Goldfish Street In Hong Kong (2006-01-26)
KL and I were wandering through Mongkok and stumbled upon a section of Tung Choi Street where locals refer to as Goldfish Street. I was born and raised in Hong Kong and I had never set foot there even though in our apartment, we kept a tank of goldfish. My mom had always gotten worms and other fish food from a neighborhood store.
Goldfish Street is an absolute eye-opener! There are endless
aquarium stores in every direction you look if you stand in the hub of
the section. The stores are itty bitty and jam-packed with tanks,
tanks and more tanks. Amazingly the fish is not kept in tanks for
shoppers to pick and choose, they are in tiny bags hung on racks
outside the stores ready to go! It kind of makes sense though
because the stores are so small one can hardly squeeze inside to browse
their fish.
The variety of fish available is mind-boggling. I don't know
most of the fish names, English or Chinese. The only two I know
for sure is Neon tetras and Guppies, the rest is all just fish to
me. I know the tabby fish, the blue fish or the yellow
fish. That's the extent of my expertise on fishology! But I
do
know many of them are tropical fish because KL and I used to keep a
tank in Sydney and we would take tremendous care of our lot such as
installing a heating tube and light in the tank.
The fish we saw were all in bags, tropical or not. Why won't
they die of cold? Not that Hong Kong was cold when we were there,
about 20C (68F), but I am almost certain tropical fish need warmer
water than that to survive. Our tropical fish dropped like flies
in our tank, yet those fish in little baggies seemed to be
thriving.
While the locals were wearing parka, coats and jackets, the fish was
swimming naked!
Another remarkable fact about Goldfish Street is the unbelievable
cheap prices of the fish. We saw some good-size colorful exotic
fish for
about US$3 a pair! In Tokyo you couldn't get one single common
Guppy for that price. A bag of perhaps 20 Tetras only cost
US$1.5!! In Tokyo "low-end" tetras still run at US two bucks
EACH. There are tons of other beautiful fish that are selling at
a fraction of the cost of the same kind in Japan and the US.
I told KL if we lived in Hong Kong, I would like to keep a tank of
fish too. It is hard not to when you are presented with so many
choices at so low a price. Keeping an aquarium is too cheap a
relaxing hobby not to have in the amazing city that is Hong Kong.
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