In April 2016, as usual, when I was looking at the betta shops at the Sunday market in Bangkok, I noticed that a new betta fish had arrived at a shop that mainly sells wild betta fish, so I decided to take a look! I was invited. When I looked into the slightly dark glass case, I saw Smaragdina flaring energetically. However, if you look closely, the atmosphere is different from normal Smaragdina. All the individuals there had a lattice-like pattern between the soft rays of their caudal fins. These characteristics are not found in normal Smaragdina.
When I asked the shop owner about the origin of this Smaragdina, he told me that it came from Nong Khai in northeastern Thailand. However, the Smaragdina that I collected during my previous trip to Nong Kai did not have these characteristics. I checked the photos I had taken, and found that the Smaragdina from Nong Khai was a standard type.
Because of this, I decided to try to gather some information myself and searched the internet. As a result, it seems that Smaragdina, which is said to be from Nong Kai, was already recorded in 2005. However, the information that it was from Nong Khai was incorrect, and it was revealed that the population actually lives around Bung Khong Lhong Lake in Bung Kan. This is not entirely a mistake, as Bunkan Province was previously included in Nong Khai Province and was separated only recently. It was also discovered that this population was nicknamed Guitar. This guitar is a musical instrument, and it is said that this is because the movement of the male's abdominal fins during fighting resembles the movement of the male when playing the guitar. Regarding this, I feel that this movement is not limited to this population... In Thailand, the nickname "guitar" seems to be widespread, so I'd like to call it "guitar" here as well.
When I searched the internet, I was able to find a website with detailed information about its habitat in English. Even though I've been to Thailand for a long time, I can't read Thai at all, so I end up ignoring Thai-only sites right away. When it comes to English, I feel like trying to read it on my own. Nowadays, there are translation software that can be used reasonably well, and while it can be used in English, it is not good enough in Thai. Since I was able to obtain detailed information on the habitat, I was thinking that I would like to go there someday and collect it, and soon the opportunity came. In October 2016, I had the opportunity to go to Laos due to visa issues, and on my way back, I visited the habitat of this guitar. Their habitat, Lake Bung Kong Long, is located in Isan, a province of Bung Kang in northeastern Thailand. Smartphones have become popular these days, so you can easily find them using GPS.
This time, there was one thing I wanted to confirm. The Thai website states that the population in Seka (the website says Sega, but the locals call it Seka), which is located at a higher altitude than this Lake Bungkong Rong, is a special population that lives in a flowing water environment. There was a description. Betta fish, which belong to the splendens group, usually make bubble nests when breeding, so they live in still waters such as wetlands and rice fields. Beta stictos is the only species that lives in Cambodia, and I have confirmed with my own eyes that it lives in gently flowing small rivers. I wanted to see if there really was a fish that was adapted to running water like Styctos.
First, we went from Savannakhet in Laos, crossed the Mekong River border, and returned to Mukdahan on the Thai side. According to my GPS, it's not that far from there to Bung Kong Long Lake. Anyway, I spent the night at a hotel in Mukdahan to recover from my fatigue, and headed to my destination the next morning. For lunch, I ate my favorite Isan dishes such as gai yan, som tam, and khao niao at a restaurant along the road, and when I asked about Bung Kong Long Lake, I was told that it was just around the corner from the road I had just passed.
As I was excited to drive, I noticed that even though it was an inland area, I saw "beach" written in English everywhere. This Lake Bung Kong Long was larger than I had imagined, and some places were used as swimming holes, which is why it was called a so-and-so beach. It's a pretty big place, so I asked the locals more about Betta while buying drinks there. These interviews sometimes provide important information.
It wasn't long before I was able to meet a person who was a fighting fish. She asks the old man to guide her to a place where she can collect betta fish. She was taken to a wetland in the forest at the edge of Bung Kong Long Lake. The water is not clear but slightly brown in color. Based on my experience, this is definitely a place where betta fish live, but they don't come into the net easily. According to the locals, the best time to collect this betta fish is during the dry season in April or May. During that time of year, you can see fish building bubble nests all over the place. At this time of year, the water level is still high, making it difficult to collect. However, I continued collecting them patiently, hoping that I would be able to catch a few.
Unfortunately, the first one I caught was a female. Then a male with a mate-like appearance also enters the net, and even though I don't like it, I get excited. As expected, the tail fin of the male Smaragdina here has a checkered pattern. I ended up collecting about 10 fish on the first day.
The next day, we headed for a place called Seka, a few kilometers away from Bung Kong Long Lake. The website says it's a highland, but it's not that high. There is also a small lake here, and as soon as I put my net on the shore of this lake, a small specimen came in. After collecting for a while, I finally managed to collect a colorful male specimen. As expected, the characteristics of the tail fin of this individual are the same as those from Lake Bung Kong Long.
Next, I looked for the running water environment described on the site. There was a rivulet flowing out of the lake, and although Guitars do live there as well, the numbers were small and it didn't seem to be their main habitat.
I spent a whole day collecting them in this area, and as expected, most of their habitat was among the grass in still waters. As stated on the website, the conclusion is that the existence of a population adapted to the special environment of running water could not be confirmed. Didn't he come up with this idea after seeing an individual that happened to be washed away during a period of high water?
This time, I visited the site with my own eyes and noticed that some of the males had a slightly spade-shaped tail. This makes it understandable that among the fish that have been named after guitars in the hobby world, there is one with a spade-shaped tail. Additionally, the patterns on the tail fins of guitars that have been bred and sold seem to be more beautiful than those that have been collected. This is probably because individuals with beautiful patterns are bred over generations. In that sense, the guitars sold at Sunday markets might be better called aquarium strain rather than wild. This is true of Smaragdina in general, but there is a tendency for each fin to grow longer in bred individuals than in the wild. Without a doubt, breed specimens look better than wild specimens.
Recently, individuals hybridized with closely related species Mahachaiensis and Styctos have also appeared on the market. This is still fun, so it's best to differentiate it from wild.
