Common Name: Siamese Fighting Fish

Scientific Name: Betta Splendens

Family: Belontiidae

Origin: Streams and stationary waters of Thailand

Habitat: Slow moving Streams and stationary waters.

Diet: Omnivorous, they will accept most aquarium foods. But try to vary their diet like you would any other fish.

General Information: As it's name suggests, the male fish can be extremely pugnacious, but only towards males of the same species. In the far east they have been regarded in much the same way as fighting cocks, but the sport is now banned.

In the wild, Siamese fighting fish are normally a very drab, dark green, but selective breeding can achieve a wide range of colours (reds, greens, blues and even pinks!). The female is the smaller of the two , with short fins and a much drabber coloration. It is advisable toplace four or five females in an aquarium with one male so that he can devide his attention between them.

Siamese fighting fish are bubble nest breeders. When placed in a breeding tank, the male will build a floating bubble nest by coating air bubbles with saliva and then spitting them out. He will continue to do this for quite some time, normally untill the nest measures several inches across and is up to 2.5cm (1.in) thick. When it is complete, the male courts the female untill she is drawn under the nest, where he wraps his body quite tightly around hers to expel the eggs, which he then fertilises. The female then sinks to the bottom of the aquarium in a semi conscious state, while the male collects all the eggs in his mouth and injects them into the bubble nest, by which time the female is ready for the second embrace. Once the female is empty of eggs, she is driven away. At this point remove the female and place her in a small tank to recuperate from her exurtions.

The male will continue to gaurd the nest and collect any eggs in his mouth that fall out and put them back in again. After 36 to 48 hours, the fry start hatching, and there are generally about 200 to 500 youngsters. As they hatch they fall to the bottom of the aquarium and the male continually picks them up and puts them back into the nest so that their tales hang out. Once the fry are free swimming, the male is unable to care for them all, so it is adviseable to return him to the community aquarium.

The fry have to be fed very fine foods such as infusoria or microsorium, for the first five to seven days then progresively larger foods.