I call it the “wonder boy” of Betta. You may say, hei…wait a minute, you call this ugly colorless fish a “wonder boy”? You are kidding! Is it because of its scarcity and hard to get? To be honest, the answer is a YES to both.
I found this betta in Mersing territories, which is dominated by monkeys! Yes, it’s a monkey town. When I stopped my car near by the road side, an alpha male jumped out of the jungle and started squealing at me, but I “squealed” back with a Parang on one hand.Anyway, to cut the long story short, Herman and I found this Betta in a fresh water swamp. This muddy swamp full of thorny creepers seems a mismatch for  Mr Betta Tomi.We found it difficult to access the place at first, but with our persistance spirit and energy, we manage to squeeze through the thick thorny jungle and started our fish hunt right way. After many scoops, I realised something stuck in my net, after a brief investigation, I told myself “emm… bloody pugnax again”, and without thinking twice, I threw it away!

A short while later, I heard Herman shouting at me saying “I caught something!” I rushed towards him and saw a big yellow betta jumping in his scoop net, I caught and put the fish into a transparent plastic bag at once and spoke to him, “you lucky bastard,( we were used to such words, being close buddies for a long time) this is definitely Betta. Tomi” recognizing the marking on it inferior gills.

B.Tomi

We continued fishing for few more hours before we decided to stop. Most of them resembled “Pugnax” but only four were confirmed Betta Tomi! Other fishes found here were Channa Gachua, Rasbora and many more. Another surprise was that we also found Cryptocoryne Nurii at the opposite side of the swamp as well.

Some reference data below:

Water parameters: PH6

Temperature: 25c

Species Group: Waseri

Status IUCN: Vulnerable (D2)

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