A characteristic shared by almost all labyrinth fish is interesting, but not always enjoyable: females gather eggs on a regular basis. If spawning does not take place, the eggs develop into a cyst that is unlikely to be removed, and the female perishes. Until the cyst goes away, you can attempt a long fast. However, this typically aids in the early stages of cyst development. You can attempt to express the eggs if the fish has gathered them and there isn’t a chance for it to spawn. However, this is generally more difficult and carries a risk of harm to the female.
Thus, a long absence of spawning is more detrimental to the female than to the male. And for the health of the female, she needs to be spawned periodically. It is also useful for males to spawn from time to time and get rid of sexual products. If you keep cockerels and do not intend to breed them, then you will still have to either periodically remove them for spawning, or create conditions for spawning in the aquarium where they constantly live. It is not necessary to grow fry, you can simply release them into an old aquarium overgrown with plants, where there is always infusoria, and some of the fry have a chance to grow to adulthood. The exact intervals of preventive spawning cannot be determined. This depends on many factors. First of all, on the female herself: some gain eggs faster, some more slowly, and some do not gain eggs at all or know how to get rid of them on their own. In addition to the individual characteristics of the female, factors such as feeding the fish and caring for them also play a role. In general, spawning should be done when the female has a clearly visible "belly", noticeable even before feeding. The minimum interval between spawning for a female with abundant feeding can be considered a period of 2 weeks. For the male, these boundaries are more blurred, but he should not spawn more often than once every two weeks, so as not to exhaust the male.
Usually, the owner of a pair of cockerels gets the idea to raise fry after observing their frequently spawning pets. The aquarium where you will raise the fry and the food for them need to be taken care of first. Feeding live food to fry is preferable because it is easier to breed.
After taking care of its breeding when you moved the pair for spawning, you should now begin feeding with infusoria. It’s best to use a jar for this, ideally two liters, and fill it with water using the aquarium siphon. Include a 1 × 1 cm piece of dry banana peel and a teaspoon of milk. After a few days, the cloudy water will become clearer and "clouds" of infusoria will appear. These can and should be collected using a hose and fed to the fry.
It is better to take a spawning tank about 15 liters in size. For spawning, you can pour it to a height of 10 cm of water, put a shelter for the female. I usually use a ceramic snag with several holes, a bunch of plants such as hornwort for the same purposes, and to make it easier for the male cockerel to build a nest – pistia or water lily. The equipment you need is a heater (it needs to be set to a temperature of 25-26° C) and a lid so that the fish don’t jump out. After that, we put a pair of cockerels in for spawning. But… Before such an important event, you need to select a pair. It’s one thing if you only have one pair — then you should only make sure that the female has eggs. But if you breed cockerels and would like to try breeding them, then you need to select pairs.
Bettas differ in the shape of their fins (veil, crown-tailed, double-tailed, short-tailed, crescent-tailed, pink-tailed) and in color (it can be absolutely anything: from white to black, single-colored, two-colored, multi-colored…). And all this splendor belongs to one species of cockerels — Betta splendens. There may also be a different combination of fin shapes in one species of fish — for example, halfmoon and crown-tailed can be short-finned or long-finned. But it cannot be a short-tailed or crown-tailed veil. It is logical that in order to maintain a good shape, pairs of cockerels of the same shape should be selected: a pair of short-tailed, a pair of veil-tailed… Crossing any long-finned form (veil, crown) with a short-tailed cockerel will significantly deteriorate the quality of the fins, which will not be as long and lush. Crossing a crown-tailed cockerel with any other will deteriorate the quality of the crown – it will be meek. Crossing two double-tailed cockerels is generally undesirable: the offspring may produce many individuals with a deformed spine. You should not use producers with the same defects in breeding. For example, uneven scales, short bodies, short crowns, uneven ends of fins. Pairs are also selected by color. The most valued cockerels are those of a single color, without the slightest admixture of another color. Of the colors of cockerels, red dominates, blue, green, copper are also strong. That is, it is better to achieve a single-colored pair and single-colored offspring, obtaining as a result of the work a pure line: a certain shape of fins and color, stably passing on their qualities by inheritance.
Sometimes, there is no way to choose a good one a couple, for example, often only male short-tailed or crown-tailed cockerels are available for sale. In this case, they can be spawned with a normal veil female, preferably with a color close to the male"s color. In the first generation, the fish will not have a very good shape and color. From them, the females that are most suitable in color and shape are selected and spawn with the father. This is the so-called backcrossing. If this is not possible, then F2 crossing is done: the most outstanding brother and sister are crossed. In both cases, the offspring will have fish with a good tail shape and color. Further crossings are carried out according to the same scheme, choosing the most “correct” individuals.
