A Brief History of Betta Siamese Fighting Fi s h Are betta fish Japanese or Chinese? Where was the first betta fish found? Where are betta fish in the wild? Keep reading this brief history of Betta Fish, Betta splendens or Siamese fighting fish . The beginning of the chain of events that brought the betta fish from rice paddies in Thailand (formally Siam) to living as your pet started almost 600 years ago. Although Americans sometimes mispronounce the name as “bay-tuh” after the second letter in the Greek alphabet, the betta fish was named after the ancient Asian Bettah warrior tribe – pronounced “bet-tah”. (Think “My fish is bettah than yours”!). In Thailand, they are called “plakat”, which means “biting fish”. People in Thailand would fight these fish and bet on which fish would come away from the winner. These fights were so popular with the people of Siam that the King of Siam decided to collect these fish. These original Siamese fighting fish did not look like the fish we see in