Betta Fish..or the Siamese Fighting Fish
If you are new to fish keeping, the Betta fish are among the best aquatic
species that you can begin with. The Siamese fighting fish, another name for
the beta fish, are very colorful, hearty and amazing to watch. If you are
looking for a fish that requires little care, and has a great amount of
personality, this is the type of fish for you.
The Betta fish, despite having the reputation of being extremely easy to
care for, does require work on your part. While these fish evolved within
the rice paddies of Siam, they cannot comfortable survive in a cup or a vase
with a lily plant. They need room to swim and stretch their fins, and air to
breathe. Like humans, these little Siamese fighting fish breathe air through
a special organ called the labyrinth organ. Without it, they would die, as
the rice paddies of Siam have very little oxygen in the water.
In order for your beta fish to be happy, he or she needs to have regular water
changes. While they can survive in an unfiltered tank, unlike
many other species in the world, they need their water to have acceptable
rates of ammonia and nitrites within the water. Without water changes, your Betta fish would die from being burned by the unhealthy chemicals in the
water. This only truly applies if you have an unfiltered bowl, however. If
you have a tank with a real filter running in it, your beta fish will be
happy with one water change a week.
As you can tell from the name, Siamese fighting fish love to fight. On
account of this, you should not keep males together. Males, if you have
never kept Betta fish before, are the lovely fish with the long fins. These
fish love to flare at other males and strut to show who is dominant. While
strutting at their neighbor is very beautiful for us to watch, beta fish
will kill each other in captivity, as they do not have the ability to run,
as they do in nature. If you want your fish to be happy, they should be
separated. If you own several female beta fish, you will need to make
certain that you have a reasonably large tank that is
heavily planted
so
that they have plenty of room to hide from each other.
Asides this, keeping and caring for Betta fish is extremely easy, and
extremely fun. With the proper care, you will see these hearty fish live out
several years, providing you with color and feisty beauty from day to day.
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