Ferocious Minnows

Visitors to the New York Aquarium last week attempted to elbow their way past guards into the laboratories to see the Aquarium's now most famed visitor-- two-inch, red-finned, green-bodied Wat Chant Aiur Bopiter, Siamese fighting fish.

Once prominent in Bangkok's fish fighting halls. Wat Chant Aiur Bopiter was brought to the U. S. aboard the Cook's-touring S. S. Franconia, is now destined for a life of retirement in a Manhattan fish-fancier's private aquarium.

In Siam, fish-fighting occupies much the same place that cockfighting once did in the U. S. In each of Bangkok's ten halls there are several tables about which are grouped seats for spectators. When the audience is ready, two bowls, containing the contestants, are placed on the table. If the gill covers of the fish bristle to form a ruff around its head when it spies the other, a fight seems assured. A fight is guaranteed if they charge at one another and bump their noses on the intervening glass.

The betting commissioner then books bets, the limit being 100 ticals ($44). Bettors who wish to avoid the 10% house commission make side wagers, sometimes involving wives, houses, livestock.

When all bets are made, the two fish are dumped into one big bowl together. They charge furiously. First they rip off each other's ruby-red ventral fins which look like a sailboat's centreboard. Next to go is the red top fin which looks like a reversed mainsail. Frequently they bite off chunks of side meat, draw blood

The finer strains of Siamese fighting fish are products of artificial selection, bred for stamina as well as fighting prowess. With good fish a fight will last for six hours. Unpedigreed ones are exhausted in 15 minutes.

The first-rate fighters, majority of which come from the aquariums of ten well-known breeders, are all offspring of winners. After a fish has lost a battle he is bred no more but spends his declining days training small fry.

Second-rate fish, also used for training, come from the aquariums of about 1,000 amateur breeders in Siam. Trainer fish constantly have their bodies mutilated as do U. S. fisticuff trainers. Their advantage over their U. S. equivalents: they can regenerate broken parts.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.