Japanese koi are typically thought of as expensive ornamental fish rather than food, so a Malaysian woman caused quite a stir on social media when she shared pictures of her dead pet koi being turned into a soup. Amanda Omeychua first posted the photos on a Facebook group with more than 2 million members called “Masak Apa Tak Jadi Hari Ni”, which roughly translates as “Cooking Fails Of The Day”. The montage of six pictures showed almost two dozen dead fish laid out on a floor, with Omeychua explaining in a comment that they had died from a lack of oxygen after a tap was left on to refill their pond. Koi, like all pond fish, require a minimum amount of dissolved oxygen in their water to live. Rather than let the colourful koi go to waste, Omeychua said she had decided to make them into a meal using a “traditional recipe for a king”. Her pictures show the fish being measured before being cut up and turned into soup, which she said “tasted like catfish”. Since posting the pictures on Sunday, they have been shared more than 1,300 times and attracted over 4,500 comments, many of which expressed social media users’ shock at the unusual delicacy. “I wouldn’t be able to bring myself to eat my own pet,” said one, adding: “I would just bury them”. Others claimed to have had a similar dish at various restaurants across Malaysia, while a few said they were surprised to see the fish being prepared for human consumption as they thought that koi could not be eaten – though as a relative of the common carp, koi are edible. In a later comment, Omeychua apologised for upsetting anyone with the pictures of her meal, but said the fish were just too expensive to throw away. ‘Listen here, you idiot’ trends in Malaysia amid lockdown frustration Koi have been bred for their distinct colours and patterns for hundreds of years in Japan and are regarded as symbols of good fortune in many countries across Asia. The most expensive koi ever sold went for some 203 million yen (around US$1.8 million) at a Japanese auction in 2018. The buyer was reportedly a woman from Taiwan .