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The first mention of the males (Betta splendens Regan, 1909) belongs to Theodor Kantor and dates back to 1849. Fishes did not differ great beauty, but quickly settled in the aquariums of amateurs, were multiplied in large numbers and would soon surely have become banal, or even completely gone, but ...
But this did not happen. High color variability of the males aroused great interest among the aquarists-breeders, who seriously took this fish "in turn": changed the shape of the hull, lengthened the fins, revealed and emphasized the most attractive shades of color.
It is said that if a modern aquarist shows "raw material" - those wild males that were once caught in small, shallow, heavily overgrown waters of East Asia, he most likely would not have recognized them.
But the change in shape and coloring did not affect the character of the males in any way - the males of the Siamese fighting fish remained pugnacious tournament fighters.
And fighter battles are uncompromising. At first everything looks quite innocent. Pisces converge and begin to make various pirouettes, straightening fins and almost perpendicularly protruding the gill covers. At this stage, look at the males is a pleasure. But then the most common scuffle begins: opponents brutally beat each other with their snouts, tear off fin rays, shoot down scales. Sometimes, clutching their mouths, the fish enter the clinch. At the same time, they freeze and are turned upside down by the abdomen. The winner is the fighter who has more air.
Fortunately, males' intolerance has, as a rule, a "narrow-departmental" character: in relation to other fish, males behave quite loyal. This is probably due not to their peace, but to a noticeable lethargy in their movements: they simply can not cause significant harm to a more or less mobile fish.
It is impossible to describe the color of the males - the number of variations practically does not lend themselves to account. But one thing can be said with certainty: there are not many aquarium fish that can compete with cockerels in terms of saturation and variety of colors.
And yet, males can hardly be recommended as the ideal inhabitants of a large ornamental aquarium. Despite the bright colors, they are simply lost there. You will only occasionally see their solemn "going out into the light" during feeding and occasionally observe how they smooth by the serpentine movements of the hull and fins bypass the stems of plants and obstacles on the ground. The only more or less permanent entertainment for you is to watch the fish scurry along the glass of the aquarium, where, seeing their reflection, they uncontrollably seek to fight with it.
It is almost impossible to compensate for the small visibility of the males in a spacious pond by increasing their number. After the "friendly" meeting of two males instead of gorgeous smart fish, you will have a couple of ragged tired rivals, still ready to present to females what is no longer their beauty. In the case of a large difference in strength, the problem of the subsequent confrontation is solved simply by the death of the weakest.
In principle, in one large (not less than 100 liters) aquarium can live simultaneously 2 - 3 males. But it is unlikely you will enjoy: only the leader will be visible. His movements are calmly serene and graceful, he occupies the most advantageous territory, for example, near the feeder. The rest are frightenedly huddling in the corners and dense thickets, moving with constant alertness and readiness to escape from the winner at any time. True, in the presence of their less fortunate rivals, the dominant male looks more attractive, as he is forced to constantly keep himself in proper "sporting form".
If you want to have several full-fledged pairs at the same time, there is only one way out - each male must have a separate capacity. And since they do not need fish in a spacious room, even a liter jar can be used for their maintenance.
Given the stamina and stiffness of the males, as well as their "taming" (they recognize the owner, can feed themselves and even allow themselves to be ironed), these fish can be recommended to beginning aquarists.
Like all anabanthids, males have a labyrinth organ and therefore do not need oxygen-rich water. The only thing you need is cleanliness and regular feeding. So in comparison with other aquarium fish in this case, a minimum of hassle is required. There is no need for continuous aeration and filtration of water, strict control over its hydrochemical characteristics and temperature (an acceptable range of 20 to 30 degrees C, so long as there are no sharp changes), etc.
But the regular replacement of water (20 - 30 percent once a week) should still not be abandoned. You will immediately notice how much fatter your fish are after this procedure. However, do not overdo it, excessive amounts of tap water, especially when excess chlorine is used, can lead to a disastrous result.
