Visarute Angkatavanich is a Bangkok-based Thai photographer known for portraits of Siamese fighting fish, also called bettas, that look more like silk, flowers or ink swirling in water than like aquarium pets. Photographed alone against plain black, white or grey backgrounds, each fish becomes a study in colour and movement. His series Betta Paradiso made him one of the best-known fish photographers online, and in 2018 it was shown in Singapore in his first solo exhibition there, Beauty of Betta.
Below you will find how he makes these pictures, the long history of the fish themselves, a caption for every image in the gallery, and a few honest notes on what the photos do not show about keeping bettas.
The photographer behind Betta Paradiso
Angkatavanich works as a commercial photographer, and fish began as a personal project. In a 2018 interview he explained that his parents gave him fish as a child because the family could not keep cats or dogs, and that his love of aquariums, scuba diving and market fish stayed with him. By 2018 he had been photographing bettas for around seven years.
His method is patient rather than high-tech. He shoots with a professional digital camera into a clean glass tank filled with carefully filtered water, so that no floating particles spoil the plain background. Then he waits for the fish to strike a good pose. He has said that one image can take four to five hours, and that he talks and even plays music to his subjects. His fish come from Thai pet shops and breeders; he looks less for show-winning specimens than for fish with striking fins and plenty of energy, and he aims for abstract images that leave room for the viewer's imagination.
The 2018 exhibition ran at the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall in Singapore until September 23, 2018, and the series was also offered as a book through the Pixniq website. Both are historical references; check current availability with the photographer. The exhibition listing is archived on the memorial hall's site.
A thousand years of breeding
The fish in these photos are the result of centuries of human selection. Wild Betta splendens live in shallow, still waters such as rice paddies, marshes and slow streams of mainland Southeast Asia, especially central Thailand. They are short-finned and mostly dull green, brown or grey, showing strong colour mainly when excited.
Genetic studies suggest the species was domesticated at least 1,000 years ago, and that fish fighting, a gambling sport similar to cockfighting, dates back to around the 13th century. In Thai the fish is called pla kat, "biting fish". In the 19th century, the king of Siam regulated and taxed the fights, and in 1840 he gave some fish to a Danish physician, Theodore Cantor, which helped bring them to European attention. Breeding for beauty rather than fighting took off in the early 20th century, producing the long, flowing tails and rainbow colours seen here. Thailand named the Siamese fighting fish its national aquatic animal in 2019 and remains the world's leading breeder and exporter.
The gallery: fins, colour and movement
A dark blue fish with smoky grey fins twists across a grey background. Its body scales are clearly visible, while the fins blur into fabric-like folds.
Red, magenta and violet fins flare in all directions against white. This kind of explosive pose is the moment the photographer waits for, when the fish turns and spreads every fin at once.
A pearly white betta seen from the side, its tail opened into a near half circle. Breeders call fish with a tail that spreads to about 180 degrees "halfmoons", one of the most prized show forms.
On black, a fish with metallic blue-green body and red-edged fins catches the light. Iridescent colours like these come from reflective cells in the skin, and they shift depending on the angle of the light.
A red and blue fish arches against a bright background. Mixed colours like this are common in modern breeding lines, which combine red, blue and other pigments in one animal.
One of the most dramatic images in the series: a copper-orange fish rising over a splash at the water's surface, its fins spread like flames. It is a reminder that bettas regularly come up to the surface to breathe air.
A silvery fish in what looks almost like black and white. Without strong colour, the eye goes to the fine rays in each fin, which look like the veins of a leaf.
A deep blue betta drifts down a pale background with its fins folded like a cloak. Shots like this show how much the fins change shape from one second to the next.
A solid red fish curls across a black frame. Pure red bettas are among the most popular colours in the hobby, and on black the colour looks almost like paint dropped into water.
A white, almost translucent fish on black, its fins fanned out wide. The long, feathery edges show why viewers often compare these pictures to dancers' costumes.
Several pale fish appear together in one frame. Arranged this way, the image reads as a bouquet rather than a group of animals.
Two navy-blue bettas face each other with fins hanging like heavy velvet. In real life, two males sharing a tank would likely fight, so a pairing like this is probably a carefully managed shot or a composite.
A golden-yellow fish on black, with ragged, ruffled fins. The colour is closer to mustard than bright yellow, and on black it glows like old brass.
Seen from above, a white fish swims away from the camera with its tail spread into a pleated fan. The view shows how large the fins are compared with the slim body.
A close-up pairing of a yellow fish and a pink-and-red fish fills the frame. Here the details of scales, eyes and fin rays are as important as the overall shape.
A large pale fish with a wide tail swims above a smaller, shorter-finned one. The size and fin difference hints at how much variety exists within a single species.
A red betta on black, photographed side-on with its fins rippling behind it. The flowing lines make the image look almost like a brushstroke.
A blue fish on pure white twists into a compact spiral. White backgrounds make the colours look cooler and crisper than the same fish on black.
A white fish turns head-down, its fins rising above it like a veil. Pale fish are especially hard to photograph against light backgrounds, because their edges almost disappear.
Three silvery fish on black, each caught in a different pose. Set side by side, they look less like fish than like opening flowers.
The final image is an extreme close-up of red and translucent fins. At this distance the subject almost vanishes, leaving pure pattern: exactly the abstract effect the photographer says he is after.
(The Facebook video originally embedded here is no longer available.)
Visarute Angkatavanich: Website | Facebook | Instagram
What the photos do not show: bettas as pets
Beautiful photos have helped make bettas one of the world's most popular pet fish, often sold in tiny cups or bowls. A few facts are worth knowing before buying one:
- They need more space than a cup. Bettas can breathe air from the surface thanks to a special labyrinth organ, which is why they survive poor conditions, not why they thrive in them. A heated, filtered tank with plants and hiding places is far better.
- Males must be kept apart. Male bettas are highly territorial and will fight if housed together, often to serious injury or death. Even females can squabble in small groups.
- They eat meat. Bettas are carnivores and cannot live on plant roots or plants alone, despite the old idea of keeping them in a vase under a peace lily.
- Wild bettas are under pressure. While captive bettas are everywhere, the IUCN lists wild populations as Vulnerable, mainly because of habitat loss and pollution in central Thailand.
Why these portraits stay with you
Part of the appeal is surprise: you expect a fish and see a dancer, a bloom or a cloud of ink, and only the small eye brings you back. The other part is history. Every flowing fin in this gallery is the work of generations of Thai breeders, and Angkatavanich's patient photographs give that long collaboration between people and fish the kind of attention usually reserved for fine art.
Sources: Photos by Visarute Angkatavanich; Bakchormeeboy: Beauty of Bettas, an interview with Visarute Angkatavanich; Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall: Beauty of Betta; Wikipedia: Siamese fighting fish.
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