Macropod fish is an old acquaintance of aquarists, both experienced and beginners. This paradise fish - another name for the macropod - along with the goldfish were the first inhabitants of European aquariums, and although the current variety of species of aquatic inhabitants for home keeping has expanded significantly, the homeland of macropod fish is not the only place where these beauties breed and live. They have long learned to breed in captivity.
What does a macropod fish look like?
The appearance of the paradise fish is fully consistent with its name. The combination of colors and shades of this beauty is perhaps the main reason for the inexhaustible popularity of this species. The body of the macropods has an oval shape, flattened on both sides, elongated in length. The first ventral fin is elongated like a ray. The long dorsal and ventral fins are pointed, the tail is a forked, fluffy fin. In places where macropodes fish live in nature, the length reaches 11 cm in males, 8 cm in females. Aquarium specimens grow much less - about 6-8 cm.
The color is bright, with alternating transverse wide and straight stripes. Coloring: dark red stripes, turning into bright crimson, alternating with green, blue, sometimes lemon, lines. In addition to the classic color options, there are black macropods and albinos.
Now we know how macro fish look. The photo below shows how beautiful she is.
Gender difference
Macropod (fish) -male, except for its size, is distinguished by a brighter color, a lush tail with filamentous processes. The same magnificent in the male and fins: anal and dorsal. Females may look more rounded when caviar matures in their abdomen.
Living in the natural environment
The homeland of macropod fish is the Asian region. These beauties can be found in China, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Japan, Southeast Asia, and Taiwan. Some species of macropods successfully live in water bodies of the USA and Madagascar, where they were artificially introduced.
They survive in any bodies of water with stagnant water: low-water rivers, ponds, swamps, lakes, do not disdain even sewers, swim in rice fields. The special structure of internal organs allows them to survive in such difficult conditions. Nature rewarded the macropods with an evolutionary organ - the labyrinthine organ of respiration. Additional blood capillaries in the gills allow oxygen to be released from the air. This macropod feature should be taken into account when transporting fish from the place of purchase to the aquarium: a small air space should be left between the water and the lid of the dishes. Macropod is a fish that is characterized by increased survivability, being in an emergency without water (the aquarium crashed, for example). Just do not abuse it.
Lifestyle
Aquarium fish (macropods) have successfully transferred to the category of pets over 100 years ago. The first to be described was the naturalist Karl Linney in 1758. Since the mid-nineteenth century, beautiful paradise fish gradually populated almost all of the available aquariums in Europe along with the most popular goldfish. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Russian aquarists met and made friends with them.
Macropods gained authority not only for their beauty, but also for their unpretentiousness. The homeland of aquarium-type macropods has taught the Spartan lifestyle and unpretentious food.
However, with the expansion of fish species for aquarium keeping, the popularity of macro species has fallen. What is the problem? After all, and smart, and beautiful, and unpretentious? The fact is that the macropods turned out to be terrible brawlers, especially males. They fight to death among themselves and with representatives of other species. To place them in a common aquarium you need to know some tricks.
Captivity
Aquarium fish are thermophilic creatures. The homeland of guppy fish, macropods, catfish, gourami, like most other popular species, is a country with a warm climate. Despite this, a special heating for water in the aquarium macro-pod, unlike others, is not required. A single macropod or couple can live even in an ordinary three-liter jar. The chemical composition, hardness and active reaction of water are also not important. These residents of stagnant swamps do not even claim the freshness of water (an excellent pet option for lazy owners). The optimum temperature in the fish dwelling is 20 o -24 o , although it can withstand short-term extreme heating up to 38 o or cooling to 8 o . Despite the unpretentiousness, in order to have a healthy and beautiful fish of bright color, it is necessary to ensure proper care.
Aquarium equipment
Despite the fact that one or two macropods do not lay claim to extensive housing, larger fish can be grown in a larger aquarium. The most suitable volume of dishes is 10 liters, and for several fish - up to 40 liters, depending on the number of individuals. As the soil, sand, fine pebbles, gravel or expanded clay are used. It is better to lay the soil dark, with a layer of about 5 centimeters.
What else is needed in the aquarium is plants, and a lot. For planting in the soil, Wallysneria, pinnatifolia and hornwort are suitable, on the surface you can settle duckweed, nymphaeum and other similar algae. In addition to the fact that the macro-pods will feel at home, in the thicket the female will be able to hide from a too violent buddy. Various aquarium decorations also serve this purpose: broken pots, houses, driftwood, stones, grottoes. The illumination of the place where the fish are kept is needed as necessary for the growth of algae.
On top of the aquarium cover with openings for air. The fact is that too fast macropods can fly out of the water. If it is supposed to be kept in a general aquarium, when filtration is required for other fish species, then this should be arranged without a strong current.