Decoration of the aquarium with the cockerels is also not very difficult. Do not abuse hard-leaved plants and various ornaments with sharp edges. Fins of males (mostly male, especially veil forms) are fairly fragile and easily broken when hooked. True, they recover relatively quickly (millimeter 2 - 3 per week), but for some time the fish will look sloppy; Moreover, there is no guarantee that there will be no further losses in the future.
Strictly speaking, with the content of males it is generally possible to abandon the soil, rooting plants and various ornaments. In this case, the appearance of the fish is certain to remain intact, but the ornamentation of the aquarium will suffer. So think for yourself.
As for the feed, in this respect the males are not whimsical at all. The only problem is that they do not always go from one type of food to another quickly. Sometimes it takes 2 - 3 days for the fish to get hungry and agree to a "new dish". Therefore, such transitions should be carried out gradually, with the inclusion of a small amount of new feed in the traditional set.
Not bad, if, when acquiring fish, you learn from the previous owner, what he fed his pets, and try to at first do not change anything.
If we talk about the usual diet, it is the most traditional: the bloodworm, the tuber, the potted worms, crustaceans, scraped lean meat and fish, that is, live (which is preferable), frozen and dried (possible as a minor addition to the main ration).
Very fond of cockerels meat snails. To treat them with this delicacy, you need to crush the shell and remove the flesh. When using pond snails, the pulp is fed with boiling water before feeding. Cocks can also cope with the cultivated in the aquarium fizami, coils and other. According to my observations, they use two tactics of hunting: in one case, they die at the snail and, when it releases a leg, jerk it into a sharp jerk; In the second - they shoot down a snail from the substrate and straighten it with it, until it falls to the bottom.
Fish do not need a very large variety of feeds, but the appetite is excellent and ready to eat at any time of the day. Not knowing the sense of proportion, they can quickly become obese, which negatively affects their condition and the willingness to spawn. In this regard, the amount of feed should be limited. Do not feed the fish once a day and very abundantly. It is better to give food in smaller quantities, but more often - 2 - 3 times a day. At the same time, the diet can be varied by using different foods in each meal.
Cockerels are available to everyone else because they are very easy to breed. Fish early, in 3 - 4 months, become sexually mature and begin to spawn. When the contents of vapors in separate tanks no additional effort from the amateur is required. Usually, to stimulate spawning, the temperature is raised by 3 to 4 degrees C. As a rule, this is quite enough, and the male begins to build his air lock. For a better guarantee I recommend adding more and fresh water, better boiled or slightly softened.
If the fish are kept in a common aquarium, they should be planted in a small spawning ground and gradually raise the temperature to 27-30 degrees C. In principle, the males can spawn even in a liter pot, but in each individual case this issue is decided individually.
The most important factor is the relationship between male and female. If there is a "mutual understanding" between manufacturers and you do not expect any tricks, then the volume of spawning can be minimal. If the male or the female is too capricious and irritable, it is better to give the fish more space so that the female can hide from her too intrusive boyfriend (the contrast between slow, smooth movements of fish in everyday life and rapid rushes during the rut is very striking). At the same time, we must take into account that in a too large spawning males, the male will have to spend more effort on adjusting the female to the nest and, correspondingly, less will remain for the spawning itself. So the volume of the rider is a controversial issue.
It is not necessary to equip spawning with separator nets, grottoes, caves, aerators and filters. Do not need bright lights, the males do not like it. And with spawning, lighting is even harmful, since air is dried above the surface of the water, contributing to the destruction of the nest and the death of eggs. Some authors generally recommend the breeding of males in containers with opaque walls. But if there are none, do not be scared, just do not put powerful portholes above the spawning. So the choice is yours: either you have the opportunity to consider different episodes of spawning well, or give the cockerels an opportunity to spawn under favorable conditions for them.
By the way, if the air in the room is very dry or too cold, spawning is better covered with glass to keep in its internal air environment a favorable temperature and humidity microclimate. In a dry atmosphere, the foam nest is quickly destroyed and the male most of the time is engaged in its restoration.
Dense thickets of floating plants, too, do not need. The male still chooses to build a nest free space on the surface of the water, and in the nest itself uses very few plant elements. Only the presence of a current of water in the aquarium causes the male to strengthen the nest with particles of plants (the more intense the current, the more green is used).
