Sunday, June 27, 2004
One of these days I will stop adding things to this day's postings and go to bed.
My Beta is happy and his colours seem to have enhanced since I got him. I was reading up on betas today and found out that they have a general life expectancy of 3-5 years. They were originaly native to the rice paddies (sp?) in Thiland, or at the time, Siam. They have an interesting ability... They have gills, like all fish, but they don't function as efficiently as most, instead they also have the ability to breathe air! So they will come to the top and breathe air, or even jump out of the surface of the water to breathe! Weird!
I always end up with the odd fish! That ropefish I had could live out of water for a while because the waterbladders she used for movement doubled as a "holding tank" for water to "breathe" while out of water.
Also I learned that the layer of bubbles on the surface of water was created by my fish. The male creates a "nest" of bubbles in order to attract a female. The two will do a mating "dance" and then the female will spawn, he will fertalize the eggs and put them in the nest and tend to them until they hatch. This is the extent of contact between the two.
They like to have more room than those silly beta bowls you see, but they will get stressed if they are in overly large tanks, because they feel the must patrole the entire tank. They can survive high amonia levels (amonia is generated through waste, and is only controled through water changes or good filtration and microbes (naturally occuring in a well operating tank) that break down the waste into less harmful chemicles)) which is good because I'm not using a filter.
They like to have something to rest on, mine seems to do fine resting on the bottom of the tank.
They can survive about a week or so without being fed, so thats good for vacations.
Interesting little fish, eh!
Klasinc&Loncar Duo (Just trying to help it get picked up by Google spiders, I maintain it for them)