The Siamese Fighting Fish is able to take oxygen directly from the air through his labyrinth, so they can live comfortably in small jars. To breed them. I place a male in a small aquarium (30cm by 15cm by15cm). At 27.5 degrees Celcius, he will soon build a bubble nest by coating bubbles of air with mucous and spitting them together on the surface. The nest is often 10cm in diameter.
	The female has been conditioned in another tank. When introduced, she will display her readiness to breed within seconds. If she displays diagonal black stripes, she is ready. If she pales and tries to hide, remove her immediately for another 5 days. If she is ready, she will swim under the nest, where the male will embrace her. She will be upside down, lay a few eggs, and slowly sink towards the bottom. The male will pick up the eggs, and spit them into the nest.
	She will return, and repeat the process several times. When she has finished laying the eggs, she must be removed, or the male will kill her, as he is very defensive of the eggs. He will watch the eggs, and spit back to the nest any that may drop. The eggs hatch very quickly, about 18 hours. They have hatched so quickly, that even their mouths have not formed.
	After about 5 days, they become free swimming, and now we are at the critical stage, as they are extremely small and can only eat paramecium. I remove the male at this stage.After 14 days from laying, he loses all parental instinct, and will eat any babies. he is needed until the fry become free swimming, but after that I remove him, and 2 days later I am ready to breed him again. I alway keep more females than males, and breed the females every 3 to 4 weeks.
	The males are bred every fortnight.
	The tank must be kept shallow for the babies to develop their labrynths properly. Because the fry are so small, it can be rather difficult to raise the fish to full size. As soon as you can tell the males, they have to be put into separate jars so they wont damage each other's fins in their territorial battles.

This Australian Aquaria Webring Site  is owned by Dave Thompson

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