So, the male begins to build a nest. Usually it happens either in the early morning hours, or in the evening, when the nerstovik is worth twilight. Choosing the right place, he begins to make rhythmic movements, swallowing the air from the surface of the water and releasing then in the form of bubbles with a diameter of about 1 millimeter. At the same time, the posterior part of the body remains practically motionless, and only the head moves. Turn in one direction - the air is swallowed, turning into the other - a bubble is released. One-two, one-two, one-two ... The cycle is about 2 - 3 seconds. Then, as the "foundation" of the nest expands, the male still has to move. Yes, and he now puts the bubbles not just horrible, but according to some rule of his own.
But the construction of the nest is over. However, there is no time for rest in the male: it's time to invite a female (up to this point she was at a respectful distance).
Sometimes the female immediately responds to the calls of the partner, sometimes it forces him to chase after himself for a long time. These games can last from an hour to a day. If they are not clearly aggressive, then there is nothing terrible. If the male is brought to the point that he is ready to kill the female, it is better to isolate the producers from each other (they may be at different stages of readiness to spawn or simply experience "psychological incompatibility"). The control time is 2 - 3 days. If during this time spawning did not occur, it is better to replace one of the partners, and maybe both.
With a successful course of events, the female eventually ends up under the nest and the fish begin to spawn. Coming in half a body with each other, the males bend in an arc, clasp the partner and form a not very dense ring; Then, turning over under the nest, they freeze and the female releases a portion of 5 to 10 eggs.
Sometimes one of the partners, not yet sprinkled, falls out of this ring, but remains motionless, maintaining a crooked pose. Then he straightens and steps away. After a while, everything repeats itself again.
Ejected eggs are heavier than water, but their specific gravity is not the same, so some drown faster, others slower. Some of them even manage to reach the bottom. The male slowly collects the caviar and places it in the nest. In order not to make it difficult for a male to search for eggs, do not overload the spawner with extra elements and, above all, dense thickets and close groups of large stones on the ground (it's even better to do without soil at all). This is especially important if the producers are in good shape and for one litter the female throws out a large amount of caviar. Then the male simply is not able to collect the eggs all at once, and a significant part of them is at the bottom.
As practice shows, more or less short stay of eggs outside the nest, including not the spawning day, does not cause them any visible harm. Therefore, do not try to help the male in collecting caviar, rely on his parental instinct and he will do everything himself.
In the end, in the nest can be from a few dozen to several hundred eggs, usually they are 150 - 200 pieces.
At the end of spawning, the presence of the female, apparently, begins to irritate the male: he is constantly distracted from the nest, seeking to expel the former girlfriend out of sight. Here you can and even have to help the male, setting the female in another capacity. Otherwise, either the eggs will be eaten, or the female is killed, and maybe you will lose both.
Caviar with a diameter of about a millimeter develops in the nest for a day or a little more under the watchful eye of the parent. In form it resembles a lemon. A very delicate transparent shell easily bursts. The core is a saturated milky white color. Unfertilized eggs are not covered with a fungus and do not grow turbid for several hours.
The period from the end of spawning to hatching of larvae (approximately 24 to 28 hours at a temperature of 27-28 degrees C) is relatively calm for the male. He still only needs to monitor the safety of the foamy nest. This moment is most favorable for feeding the fish (the feed should only be fresh and in small quantities).
But when the larvae start to appear from the eggs, the time is very tense again. If the hatch is amicable, it resembles a snowfall. Larvae do not stick to the surface and sink, and the male tries to quickly return them to the nest. True, with a small water level (5 - 10 centimeters), they are fairly easy to reach the water surface on their own.
Sinking or lying on the bottom of the larvae, the male takes in the mouth (one, and sometimes several) and spits out into the nest. As a rule, larvae are fixed from the first time in it (apparently, having stuck to the vesicles), but in some cases the male has to repeat his attempt repeatedly. With especially "stubborn" larvae, who do not want to stay on the surface, he acts quite original: he takes them in his mouth, swallows the air and mixes it all up. Usually such an operation brings a result, and the larvae safely enter the nest.
