A few weeks ago, Warren and I went to the Pet Market near Dongdaemun, which is a big shopping area for bulk items (aka cheap) in Seoul.
Warren was interested in possibly buying some fish and had heard about the market. It was quite interesting but also mildly horrifying. As an example, was the pheasant for sale as a pet or as a food? also, the conditions of the animals wasn't exactly pristine.
I will let you be the judge of that. Despite the horrors and occasionally bad living conditions for the animals, the fish were awesome.
They had brightly colored fish.
Less brightly colored fish.
They had the fattest, roundest, floatiest goldfish I have ever seen.
I mean look at their little faces!
They're so adorable!
They had these strange catfish fish.
They had clown fish.
They had small turtles.
Ducks in dirty cages.
An enormous amount of dwarf hamsters with a giant piece of lettuce.
More ducks.
Small chickens huddling for warmth under one small light.
They had chipmunks.
In a pet market.
Who would have a chipmunk as a pet?
Lots of birds.
Including this very smart looking bird. He's clearly giving me the eye.
Even smaller turtles.
Very blue birds.
Very yellow and green birds. And 2 random white birds.
Even smaller turtles.
Slightly larger turtles.
And slightly larger than the previous turtles.
Crayfish and rubber frogs.
"Wait, are those moving...? They're alive! Why are they Pink!? Yellow!? Green!?"
Yes, those frogs were alive. Apparently, they are injected with some sort of dye during development? Who knows. But they were freaky.
A chinchilla.
Rabbits.
Hedgehogs.
Even more chipmunks.
Very large hermit crabs.
A singular larger turtle.
A bearded dragon.
More hamsters.
More weirdo frogs.
Very small sturgeon.
Even more adorable, fat goldfish.
I mean look at their faces!
Look at how adorable he is.
They had this guy.
Very small pufferfish.
Some yellow fish.
These are the fish that died a horrible death the day I came home from college, leading to Adrienne calling me "Medusa for fish."
They had this very happy catfish. Or not a catfish. Whatever other fish that has those whisker sensors.
A pheasant.
Kittens under birds and next to the pheasant.
Owl chickens? What is that!?
This gigantic bird.
Adult chickens.
I will point out now that the pet market was not just one shop, but many in a large collection of shops.
The variety of fish was quite cool. And the fish seemed to be better taken of.
I believe this was lizard food. That was just sitting in the shop. With no lid. And they were alive.
Here's one giant turtle.
These lizards have awesome tails.
These goldfish are ugly.
These fish are awesome.
One of the many fish shops.
Neon tetras!
These look like small sharks, even though they are not.
This guy looked like he had an attitude.
He was alarming.
His eyes were more alarming.
Suctioning to the wall. No big deal.
Some ray or another.
"What are you doing?"--Asked skeptically.
"No, really. What you looking at?"
Lots of small pufferfish!
And a final group of adorable goldfish.
And last but not least, these beautiful fish.
