Interview Transcript

Interviewee: Mr Jeffrey Tay, Staff Member of Qianhu Fish Farm

1. How much did your business increase when the craze first started?

I don't have any statistics with me, but roughly.. around 100%. And if you include all the fish accessories and fish food, it should be around 200%.

2. After the craze, you must have been left with a lot of Flowerhorn. What did you do with them?

Actually, after the craze in Singapore died, it moved somewhere else, like in Taiwan and Japan. So since the local market wasn't doing well, we exported most of our fish outside. In fact, Qianhu mainly deals with export, the local market is not our major source of income.

3. Can you tell us more about the Flowerhorn's origins?

Actually, I'm not very certain of the Flowerhorn's history. If I'm not wrong, the fish originated from the Ciclid family. But it has been cross-bred here and there since. When we find the pattern or colours of another fish interesting, we simply cross-breed it with the Flowerhorn so that it can inherit these qualities. There are therefore many existing varieties of Flowerhorn. Actually, a lot of the fish are very much similar, but different breeders like to assign different "cool" Chinese names to them to attract customers.

So does the fish have a scientific name?

No. It's alot like the Discus Fish, there are many different varieties existing, and they do not share a common scientific name. Actually a lot of these fish in the ornamental fish industry are very so-called "artificial" "man-made" creatures.

4. Are you still selling Flowerhorn now?

Yes, but very few.

Roughly how many do u sell a month?

Actually I'd be laughing to myself if I even manage to sell one or two a month. In fact, we're only left with two or three pieces now. The craze already died down two years ago.

So now all you do with the Flowerhorn is export them overseas?

No. Even the overseas trade has died down quite long ago, and we do not really deal with the Flowerhorn now.

Ironically, after the craze was over, the Flowerhorn fish were eventually returned to the "drains" and waterways from whence they were rumoured to have come from.