One day, I looked into the shops on the Sunday market route without any expectations, and found a novel fish in the most conspicuous position.
It was a veil-tailed betta called Pakat Chin in Thailand.
In Japan, it is often called Tra Beta, short for Traditional Beta, but no one would understand if you used that name in Thailand.
In Thailand, plastic cut fish are the most popular among betta fish, so the selection of specialty stores follows suit, and 80% of betta fish specialty stores are plastic cut specialty stores.
Personally, I prefer plastic cut, so if I see one with an unusual color, I tend to buy it, and as a result, my stock photos tend to be biased toward plastic cut.
Readers of this column will probably know that last year, I produced a book that can be said to be the culmination of my solid photographs.
There are so many photos of plastic cut that I could throw them away, but I felt like there were not enough photos of some varieties.
The best example of this is the veil tail betta fish.
There are several reasons for this.

One is that the veil-tailed betta is already treated as a past variety, and new varieties with new colors have not been seen.
Tens of thousands of solid red and solid blue veiltails have been exported every week as betta fish for beginners for many years, but because they are cheap, no one has tried to develop new varieties. It was.
However, the situation has changed considerably over the past few years, and the appearance of new breeds of betta tails has made a comeback.
In Thailand, the kingdom of betta fish, quite large scale betta competitions are held several times a year.
During these contests, the animals are judged by category, and there has always been a category for veil tails, but in the past, there were not many attractive individuals seen there.
However, in recent years, veil tails with quite unusual colors have been exhibited, and there were even many individuals that were more attractive than plastic cuts.
This situation makes me happy as a long-time betta fan, but it also has some negative effects.

As you know, the selling price of a betta varies greatly depending on the grade of the individual.
The prices of the attractive veil tails you see in shops have skyrocketed.
This trend began to be seen around the time when the veil tail of the Japanese carp betta appeared.
Recently, there was a time when a high-grade specimen of Nemo's Veil Tail could cost more than 10,000 yen in Japanese yen.
Even in the spring of 2020, high-grade specimens of Nemo's Veil Tail are priced at prohibitive prices.
The soaring price of veil-tailed betta fish is the second reason for the lack of stock photos.
As expected, I'm not a rich photographer who can spend a lot of money on shooting models...

Now, let's go back to the beginning.
This time, I found a new arrival at a certain shop, a veil tail betta floating in the aquarium still in its bag.
There are about 20 of them, but they all have almost the same coloration, and their fixation rate seems to be quite high.
The color scheme is perfectly balanced, with blue fins on a black background and red at the base of the tail fin.
I was frightened that it would be a good price, but when I inquired about the price, I was surprised to find that it was a reasonable price.
With this, it is possible to model several animals at once.
That said, the price is high enough to buy a reasonably high-grade plastic cut...
Price is important, but I also wanted to know the name of this new variety, so I asked him about it, and he told me it was Blue Backstar.
It's just what it looks like! An easy name came back.
I was not sure whether to use this name as is, but since the three colors of black, blue, and red are beautiful, I will introduce it under the name Tricolor Veil Tail in this column.
It is rare for a new variety to have such similar colors between individuals.
When they first appear, it is normal for them to vary in color and shape.

I haven't seen it anywhere until it's fixed so firmly, so the breeder must be very particular about it.
I wanted to see the female specimen as well, so I asked about it, but it seems that it hasn't been released yet.
This is normal for new betta breeds and will become available in due course.

Even so, the color of this solid is stunning.
The dorsal and anal fins are bright blue, and the blue bleeds irregularly into the body at the base.
This blue extends in the shape of a sword at the bottom of the tail fin, and this is a nice accent to the red tail fin.
The red that enters the tail fin seems to vary slightly between individuals.
The black on the body is not pure black, but rather a deep red that passes through the reddish-brown and appears to be black.
I noticed this for the first time when I started shooting.

It would be normal to imagine that a new variety with such a high fixation rate would be released at such a reasonable price that it would be produced in large numbers.
However, the shop owner told me that this betta fish is already sold out at the farm, so this is the last one in stock and they won't be stocking it for a while.
This type of story involves a lot of commercial techniques, so it can't be trusted.
That said, I hope more of this wonderful new variety will be released and reach enthusiasts at affordable prices.
I would also like many people to understand the appeal of veil tail betta fish once again.