At the end of November 2015, I went to Bangkok's Sunday Market to say hello in order to return to Japan after a two-month stay in Thailand. As expected, she has been working here for over 10 years, and the number of her acquaintances has increased, and she has been able to receive various information quickly. She always makes it a point to say hello to these important acquaintances before returning to Japan.
For those who don't know what Sunday Market is, let me give you a brief explanation. The huge market in the northern part of Bangkok is also a tourist attraction, and is known as the Sunday Market or Weekend Market, and has been popular for a long time. The Thai name Chatuchak is more familiar to taxis. In one corner of this gigantic market, there are many shops selling pet animals and equipment. You can get most pet-related items here. Are there dozens of stores that specialize only in betta fish? Ordinary tourists can also shop there, so you can often see Japanese and foreigners there.
As expected, I didn't think to look for a model for the photo shoot right before I returned home, and thought I'd just say hello. However, there are many betta fish specialty stores that I am familiar with, and as I was greeting my return to Japan, one of the shops showed me a betta fish that had just arrived today. There was a strange betta figure that looked like a half-moon with its tail fin crumpled up! When you look into the aquarium and look at the baby, you will notice that it is not just crumpled, but that its soft rays are elongating in a strange way. This is why the tail fin has a unique shape.
When I asked him what the name of this betta was, he told me it was Half Moon Connock. When I asked my buddy Ton what konnok means, he explained that kon means a feather, and nock means a bird. Now that you think about it, it does look like a bird's wing. In particular, the ends of the soft rays have a pattern that resembles a bird's feathers. If it were given an English name, would it be called Half Moon Birdfeather? As I am a local person when it comes to names, I would like to call this fish the Half Moon Connock, rather than giving it an English or Japanese name. It's not a difficult word, so I would like people to become familiar with it by this name.
Thus, on the day I returned home, I unexpectedly encountered a new betta fish. Of course she couldn't pretend that she didn't know, so she ended up taking up a position in front of the betta shop and selecting bettas. There are many individuals with rather bad fins and disordered scales, and it seems that the breed is not yet stable. From among them, 20 individuals were carefully selected and brought back to Japan. The reason why I brought back 20 individuals is because there was a wide variety of body colors for a new breed. If they all have similar colors, five individuals will be enough for photographing. There was another important reason. In the case of a breed with an elongated tail fin, such as a half-moon, if you pack it in a small plastic bag, the fish will gnaw on the tail fin that flutters in front of you, probably due to stress, and this will lead to a disease similar to tail rot. There are many individuals. This is common in individuals with beautifully elongated fins, and is rare in young individuals. I wonder how many specimens I've taken home as models in the past have had their tail fins bitten off like this and could not be used for photography. I was worried about this, so I brought home a little extra, but this worry turned out to be unnecessary. Only one fell during transportation, and the rest did not bite their tail fins at all. This is probably due to the fact that this Half Moon Connock is a breed whose tail fin does not grow that long.
Once the Half Moon Connox was safely brought back to Japan, I immediately photographed it in my aquarium. When I used it for photography, it seemed a little quieter than a normal half moon, and the flaring wasn't very active. As a result, it took several times as long to photograph a normal half moon. When I looked through the finder while taking pictures, I realized that the feather-like tail fins of birds vary from individual to individual, and that some birds open well, while others open poorly. Depending on the individual, the shape of their fins also felt like snowflakes. Well, in Thailand where it doesn't snow, no Thai would think like that.
Upon investigation, it appears that this Betta, which is believed to be a prototype, has been on the Japanese market to some extent under the name Rosetail since mid-2015. It is true that in the type where the soft rays of the tail fin do not spread out, the texture is similar to rose petals. It seemed to me that this Half Moon Connock was still not stable in terms of variety. However, the situation was similar when a churned betta called Dumbo betta first appeared. Gradually, the fixed rate and quality of the variety will increase. Also, this form of tail fin is not only found in half moons. I remembered that there was a placat Konnok at the betta farm I went to a few days before returning to Japan. The shape of this tail fin seems to be different depending on the person, but I'm looking forward to seeing how it will be bred and enjoyed in the world of the betta hobby in the future.
Even so, the improvement of betta fish is far from over. Improved varieties that have changed not only in color but also in form are being created one after another. I'll probably introduce a new breed of betta in the next issue of this column. What kind of beta it will be is still a secret, but please look forward to it.
