Betta persephone)
The Betta persephone naturally inhabits peat bogs and forest channels located in Malaysia, Southeast Asia. The fish gets its name from the Greek goddess Persephone, daughter of Demeter and Zeus and queen of the Underworld, because of the dark coloring of its body. In these fish habitats overhang the surface of the water with thick branches of trees, which greatly impede the ability of sunlight to penetrate to its surface, resulting in semi-darkness at the bottom.
The water is saturated with humic acids released by decomposing organics on the bottom, giving it a brownish color.
The bottom is covered with a thick layer of fallen leaves, tree branches and underwater roots. During the dry season, Persephone's cockerels are forced to live among the wet debris for several weeks, as the pond sometimes almost dries up. Due to the difficulty of maintaining the desired water parameters in the aquarium, these fish are not recommended to keep beginners aquarists.
The Betta persephone has an elongated body colored dark, almost black. The fins and tail plumage are bluish. Males have elongated fins and brighter coloration than females. In the pre-spawning period on the body of females appear dark colored stripes. The size of fish is 3 - 3.5 cm.
Betta persephone preferably contain in a species aquarium, singly, in pairs or in a group consisting of 1 male and several females. Perhaps the content in a common aquarium in conjunction with small in size peaceful fish. In principle, you can contain in a single aquarium and several males, but in this case the aquarium should be a lot of different shelters and planted a large number of plants.
Like other species of cockerels, these fish can be kept without soil, which greatly simplifies the care of the aquarium. Tree branches and large snags can be placed at the bottom. To maximize the approximation of aquarium conditions to natural, at the bottom can be placed bedding of dried leaves of beech, oak or almond. Such leaf litter will develop colonies of microbes, which are good secondary food for the fry.
Water parameters: temperature 22-28° C, hardness dH 1-5°, acidity pH 4.0-6.0. Filtration should not be too active. Keep the aquarium tightly covered with a lid, as the fish are contraindicated to the cool air above the water surface.
In nature, the Betta persephone feeds on small insects and invertebrates. In the aquarium, fish are fed a variety of dry food, and, in order to paint the fish was more vivid, they are regularly fed live and frozen daphniya, artemia and chironomid. The food given out should be strictly dosed, not allowing overfeeding the fish, as they are prone to obesity.
Reproduction
Before the female spawns, the male builds a nest in a plastic tube located at the bottom or among the thick foliage of plants. The aquarium top should be tightly covered with a lid. Some aquarists pull a film over the top. These measures are necessary to ensure that above the surface of the water was warm moist air, without which the fry can not develop properly maze organ of breathing. Spawning usually begins in the immediate vicinity of the nest. During mating games, the male wraps his body around the female body and at this time she hatches a batch of eggs. The male immediately fertilizes the eggs, and the female catches them and carries them to the nest. These fish are not particularly prolific, the female puffs out about 20 eggs, although sometimes it happens that 50 eggs are not the limit.
Producers are left in the aquarium, they do not touch the eggs and show concern for future offspring.
Larvae hatch after 24 - 72 hours and remain in the nest for another 3 - 4 days. All this time, the fry feed on the nutrients contained in their yolk sac. Once the fry begin to swim, the producers lose interest in them, but do not touch them.
The fry are large enough and are able to feed on micro worms and artemia from the first days of life. To ensure that the fry were healthy can not overfeed them, and the aquarium 1 every 2 days to make a substitution of 1/10th of the water with fresh.
Lifespan of the Betta persephone under aquarium conditions is about 3 years.
