Recently, I've been traveling so often that my friends turned green on me.  

Little did they know most of my trips were actually kind of hasty. I only had 

chance to visit places without collecting detailed information. Often, I 

regretted for not having done things. And sometimes I was so hurried that 

I didn't even know about where my destination should be.

This time, again, I had an errand to run at Lanta Island of the coast of Krabi 

–a province on the southern coast of Thailand.  I had but 3 leisure hours to 

spend around Krabi after landed at the airport.  Well, for a fish maniac like 

me, nothing was as tempting as paying a visit to the type locality of Betta 

simplex.

For me, Betta simplex is Thailand's most beautiful mouth brooding species 

of Betta we have living in the wild.  The spot I was visiting is their Type 

Locality, a spot where the person who described this fish had taken their 

specimen to describe this species. Therefore, fish habiting in this area are 

the "original" of all Betta simplex, and deserve to be and must be conserved.

As a result, please excuse me for not revealing where exactly the spot was, 

for sometimes disclosing too much detail could bring harm upon the fish 

itself.

On my arrival at Krabi airport, though a little confused what should I do with 

such little time, I found myself a taxi to drop me off at the spot. This Type 

Locality of Betta simplex had 2 small ponds, about 50-60 meters in diameter, 

near a huge limestone rock cliff.  It was located in a small community 

accessible by laterite unpaved roads.

The ponds were like huge springs getting the water from the extensive 

under ground water system we often found in the lime stone mountain area.  

Their depths were beyond my measure. The water was as clear as a mirror, 

reflecting a color of fabulous turquoise blue.  On one side of a pond was 

where the water over flew, forming a brook running along the mountain line 

and a laterite road.  In both of the ponds and also the brook were where 

Betta simplex live.

One more special thing of these ponds is Cryptocoryne cordata, the same 

plants I found at the swamp down south, but here they grow like a carpet 

instead of sparse clusters.  The plants just grow wherever they can.  Niel 

Jacobsen, a specialist on this group of plant has also paid a visit to this 

place several months ago.  Dived into the water himself, he confirmed that 

the floor was heavily populated by this plant as far as he could see, through 

at least to the depth of 5-6 meters. But today, regretfully, they were all 

covered with dust that I couldn't appreciate the true beauty of this aquatic 

plant.

Around the ponds, there grew many clumps of Lasia spinosa.  Their shoots

are great for cooking, fresh or quick-fired.  But mature leafs are poisonous 

with Cyanogenetic glycoside if not well cooked.  Other notable perennial 

plants found at the edge of water were Saraca indica, blooming their mini 

sprays of orange-colored flowers. Some of them had spread their roots into

the clear water, helping to bar the soil into naturally artful stairs and 

providing space for Cryptocoryne cordata , Microsorium sp. and some 

stem plants to grow, look just like in a well planned aquarium.

T-barb  (Puntius lateristiga), or E-gong in local name, is a small fish (found 

in the southern part of Thailand) which belong to barb group were 

swimming in large schools. In the nature, they looked more colourful and 

saturated than those domesticated ones I had ever seen.

Small harlequins (Trigonostigma espei), the fish whose family name was 

changed from Rasbora to a new longer one which also includes the small 

and flat cousins like T. heteromorpha and T. sompongsi, were also 

swimming joyfully in this pond. Some plentiful Rasbora sumartrana were 

also mingled among them.  Large Cyclocheilichthys apogon floated 

head-down in the deeper part.  Near the surface, a lot of big Halfbeaks 

(Dermogenys pusillus) were swimming around confusingly.  Blue 

panchaxes (Aplocheilus panchax), large one with blue tail, were floating 

idly in the middle of the pond, and I couldn't resist to admire their elegance.

But the fish I really wished to see couldn't be any other kind than Betta 

simplex.  Unfortunately, this kind of fish is shy and won't show up easily.  

“Fish watchers” like me don't have such luxuriance like bird watchers or 

tree explorers. They could use binoculars to watch birds from afar and they

could see the trees closely without disturbing them, I could not.  In 

comparison, seawater explorers could dive down to watch the fish near 

the reef, we couldn't, because freshwater fish get nervous and agitated far 

more easily than seawater fish especially in the place where the water is 

muddy or where its flow so fast, it is practically impossible to dive to watch 

them.  My routine of fish observation, using small fishnet of small-sized 

seine to catch them, might disturb the nature a little.  But in my opinion, 

it is nothing in compare with polluting the water with trash or wastewater, 

or with other nature-destructive developments. During my routine, the rocks

trodden over and flipped would provide new shelters for fish or prawns, 

some freshwater plant, especially stem plants, accidentally torn by my 

fishnet would root and grow into a new clump. When I am near fragile 

plants like Cryptocoryne, I am especially careful not to disturb or damage 

them. Like today, I haven't even touched the Cryptocoryne at all.  It's a 

shame to destroy such precious plants. Few or no fish ever die from 

miniature catching instruments.  For the caught fish, when neccessary, 

I keep only a few which could be breed in captivity, or those that need 

additional behavior observation. Otherwise, I usually just take photographs 

and then set them all free to their same habitat. If these are considered a 

disturbance, it is a disturbance obliged to be done, and is a fairly 

considerate disturbance.

A local old lady looked at me, she might be wondering what a Bangkokian 

- with Scottish-patterned hat, an unraveling blue backpack, a fishnet, and 

a camera - is doing here.

"Granny, where can I find a fighting fish with bluish-black-edged tail?" I 

asked.

