Betta hendra
Betta hendra, a fish named after the naturalist Hendra Tommy, who first discovered and described it.
Fish live in wetlands located on the island of Borneo, Indonesia. The places where there are clusters of these fish, littered with leaves, tree branches and snags. Due to the decomposition of organics, the water in these places is colored brownish. The depth of such ponds is quite small and varies from 5 to 50 cm. During the dry season, the reservoirs dry out a lot and the fish are forced to stay for weeks practically in puddles.
Betta hendra - a rare guest in amateur aquariums, and this is primarily due to the complexity of their content and as a consequence of the lack of availability on sale.
The coloration of Betta hendra varies from blue to dark blue. There are two elongated red spots on the gills. Adult males have more green pigmentation on their flanks and fins than females. Females are grayish with darker body stripes. The size of fish is 3-4.5 cm.
Keep the fish can be a pair in an aquarium of 40 liters. If the proposed content of several males at the same time, the size of the aquarium should be substantially larger, because they are constantly in conflict with each other and to reduce their militant temper, they need spatially scattered away from each other. The ideal - the contents of the aquarium 1 male and 2-3 females.
At the bottom of the aquarium preferably place a leaf litter made of oak or beech leaves, which as close as possible to natural conditions of fish, and in addition in this substrate will develop colonies of microbes, which are good additional food for fry. Also at the bottom to place ceramic pots and plastic tubes with a diameter allowing fish to swim freely in them.
Low lighting is preferable. When selecting plants, you need to consider this requirement and select the species that can grow in these conditions.
Water parameters: temperature 22-27° C, hardness dH 1-5°, acidity pH 4,0-6,5. Due to the fact that the cockerels Hendra live almost standing water, filtration in the aquarium should not be too powerful. The aquarium should be equipped with a lid, because the fish need warm moist air to breathe, which will then be formed above the surface of the water.
Under natural conditions, the Betta hendra feeds on small insects and invertebrates. Under aquarium conditions, the fish's menu consists of a variety of dry food, frozen and live daphnia, artemia and bloodworms. Excellent food for fish are drosophila flies and newly hatched crickets. Dispensed food should be strictly dosed, as fish are prone to obesity.
Reproduction
If the aquarium managed to organize the conditions as close to natural as possible, you can expect to spawn Betta hendra in the aquarium.
The female spawns inside a plastic tube, on the wall of a ceramic pot or among the leaves of floating plants, if such are present in the aquarium.
The aquarium should be covered with a coverslip to prevent cold air from entering the water surface - this is necessary for the normal development of the labyrinth respiratory organ in fry.
A sign that spawning will soon begin is a bright color of the male. During spawning, the male wraps his body around the female body and at this time, she hatches a batch of eggs, after fertilization which the producers put it in the nest. This process repeats until the female has spawned completely. Depending on the physical condition of the female, she will hatch from 20 to 50 eggs.
The larvae hatch after 24-72 hours and stay in the nest for the first few days feeding on their yolk sac. During this time, the male looks after them, returning those fry that left the nest. As soon as the fry begin to swim freely, the male loses interest in them. The producers do not touch the fry.
The fry are fed artemia 2-3 times a day. To prevent intestinal diseases among the young, 1/10th of the water in the aquarium should be changed daily.
The lifespan of a Betta hendra is about 3 years.
