Bangkok's Sunday Market is lined with numerous Betta retail stores. How do retailers purchase their products? It varies greatly depending on the store.
What I often see are home-grown fish shops that also run farms and select fish for sale from there.
Since they produce their own fish, they have an abundance of fish and the prices are relatively reasonable.
Even if you don't have to wait in line at the store, you can just tell them what kind of fish you like and they'll bring it to you from the farm next time.It's easy and quick. You can also ask about the lineage of the fish for homebreeding.

Next to these home-grown shops, there are several affiliated farms from which they purchase fish. Since we purchase from multiple farms, we can say that our wide variety of varieties is an advantage.
In addition to these purchasing routes, we also purchase from wholesalers, just like Japanese tropical fish stores. Although it looks like a regular retail store, there are also wholesalers that set wholesale prices for traders, and you can visit these stores and select the fish for yourself.
Many of these wholesale stores do not open the fish in glass cases, but instead float the fish still wrapped in plastic when they arrive from the farm.

Also, rather than floating in a glass case, fish are often selected from plastic-packed fish that are still in the Styrofoam box they are delivered to.
It is not as easy to see as a fish in a case, so a certain amount of experience is required to select the fish. Many customers visit these stores when new fish arrive, so it can be a bit embarrassing to wait and choose the fish. It is basic etiquette to quickly select the fish of your choice and then give your spot to the next person waiting.
Although I am not a shop, they understand that I am collecting fish for the purpose of photographing betta fish, so they treat me in the same way as the shop staff, which is very helpful.

Since they are freshly delivered from the farm, even the store owner has not yet checked all the specimens, so there are quite a few bargains lurking inside the Styrofoam boxes. Especially the newly opened boxes that have not been selected by others can be said to be a treasure trove.
The blue-rimmed redeye we are introducing here is an individual selected from among these top boxes.
When I lived in Bangkok, visiting these wholesale shops was a weekly routine and an enjoyable task.

One day, I happened to see an individual with red eyes inside a plakat, commonly known as a blue rim, which has a white background with blue edges. In my experience, there is a high probability that there will be fish with similar traits among the same litter of fish from the same farm.
When I checked the blue-rimmed individuals in the same box, I was able to select a total of 5 red-eyed individuals with a big hit. I have been selecting solid fish for many years, but this is the first time I have found five red-eye fish at the same time.
Many Red Eye individuals have poor eyesight and are physically weak, but all of the individuals at this time had no problems with their eyesight and were strong individuals that were able to flare with other fish.

Normally, individuals like this are often picked up by discerning retailers and sold at a reasonable price, so I was lucky to be able to obtain it at a wholesale price.
Needless to say, a lot of effort went into the filming. We hope you enjoy this rare red-eyed, blue-rimmed specimen.