"There! Over there in the ditch near my house. Plenty!" she answered, 

pointing across the road. I looked into the direction; the ditch she was 

speaking of was a shallow orchard irrigation ditch with sparse clumps of 

water hyacinth and lotus.

I waded slowly along the water edge, carefully scooping up with my fishnet.

I was excited when I found a tiny Betta in my net but it turned out to be a 

baby Betta imbellis.  Despite my clumsiness, slipping and falling bottom-

first into the mud, I managed to catch another fabulous male Betta imbellis, 

a Blue panchax, and a Nandus nebulosus whose color looked wondrously 

like debris in my fishnet. There was no sign of Krabi's Betta simplex.

Granny watched me in bewilderment; why was I so eager to see this blue 

fighting fish, why a few days ago some Europeans came to catch fighting 

fish here, why last month Japaneses also came and asked for this fighting 

fish, why Thais occasionally came to catch them too? She told me people 

took back a lot of fish.  "They took so many, their clear plastic bags appear 

black!."  I sighed grievously. This Type Locality was a place unavoidably 

revealed.  Everyone comes here to catch this Krabi's Betta simplex, a 

Betta species with probably the narrowest distribution rank in the world. 

This is a public place, not a national park or conservation park.  Anyone can 

easily access and catch those fighting fish. Oh no, don't tell me I couldn't 

find them because they're all caught....all taken....all gone.  All gone!  I 

stayed there for almost an hour, trying desperately to find one, to prove that 

they're still there.  At least let me see one....one is better than none. Still, I 

couldn't see any...  I started to get disappointed and depressed.

A plump woman looked at me questioningly.

"Are you looking for bluish-tailed fighting fish? They're not here.  Go over 

there, along this road you'll find a brook on the left."  I thanked her and went 

into the direction, along the laterite road paralleled by a limestone cliff line.  

The brook she talked about looked more like a dried up ditch.  It was the 

beginning of dry season and the pond's overflowing water wasn't enough to 

reach this ditch.  However, there were still some pools of ankle-depth water.  

Eichhornia azurea scattered in the ditch.  They had air leaves that looked 

similar to water hyacinth and plain-looking yellow flowers.  Their beauty is at 

their water leaf that spreading in beautiful fan-like layers.

I stood there, stupefied by the appearance of the 'brook.' Could they really 

live in a water this shallow?  But the first scoop under Eichhornia roots 

resulted in a tiny Betta.  Afraid that this would be B. imbellis again, I look at it 

very closely and I could finally smile joyfully as the little fish was a young B. 

simplex.  I was so glad that they still survived in this area.  

I moved to the next pool, got a Betta simplex again and a bunch of tiny 

prawns in my second scoop. These tiny shrimps, also reported by David 

Armitage, Tony Pinto and Denis Young to be living with B. simplex in different 

locality, should be staple diet for them.  I took photographs of both the fish and 

the tiny shrimps, then set them back into the water.  I used my pH tester to 

find out this water had 7.4 pH and conductivity of 6.0, almost like tap water at 

my house.  No wonder Betta simplex could live well in my house and were 

not too hard to be bred. This is good for them.

At home, I managed to breed my Betta simplex to the F3 generation.  I also 

gave away many youngs pairs to my friends whom also breeding them.  

Among us Siamensis group we should have at least 400-500 B. simplex.  

So if you come to Thailand and want to get B. simplex.  Don't go catch them

in nature, contact us and we will sure be happy to provides you some young 

pairs.  We are now starting to work with IUCN to hopefully managed their 

habitat and release our captive bred offspring back to nature.   

The woman I mentioned earlier watched me, looking confused.

"You came to catch the fish but you're not taking them away?"

“No, I wouldn't take them back with me. I only wished to see how they live 

in the nature.  I wanted to take lots of pictures to show this fish to the world”.  

Before I leave, I told them, the woman and a boy nearby, to please take 

care of this blue fighting fish. Please don't let other people catch them 

away, because Krabi is the only place in the world where this fighting fish 

can be found in the nature. 

She gasped, "Oh my! I never knew they're rare fish! I've always seen this 

fish since my childhood, now even there are few left but they're still here. 

I'd been wondering why so many people come to take them....Oh, that's 

why....that's why many foreigners and Thais came to catch them so often.  

Now that I know they're rare, I'll watch over them."

“Yes, please do. I beg you.”

I also tried to think of anything else I could do to help this fish.

Oh, by the way, what do you call these reddish plants in the water?  I 

pointed at the Cryptocoryne cordata, hoping to get its local name. 

"Which one? Oh, that? We call it Pak-Lin (translate in to Tongue Vegetable). 

Some people used to buy them at 0.75 Baht each (40 Baht ~ 1 US$).  We 

picked them all and sold them all. Luckily when they stopped buying, we 

stopped picking, and they re-grew again."

I was dumfounded. My goodness...That was lucky, indeed. It's good that 

they re-grew.  "Well, we did feel a little sad when we sold them. We've seen 

this veggie since we were so young.  Yes, I think we're lucky they regrew."

It was close to the appoint time. Though, I had not had lunch yet, not a drop 

of water had entered my throat either.... I really wanted to stay longer to 

take better pictures of the fish, but I couldn't.  I bid farewell to the old lady, 

the woman, and the boy.

"Please take care of the fighting fish. Please don't let people catch them all. 

I must leave now. Sawaddee."

"Please take care of the fighting fish..."

more survey ...