often known as Siamese Fighting Fish, were not the attractive, little fish that we see now. They were developed for competitive fighting, not for the glory of their amazing fins and colors, and had significantly smaller fins and a dirty greenish-brown tint.
They are accustomed to living in small puddles when rivers dry up, and have adapted to this through time. They can even miraculously hop from a tiny puddle to a larger water body if necessary. The Betta fish evolved into the labyrinth fish that we know today in their native countries.
Collecting these Siamese fighting fish was a favorite hobby for Malaysian children. The kids would catch up to 50 Bettas every hour from the rice paddies, then compete in fish fights to determine who was the village champion.
Because of their popularity, the King of Siam sought to regulate and tax them. In 1840, the King donated some fish to a man, who then gave them to Dr. Theodore Cantor, a Danish physician. The doctor reared and researched them, eventually naming them Macropodus pugnax in a scholarly study.
When it was realized that a fish with that name already existed, Charles Tate Regan renamed them Betta splendens, which means "beautiful fighter" and is still used today. Bettas were initially imported into France and Germany in the 1890s, and the first bettas were imported into the United States in 1910 by Mr. Frank Locke of San Francisco, California.
It's believed that the name comes from the Malay words 'ikan betta', which means "fish" and "bettah," which refers to an ancient warrior group and is pronounced "bet-tah."