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| Betta Fish |
Betta fish is a freshwater fish found in Thailand,Cambodia and Malaysia. It's commonly known as fighting fish(
Fighters). There are two types in this fish based on their spawning behavior,
- Betta splendens - builds bubble nests.
- Betta picta - mouthbrooders.
These fish should not be placed with other fishes because they wont allow the other fishes to live.So these fishes need to be kept in separate fish bowl or small tank.
Fighters have a special organ known as
labyrinth. This organ helps the fish to breathe air at water surface(directly takes oxygen from air). It can breathe in water with help of gills and in air with help of labyrinth. Presence of this labyrinth organ makes the fighters to live in low oxygen water and it can also survive outside the water for short period of time.Fighters will be around 3 inches long and will survive 2-4 years.Lets see how B.splendens spawns
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| 1.Male and Female fighters kept separately |
1. First need to keep male and female fighters separately in a transparent fish bowl/jar/tank. Keep both the fish tank closer as they can see each other.Provide both Betta's the highest quality fish food,do not overfeed them - one or two times per day is plenty. You can feed
them tubifex worms (live wrigglers), which are excellent for them but
can be unhealthy if you give them too many.
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| 2.2 Bubble nest,after leaving female in same tank |
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| 2.1 Male and Female fighters in same tank now |
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| 2.Male fighter building bubble nest |
2.The male fighter starts building a bubble nest at the top surface of the water by seeing the female which is in another tank.
2.1 Once you find this bubble nest in a male tank you can leave the female fighter together with male.So male and female will be in same tank now.
2.2 When the male and female meet, the male will wind his body, flare his
gills, and spread his fins if he's excited. The male will begin
building a bubble nest in the first 48 hours after swimming with the
female. If he hasn't started making the bubble nest for three days,
separate the male and female(Provide food) and try once again.
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| 3.Male embracing his entire body around the female |
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| Embrace |
3.The actual Betta fish
breeding will look like the male embracing his entire body around the
female (called the embrace). Each embrace will result in ten to forty
eggs until the female is out of eggs.After this process, catch the female fighter and put it in separate tank.
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| 4.Eggs kept in Bubble nest |
4.The male will catch all the eggs one by one and keep them each in each bubble.In 24 hours the eggs will be hatched and the fish kids(called fries) will start to fall down from the bubble nest then the male will catch these kids in his mouth and keep them again in bubble nest.Allow this process for 24 hours to 72 hours (based on the friendliness of the male betta with their kids) then catch the male fighter without disturbing the bubble nest and put it another fish tank.
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| Golden Fish |
