But as one of the world’s longest COVID-19 lockdowns dragged on, the 25-year-old managed to transform what started out as a mere quarantine hobby into a thriving business.
Flores, who now has a total of 8 fighting fish, keeps his pets around his work area as they offer him “a refreshing break” from his corporate day job. “I always say this, betta keeping really helped me stay sane and keep away from any form of anxiety,” Flores said. “This pandemic has caused so much stress to so many people, so we do what we have to do to be productive and to take care of our mental health and overall well-being.”
“We became friends online and at the time I was doing pro-bono food photography services for my friends as a form of support for their businesses. Whenever Vars would see my posts online, he and his wife said they would be amazed at how I turn the food into ‘something that's very alive,” Flores recalled.
“I'm very active on social media while Vars is not and we all know given this situation, sobrang important ng online presence especially for businesses na gusto mag-thrive,” Flores reasoned. He went on: “We haven't even had a single actual handshake as a symbolic gesture of cementing any partnership.”
“We sell different types of tanks, liquids like triple black water to make the environment healthier and more favorable, food pellets and live worms that we cultured ourselves, water pumps, and other equipment that one needs in basic betta keeping,” he said.Aside from offering their clients shopping convenience, the partners emphasized they also wanted to cement the brand’s online space before more Filipinos joined the bandwagon, to help dispel the harmful myths surrounding the breed.
Although the aquatic critters are somewhat easier to maintain compared to their fluffy counterparts, animal welfare groups assert the claim they are “starter pets” is wildly exaggerated. While fish lack audible and facial expression to indicate distress several experiments suggest that not only do fish possess an anatomy that responds to pain and produce neurotransmitters such as endorphins to relieve pain -- they remember it as well.
While these traits are typically seen in warm-blooded animals, numerous accounts of fish exhibiting similar behavior have been documented over the years. Male bettas, for example, are known to build bubble nests for their young and even protect them from predators.