The Splendens

If you like pets, I´m sure that you have a little passion for fishes too. You may think: “They can´t do nothing just stay in a small tank, I don´t see nothing else good just the colors and fishes shape”. Wrong.

Some fishes, better saying, most of them are very intelligent, some fishes likes to be feeded when the owner puts hands near them, also they like to follow your finger, and other things.

Particularly I enjoy Betta Splendens fish. They are very cute, smart, and it has a lot of varieties of colors. And different from some other fishes species, if you put a couple from different color together to reproduce, they can born a lot of colors varieties. But reproducing them are not so easy. Myself experience saying.

Mating begins with the male Betta building a nest of bubbles. To build this nest, the male swims to the surface, takes a gulp of air and spits out a mucus-coated air bubble. He then quickly takes another bubble of air and releases it near the first one. This process continues for hours with occasional breaks for food or to court the female. After awhile, the nest begins to take on a definate shape. However, the shape and size varies.

Once the nest is nearly complete, an extremely intense and often rough courtship begins. The male very aggressively pursues the female, attempting to entice her under the nest. In his efforts to bring her to the nest, he can be quite brutal if she doesn’t willingly respond. More often than not, by the time the first spawning embrace begins, the female’s fins are badly torn and she may even be missing some scales.

After spawning has occured, the male then guards the nest, taking care of the eggs until the young hatch 24 to 48 hours later, depending upon the temperature of the water. The young Bettas don’t begin to show very much color or fin shape until they are about three months old. At about this time, males begin to fight with one another. It is also quite easy to sex Bettas around this age, as the males are usually more brightly colored and have longer fins than the females. The fish reaches sexual maturity around five months.

One most important thing is: Never put together in same aquarium a betta male and female. They will never stay together, because most males beats up the females, thinking that is some enemy. Also another male, because males are enemies from each other, to hunt some female to reproduce. That´s why when you see a betta splenden all wide opened to another betta, it´s a fight or anger signal. That´s why they are also called The Siamese Fighting fish, because if you put two males together they will fight usually until the death. The practice of fighting these fish is a popular gambling attraction. I however view this as a waste of such a beautiful fish.

There are a lot of Betta species. All of them looks incredible, with mixing alive colors with shapness it results fantastic fishes.

In nature Bettas subsist almost exclusively on insects and insect larvae. They are built with an upturned mouth that is well suited to snatching any hapless insect that might fall into the water. Internally their digestive system is geared for meat, having a much shorter alimentary track than vegetarian fish. For this reason, live foods are the ideal diet for the betta, however they will adapt to eating flake foods and frozen and freeze dried foods.

Being tropical fish, bettas like to be kept at temperatures of 70-80*F. Preferably 75*. That is why tanks of 2+ gallons are ideal for bettas, because they can have heaters. Tanks below 5 gallons should have a mini heater (anything below 25 watts, 7.5 watt heaters )and tanks 5 gallons and above get 5 watts per gallon for heaters (i.e. 5 gal=25 watt heater, 10 gal=50 watt heater).

Filters can also be added to these larger homes. However, bettas do not like strong currents so they must have it on a gentle flow and the tank must be large enough for a place for them to escape movement in the water. Make sure to get a size appropriate filter for your bettas tank. Bowls cannot have heaters nor

I advise you before buying one of those fantastic fishes: Never left this fish in a small vase, cup, tank, because fishes loves big space, just because he doesn´t need the oxigen all day long it doesn´t mean that you gotta do that! It´s a fish torture!!!

Bettas should be kept in bowls no smaller than a 1/2 gallon. Anything less than that is not acceptable, unless you take extra precautions for their health. These bowls should be cleaned out completely once a week, and twice a week if it is 1/2 gallon. These tanks really should be considered temporary housing. The bigger the better, as in a larger tank of 2-5 gallons you can add other necessities for them to thrive like filters and heaters. Think long and hard before you buy a permanent home for your betta. Most people say that 2.5 gallons should be the absolute minimum, as bettas can grow to be 5” long!

Most Common Question: Why can they live in those tiny cups then? I thought they are happier in small spaces.

Bettas are labyrinth fish, which allows them to breath atmospheric air. The labyrinth acts as a lung. This is why they can survive in small volumes of water, because they only need to be wet in order to live, assuming they have a place to breath air from the surface. So make sure that they have a place to get air from in their bowl (betta vases usually block off air because they have an air tight lid on top of the bowl). They are not happy in small amounts of water, however; there is a big difference between survival and thriving. Bettas usually get the shaft in pet stores because of their unique ability to survive without air pumps.

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Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• Siamese Fishing fish
• Betta Fish Experts
• General Facts and Information

~ by trilochankaur on December 27, 2006.