Mesmerising images of the glorious betta fish | The Sunday Times Magazine | The Sunday Times - The Times

With their serene hues and graceful tails, it's easy to forget that these betta fish have another name: Siamese fighting fish. Originating in Thailand, formerly Siam, they were popular among children, who would collect them from rice paddies and pitch them in battle. After people started gambling on the fights, the king levied a tax on the fish. They are now bred to accentuate tail shapes and colours. Wild bettas, meanwhile, are listed as "vulnerable" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature owing to pollution and habitat destruction.

For this project the photographer Charlie Surbey sourced fish from his local aquarium and had a tank built with partitions to keep them apart. "Without that they would fight to the death," he says. Beautiful Warriors

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