Life of a Fighter fish

 

Life of a Fighter fish

                                      

Life for a baby Fighter fish (Betta Splendens is the scientific name) starts from a small egg, spawned out of the female Fighter fish. The male Fighter fish first makes a bubble nest under a leaf. He spends all day making it.

 male with his bubble nest (this is actually a photo of a male with babies hanging in the bubble nest).

The next day he leads the female under his bubble nest. then he and she spawns. The male curls around the female tightly to expel her eggs out.

 

spawning

Small, white colour eggs come out. Then the male picks up the falling eggs in his mouth. Then he coats them with saliva and attaches them in the bubble nest. The female spends about 1 minute on the surface of the water, looking like she is dead. Then she starts to move. She goes to help the male pick up the eggs. But she can’t do it well. She picks up wastes with the eggs. She opens her mouth, sending the eggs to go into the nest like a clump.

 

the bettas picking eggs

The male and female spawn until the female fish does not have eggs in her belly. She is driven away by the male. Then the female has to be removed (because she can eat the eggs). The male takes care of the eggs. Catching the eggs and putting them back to the nest. He repairs the nest too. And he will stay under his nest, not even coming out to feed. After 48 hours, the eggs start to hatch. The juvenile fish falls to the ground. The male picks them. Then he hangs them on the nest. their tails hang down from the nest. Some that fall, flap their tails rapidly and hang back on the nest. The others are collected by the male.

   

male caring for the babies

The next day, the hatchlings have turned into fry. They are free swimming. The male tries to hang them again. He is kept with the fry for a week. When they grew a bit bigger, when the male fish tried to catch them, they escaped. The ones that got caught, escape when the male opens his mouth to put them in the bubble nest, which was starting to decay. After a week, the male is removed. The fry are on their own. They stayed close to the surface, but they swam in other layers too. Their tails were longer than their body.

 

the fry

They grew bigger and bigger. Then some colour appeared on their fins.

juvenile with colours in it’s fins

 

juvenile with colours in it’s fins

 

Then we put the big ones to our pond. they were not visible for some weeks. They will keep on growing. Then they start to get a bit of colour like this.

 

baby fighter fish

The baby fish grows some more. Then the juvenile fighter fish becomes like this.

young female betta fish

This is a red colour female fighter fish. She is young now. From some days her belly becomes big. She has eggs. One of this female’s brothers makes a bubble nest. He takes in some air in his mouth and places them on the nest. The male would chase the female while making the nest. the next day, they both spawn.

 

two spawning bettas

They copy the same movements their parents did. The male curls around female. Then he leaves her to float on the surface. He picks up the falling eggs.

     

male going to pick the eggs while the female floats on the surface.

The female will stay on the surface of the water for some time. Then she also swims to help the male pick the eggs.

 

female starting to swim again

The male attaches the eggs on the nest. The female opens her mouth and the eggs float to the nest. They both keep on spawning. A new life for a new set of fighter fish start.