In rare moments of calm, the male does not sit idle. He vigilantly monitors the integrity of the nest (reconstruction and modernization of the building - the process for the cockerel is permanent, sometimes the nest grows in size during the development of eggs and larvae), and also drifts at the bottom under the nest, looking for those fugitives who were not picked up in the turmoil.
During the first day, larvae hang between air bubbles or under the nest with a more or less dense cluster, tails down. Periodically, they make clumsy attempts to leave their native penates, but this is fundamentally suppressed by a caring father.
During this period, you can gradually feed the male, but the remnants of food should be cleaned in a timely manner. It is necessary to ensure that, due to feeding, the male's interest in the offspring does not fade - it's better to leave him hungry.
After one and a half to two days, the yolk sac in the larvae dissolves and they begin to live independently. A sign of the readiness of the young to move into a new life phase is the normal - horizontal - position of the body.
Now it's time to remove the male from spawning. He has already played his role, let him restore his strength for the next spawning which can be followed in a couple of weeks (in principle, the males are ready to spawn almost constantly, but this exhausts the fish and leads to premature aging and death).
As soon as the young will pass to an active way of life, it needs food. It is best to start with infusoria, rotifers, nauplii artemia. Feed as often as possible, in small doses. Do not eat the leftovers immediately so that they do not spoil the water. This task is rather laborious, because together with the food, a part of the fry is also usually removed. Я отсасываю часть воды в широкую неглубокую миску, откуда потом ложкой или с помощью пипетки с оплавленными краями возвращаю заблудившихся мальков на прежнее место.
Присутствие грязи в нерестовике крайне нежелательно, поскольку мальки очень восприимчивы к различным недугам. А как известно, предупредить болезнь легче, чем лечить. В частности, поэтому не следует использовать в качестве стартового корма желток сваренного куриного яйца, его остатки очень быстро портят воду.
По мере роста мальков следует переводить на более питательные и крупные корма. Предпочтение отдаётся подвижным (но не слишком) организмам. Видимо, мальки любят охотиться, но быстро устают. К тому же, как и взрослые рыбы, они не отличаются большой резвостью и могут целый час оставаться почти неподвижными, шевеля лишь грудными плавниками.
Молодь, так же как и взрослые рыбы, избегает яркого света, поэтому в нерестовике надо устраивать полумрак. Уровень воды поднимают постепенно. Поскольку вода в нерестовике должна быть чистой, а эффективная фильтрация на этом этапе ещё невозможна, надо регулярно её заменять. Попутно этим достигается и аэрация воды.
Подросших мальков следует переводить в более просторный аквариум либо рассортировывать по нескольким мелким. Принцип "в тесноте, да не в обиде" в данном случае не подходит: при чрезмерно высокой плотности посадки развитие мальков резко замедляется, и если не принять мер, они навсегда останутся затянутыми.
Пока ещё можно держать их стайкой, без учёта пола. Но как только молодь начнёт "петушиться", нужна дополнительная сортировка по половому признаку.
При переводе мальков из одного аквариума в другой необходимо соблюдать два очень простых правила. Первое - вода в ёмкостях должна иметь одни и те же параметры; второе - мальков надо переносить вместе с водой, а не в сачке (особенно, если в квартире очень холодно или, наоборот, слишком тепло).
На ваше заботливое участие потомство петушков ответит быстрым ростом и развитием, а через 3 - 4 месяца - и собственным нерестом.
В принципе, петушков нельзя назвать долгожителями. В нормальных условиях они живут не более 2 - 3 лет. Встречаются, правда, и "реликты". Например, W.Maurus (1987) сообщал о нескольких девятилетних петушках-самцах, живущих в лаборатории одного из университетов США, причём рыбы сохраняли способность к воспроизводству. Но это, конечно, редкий случай. В общем же, если петушки живут у вас больше трёх лет, можете считать, что вы сделали для них всё, что могли. Большего не смогла бы и сама Природа.


В. Гариков г. Москва Аквариум № 3, 1996 г.