Thursday, January 18, 2007

Bettas

18 / 01 / 2007

Betta or Fighting fish is one of the popular freshwater fish because they are beautiful , colorful and wonderful characteristic . In Asian , bettas used in a gamble similar to cockfighting . Many people like to watch bettas fight each other but I don't like it because I think that it was savage and ruthlessly . You can see bettas in many places such as in a stream , river or swamp . Bettas can live in the place where is low oxygen because there are a special respiratory organ that make bettas can breath air directly from the surface of water .

Bettas in the nature have many colors . The original colors of bettas are red , green , brown and blue . Nowadays , the breeders could develope variety colors of bettas Known as metallic such as copper , gold and platinum . Certainly , female bettas would had pale and light color but for male bettas are colorful . Bettas can devide to many types such as Crowntail , Deltar , Dubble tail , Halfmoon , Halfmoon plakat , Veil tail plakat and wild type . Each type was different . Some type are long fin . Some type are short fin .

PH 6.5 - 7.5 and 26 - 29 degree of a temperature is suitable for bettas . Bettas can live in small place . It is a good choice for people want to rare fish but have small area . You can take them in the vase . Don't forget that can't take 2 or more male bettas in the same place because bettas are very aggressive fish . They will bite each other . But for female bettas they can live together . When bettas angry or see other bettas they will expand their gill ( opercula ) and puffing out the fin .

Bettas has average life span at least 4 years . If they live in good water condition and eat live food , maybe they can live 6 - 8 years . Bettas dislike to eat pellet food . They like to eat live food such as mosquito larva and baby earthworm .

If you want to breeding them , you should to prepare
1. one breeder pair ( you should to buy directly from farm because bettas in the farm are
healthy and high quality . You should not buy from general fish stores because maybe bettas
are dwarf and sick .
2. One medium tank about 12 inchs broad and should not over deep . You should to put water
plant into a tank also because bettas will use it to hide themself and they will feel safe and
not stress .


First of all , you must take a breeder pair into a tank and wait about 2 weeks . After that , female bettas will produce eggs . When male betta want to breed it will build a bubble nest on a water surface . When male betta build a bubble nest completely . The breeding process will start . During this time , male bettas will swim closely female and wrap himself around female . Then the eegs will come off . Male betta will keep the eegs to attach with a bubble nest . Female betta spent time about 1 - 2 hours to lay eggs . When her lay eegs finish you should to move male and female to other tank . If you don't move the eggs maybe eaten . About 2 - 3 days , the eggs will hatch You should to feed baby bettas with small live food such as plankton or egg yolk .

For people who interest in bettas , you can buy them from fish store or internet ( www. aquabid.com ) You will see the pictures and cost of bettas . If you buy bettas from internet , after you pay money completely . The sellers will pack bettas in the plastic bag and contain it into a carton and send to you by post . But I don't want to introduce you to buy them by this way because maybe bettas in the pictures might not same a real . I introduce you to buy them at the Sunday market because you can choose . The cost of bettas in this time about 5 - 10 baht for normal type . But for other types the cost are high .

I have 15 bettas in my house . I bought them from Sunday market . All of them are Halfmoon plakat type . They are very beautiful , so them cost was high since 80 - 200 baht . Every Saturday I must clean the vases and change water . Although I was tried but I feel great when I saw them .

Finish already ! Next time I will show you other fishs if you are not boring . Bye bye .

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