Siamese Fighting Fish

The infamous Siamese fighting fish (Beta slenderness) is only aggressive towards its own kind. It conies from Thailand (formerly Siam), here it lives in small pools and ditches. Each male Beta has its own small territory, where it builds and repairs its bubble nest, defending it avidly from any other male Beta. If two males come together, they fight so viciously that if neither retreats then at least one will die. Male fighters are easy to keep in a tank, but never keep two males together. It is also unwise to keep females with males unless the intention is to breed them. Males are often overly aggressive to females that do not wish to spawn.

To breed Siamese fighting fish, set up a tank with a low water level -about I5cm(6in) - and no filtration to cause movement at the water surface. Add some hiding places for the female and a tightly fitting lid to trap a layer of warm air. Place the male and female in the tank with divider between them and feed them heavily with live food. Raise the temperature to 28°C (83°F). The male will build a nest of bubbles in one of the top corners and then go in search of the female. At this point, carefully lift the divider and, if all goes well, the female will be enticed under the nest, where the fish embrace, with the male wrapped around the female. She then expels her eggs and the male fertilizes them. As they fall to the bottom, the male catches them in his mouth and place them within the bubble nest. The female lies motionlessly on her side under the nest, and the sequence is repeated until all the eggs are laid .Remove the female at this stage. The male tends the nest, and the fry hatch out after about two days. Remove the male three days later. The free-swimming fry need microscopic live food, such as infuser, to begin with, graduating to newly hatched brine shrimp. After another week, the labyrinth gland starts to develop and there may be many losses at this point. After a further two weeks, the males start bickering, and you can safely separate them into their own little jars.

Siamese fighting fish (Beta slenderness) come in rancorous: green, blue, red, purple and albino. All these and the extremely long fins have been developed in the aquarium from the basic wild form. Females are far less colorful and lack the enormous fins. Fighters like warm water conditions at about 25°C (77°F), but are not very fussy about other water requirements, provided the tank is kept clean. These fish really enjoy live foods, but can he persuade to eat dried and flake foods, although they never look their best with outlive food. Fighters live happily with most other tank occupants, but avoid putting them with fishes that like to nip long fins, such as tiger barbs.