In addition to color and shape, healthy fish that are appropriate for one another in age—that is, not younger than 4-5 months, but not old—are also essential for spawning. Older fish frequently are unable to fully spawn and care for their offspring.
It is better to prepare a couple selected for breeding for spawning: hold separately for a week or two and abundantly feed with live feeds. The male is first planted in the spawning ground. As a rule, he immediately builds a nest. Then they plant a female to him. You can immediately plant a couple of fish. If the male does not build a nest or does not pay attention to the female, to stimulate spawning, you can apply the almond sheet (simply add it to the water), softening water (half of the volume of water in the spawning ground), peat (it is advisable to soak it in a separate container and when it is when it is It is saturated with water, put in the spawning and water, and the water in which he is wet), you can add Torumin to the water. Of course, all these funds should not be used together.
But … water softening can be combined with some other way. If in the spawning ground room temperature (and often cockerels spawn with it), then to stimulate spawning can be increased by 2-3 ° C. If the cockerels do not spawn immediately, you can keep them in the spawning tank for several days. It should be remembered that you should not feed the fish, as this greatly pollutes the water in the spawning tank. But… after a few days, the cockerels still have not spawned. Then they need to be separated and prepared for spawning again. True, cockerels usually spawn without problems. By the evening of the day when the fish are placed for spawning, the cockerel has a ready nest, and a day later there are eggs in it.
It is interesting to watch the spawning process itself. The male "hugs" the female and "squeezes" the eggs out of her, simultaneously releasing milt and fertilizing the eggs. Then he releases the female, and she, being completely relaxed, sits on the bottom, while her color fades. The male, on the contrary, is colored very brightly. The cockerel"s eggs are sinking, white. The male collects them and places them in the nest. Then everything is repeated: "hugs", "squeezing", fertilization, collecting eggs. Spawning usually ends when the female has no eggs left. But sometimes the male does not "squeeze out" all the eggs, and the female has to spawn again. The signal that spawning is over is that the cock flutters around the nest, adjusting the eggs in it, and the female sits in a shelter. If the female is not removed in time, the aggressive male can "beat" her to death, since she poses a threat to the eggs (simply, she can eat them). Therefore, the female must be removed after spawning. Although it happens (though rarely) that the female not only does not try to eat the eggs, but even helps to look after them.
After that, the male tends to the eggs; at this point, it’s important to avoid interfering with him and to avoid giving him food.
Not even leaving the light on at night is necessary. The larvae will hatch in a day or two, swim horizontally, and eventually dissolve their yolk sac.
You can now take out the male and begin giving the fry infusoria to eat. If there are no infusoria, you can try feeding dry food like Sera micron. Just dissolve a small amount of the food in water feed beforehand and feed the fry this suspension. Since the babies’ labyrinth apparatus has not yet developed, a compressor sprayer ought to be added to the aquarium. You can add multiple snails (coils or ampullaria) to the spawning tank to consume extra food. Reduce the aquarium’s temperature gradually over a few days to room temperature.
But… If you feed the fry dry food, 80% of the water needs to be changed daily, if you feed live food, you do not need to change the water. In this case, the food in the spawning tank should be present all the time. 3-4 days after the start of feeding, you can transfer the fry from infusoria to brine shrimp. It is hatched from eggs that are sold in pet stores. Pour water into a 2-liter bottle, add 1.5 teaspoons of regular salt and 1.5 teaspoons of brine shrimp eggs, turn on strong aeration. After a day, turn off the aeration, empty shells accumulate at the top, and brine shrimp nauplii scurry at the bottom. They are sucked out with a thin hose and fed to the fry. Better place 2 vessels with a difference of a day so that the crustaceans are available constantly. Usually, two meals a day is enough for the fry.
A chopped tube can be added to the diet after a week or two, along with the decapsulated Artemia, micropoplankton, and microchers. Dry feed of the Sera Micropan variety is an option. The water level can be gradually raised as soon as the fry start to consume Artemia. After that, 50% of the water is changed every day to the water that is defended.
Sorting the fry is necessary if you want to grow more of them, as the older ones will eat the younger ones. Оогда самцы начнут между собой драться, их рассаживают по отдельным стаканчикам, кормить их лучше живым кормом, или зерез день. Usually developed their color by three months, cockers start attempting to construct nests and can spawn between four and five months of age.
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