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[Originally published in Tropical Topics, Journal of the Indianapolis Aquarium Society, late 1989]
In the September 1989 issue if Tropical Topics, I wrote an article about collecting fish in Nigeria. This time the country is Thailand. Although my favorite collecting memories are in West Africa, Thailand is quite unique in its own way. I suppose it is an apples and oranges situation since I didn't do a whole lot of collecting in Thailand.
Anyway, during last summer, I had the opportunity to visit Thailand, India and a little bit of Japan. In Japan, I saw cars ands suits and in India I saw my grandparents who knew I had some affinity towards fish and so they offered me fish cooked in all sorts if "scrumptious" ways - it wasn't an easy situation to slither out of. That is as close to fish as I came in India; I have done some collecting in India, but that was when I was 7 or 8 years old and all I remember is walking home with Tilapia sp in my shirt pocket. So, which country are we left with? Thailand. Did I see any fish? Boy, did I.
I have been waiting to share all this with you since last summer, but my last two semesters at Purdue kept me so busy that I haven't had a chance to do this until now. Now that Purdue is history, I have a little more free time...until I start grad school in Gainesville, FL
As some of you may have read in The Optimum Aquarium by Kaspar Horst & Horst Kipper that the aquarium hobby in Thailand is not quite a hobby, but it is more of a tradition. The authors say that there are about 150 pet/fish stores in the capital city of Bangkok alone! Although I wasn't quite that lucky in spotting many of these fish stores, I did see about a dozen of them. One of the nicest pet store was in a chic shopping mall in the middle of Bangkok! A far cry from our mall pet stores! My collecting or should I say observation since I didn't bring any fish back with me was concentrated in the peripheral areas of Bangkok. My short stay didn't allow me to run away into the jungles. This was the first time I'd been in the tropics since my last trip to Nigeria and I felt a very strong urge to cancel my flight and head south to the jungles near Phuket (near the Malay border).
The biggest (pun intended) difference in fish keeping that I noticed right away here and there is the Thai fishkeepers fancy for very large fish. Although there are many, many small species, immense species have a much larger market there than they do here. Among the indigenous giants were the Catfish of the genus Pangassius; Eels of the genus Mastacembelus; Knife fishes of the genus Notopterus, a few Snakeheads (Channa sp.) and the Giant Gourami (Osphronemus gorami)
Foreign giants included Plecos, huge Catfish of the genera Platystoma, Pseudoplatystoma and the Red-tail Catfish (Phractocephalus hemioliopterus), all sorts of Arowana (I will elaborate on this later) Peacock bass (Cichla ocellaris); all sorts of giant Pacus and most unbelievable of all was the bigger-than-the-owner Pirarucu, (Arapima gigas). Pirarucu can get twice the size of a human!
The love of large fish is not just a Thai Phenomena, but one shared by fishkeepers in most of the Orient. I have a theory about this and it is called Vinny's Arowana Theory...YOU MEAN YOU HAVEN'T HEARD OF IT?? Well, now you will. You see, the Thai and especially the Chinese believe that Arowana are a little sacred (actually more than a little). Many of them believe that keeping Arowana will bring good luck and fortune. This is a wide-spread belief and you will see Arowana being kept almost everywhere - in hotel lobbies, banks and restaurants. Even gangsters and drug dealers are fond of them. (I read this in the Bangkok Post, so don't ask me how I know that drug dealers have Arowanas in their outposts). I went to a hotel which had a dozen 300 gallon tanks in its lobby with Arowanas in all of them!! One of these tanks had a few 40" long Fire eels too!
So, what do you think one pays for Arowanas in the Orient? LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of money. All Arowanas don't cost the same. You can buy two species, Osteoglossum sp. from the Amazon and the Asian Scleropages formosus. The Amazonian species are usually the same price as the White and Green Asian variety that is about $250 - $1500 depending on the size. The Golden variety is about twice as expensive. The most expensive color morph is the Red Arowana which costs a whopping $6000! Of course, if you can come up with a Xanthic form of either species, you will be very rich and will probably need guard dogs posted around your tank! Most Thai and Asian aquarium magazines look like that cover of National Babbler sold at our grocery check-out counters. Almost all the issues of these magazines have Arowana on the cover or carry an article about them. Discus and Goldfish are also given excess coverage.
So, back to the Vinny's Arowana Theory. What do you do if you are not rich and want an Arowana to make you rich? Catch-22. So,the solution is to go and buy a fish that looks a little like an Arowana - a Pirarucu! Simple isn't it? What if you cant afford a Pirarucu? Go out and buy SOMETHING big. But then, I have a feeling that many Thais can afford both Arowanas and Pirarucus because half the cars on the streets are BMW's! So, that is my theory!
Here are a few odds and ends about the hobby in Thailand. Yes, folks they have the painted Glassfish too, actually I have a feeling that some Thai started painting these poor fish in the first place. They also have a few plastic (bite my tongue) plants and even fluorescent gravel and violet-colored tankhoods. But the nice thing is that most of the tanks I saw were natural looking. Thank God! Choice of fish in general was excellent in almost all the pet stores I went to. They had some South American Cichlids Geophagus sp.and some Australian Rainbow that I have only seen books. Their prices were also a lot lower than here. Here are some teasers: full-grown Orange Chromides, Pseudotropheus sp., Red Rainbow (Glossolepis incisus), Scats, Clown Knife, Glassfish, Amazon Sword plants, Rasbora, Brichardi (Neolamprologus elongatus), Angelfish, Tinfoil barbs, Haplochromis venstus, Cichlasoma synspilum and Haplochromis moori all for LESS THAN A DOLLAR EACH! The Rasbora was only 20 cents each .
Bangkok does have an Aquarium society, but none of the members spoke English, so that was the end of that. They are however, involved in maintaining an excellent display of all the native fish of Thailand in a Public Aquarium in the Fisheries Dept. of Bangkok Kasetsart University. This is a great place to learn about these fishes because they are maintained very well and are kept in beautiful tanks. I was strolling through their hallways and I noticed I was the only one there. Soon, I was asked to leave for no reason! I couldn't protest because I couldn't speak their language and I didn't feel like getting into an argument in a foreign land. After I was whisked out, I noticed a bunch of black limos outside the Fisheries Dept. I later found out that the Prince Ayanomiya Fumihito of Japan had come to the department to study the freshwater fishes of Thailand! I got a glimpse of him a few minutes after that. It was in the papers the next day.
The only thing I did close to collecting was when I was a few miles outside Bangkok and snooping around the streams and pools. The fish that seemed ubiquitous was the Wrestling Halfbeaks (Dermogenys pusilis). They skimmed right under the surface of the water waiting for something edible to fall in. There are reports of this fish being found in brackish water only, but I saw them in very soft waters. I also saw a few Red-tailed sharks near the bottom. Besides this, most of the other species were of the genus Puntius. I only saw a Pangassius catfish once.
The local market's fish section (which consisted of pretty much the whole market) had LOTS of Snakeheads, Pangassius Catfish and Eels. And for you killie nuts, how do you like the idea of a dried, salted and spicy Aplocheilus panchax? The perfect snack. They are crunchy and go very well with burgers and coke. Now you know what to do with your culls.
- Collecting Article Index
- Collecting in India
- Collecting in Nigeria
- Collecting in Brazilian Amazon
- Collecting in Peruvian Amazon
- The Hobby in Thailand
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