Psst! Wanna buy some rice paddy fish?

Last month I unfortunately (from the perspective of my attempt to cut back spending) registered an account on the Yahoo! Japan auction website.  After a month I've built up the will power not to hit the button on everything that tickles my fancy.  I've resorted to using the button instead.  After all, I just want to see what prices people are willing to pay for some of the stuff that gets flogged on the site.

One auction I didn't bid on was one for a pair of fish.  Live fish.  Specifically, rice paddy fish, which are known as "medaka".  Okay.  That took me a few seconds to get over my initial disbelief.  I checked the description of the "product" and it stated that the fish were six months-old.  I see.  So someone really was selling live fish on an auction site.

A bit more checking revealed that there is a fair amount of interest in breeding these fish.  The goal is to breed more colourful varieties.  Some breeds are in the "glowfish" branch of fish keeping.  Myself, I haven't kept fish in a home aquarium since my early university days.  So the idea of "glowfish" was a bit too newfangled for me to wrap my mind around.  I don't believe the fish actually glow in dark.  Instead, they're one of several bright neon-like colours which do not occur naturally on fish.  As a fish, it may be okay to bright coloured if you're swimming around a coral reef but probably not very advantageous in a rice paddy.

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...Yes.  For ¥2000, plus delivery charges, you too could take a chance on getting a pair of live fish delivered to your home.  I don't think you'd get any compensation if one or both were to die in transit.