Macropod: compatibility with other fish
The aggressiveness of the macropod forces one to be careful about the choice of its neighbors. The predator attacks not only fish of other species, but also its counterparts, and goes to calmer females and young animals. Two males can arrange fights, like two roosters. Experienced aquarium lovers know a way to tame the wild tempers of brawlers. Pisces need to be raised, but at an early age. If you run into the "society" macropods, which are no more than two months old, they grow with everyone, get used to and do not attack not only large fish, but also small ones. If you add adults to the aquarium, you need to know some rules:
- Macropods do not get along with veil-tail.
- You can not settle with goldfish, guppies, gourams, scalars, neons.
- The fish resettled for a while and returned back is perceived as a stranger and is attacked.
- The aggressor is restrained by larger and calmer fish: zebrafish, synodontis, barbs and others.
- You can’t settle two males together, for the female shelter is needed.
Nutrition
Macropod is a fish from the category of predators, therefore, in nature it prefers live food, although it also eats vegetable food. In natural reservoirs, the main food of this fish is small inhabitants, insects, which the macropod can swallow, jumping out of the water.
Macropods eat all kinds of fish food in aquariums. Most preferable for these beauties are live bloodworms, pipe makers. Frozen shrimp, black mosquito larvae, cyclops, daphnia must be thawed before feeding. Pieces of homemade minced meat are a treat for paradise fish, but such a product should be a rare treat. Dry food containing carotene improves the brightness of the colors of the fish, but you do not need to put them in the basis of the diet.
The macropod is always hungry - there is everything and a lot, it does not know the measure. To avoid gluttony, they feed a little, twice a day. In the aquarium, these orderlies prevent the excessive reproduction of worms and snails.
Captive breeding
It is not difficult to get healthy offspring of macropods in captivity if you know the features of their spawning. Ready for breeding fish at the age of 8-7 months. It is possible to determine a female ready for spawning by a rounded inflated belly. The room for the "nursery" equip like a conventional aquarium, but here aeration of water is already needed. A special labyrinth organ develops only from the second week.
A week before spawning, the couple is separated and fed plentifully. The "father" is the first to migrate to the spawning ground and in a day - the female. Despite the wild temper, macropods are very caring and economic fathers. They build a nest of air bubbles on the surface of the reservoir, under the algae, drive the female into it and help her squeeze the eggs, wrapping around. Several of these approaches, and all the eggs in the nest. After that, the “mother” should be taken away from the “maternity hospital”, as the “father” begins to drive her away, quite aggressively, and from that moment takes on all the care of the fry.
After a couple of days, larvae appear, the nest decays. Too caring father should be removed from children. The fry are fed with ciliates, Mirkorm, egg yolk. Two months later, sorted, leaving individuals with a bright color. For those who are going to seriously breed macropods, you need to know that the optimal conditions, sorting, help to get fish of bright and regular shape.
The whole spawning process, the behavior of fish during the construction of the nest, their care for the offspring is a very exciting and exciting process for observation.
The average life expectancy of a macropod in an aquarium is 8 years. The most common species in our aquariums is considered the classic macropods of a diverse palette. Black, red-backed and round-tailed species are rare guests of domestic water areas.
Classic and diverse
The classic kind of fish comes from China, which directly corresponds to the description in shape and size, has several color options. The most common: red and greenish-blue transverse stripes on a brown background, blue fins, the head and stomach are light blue. Blue macropods are no less popular - a handsome man with a purple back and head and body, the color of blue. Smooth red and orange are rare colors of the classic macropod variety. Also in aquariums you can meet the albino macropod. These specimens have a white body, pale pink fins, red eyes and faint yellow stripes on the sides.
Rare species
Distinctive features of its classic relatives are rare species of macro species, such as black, red-backed and round-tailed.
- The most peaceful of its kind is the black macropod fish (photo). The specimens of the black variety are slightly larger than the rest of the species. In nature, they live in the southern part of the Mekong. Calm macropod has the skin color of all shades of brown and gray, decorated with blue, mountain or red fins. But in a state of excitement blackens with anger in the literal sense of the word. This ability to change the color palette made him popular. It belongs to the category of rare ones, since it is rarely sold in its pure form, and in the process of selection, the purity of the color is lost.
- The red-backed macropod is also called silver: both the body and the fins of its red-silver color, and getting into certain lighting, are cast with pearl placers. The tail and fins of this dandy are edged by the former strip.
- Very rare among collectors, aquarists, round-tailed or Chinese macro-fish. The homeland of the fish is Taiwan, Korea, and the eastern part of China. The small number of aquarium individuals is explained by the features of the content. Accustomed to winter colds in natural habitats, this fish requires cooling the water space to 10-15 o , it does not breed in a warmer environment. In addition, he lives in captivity for no more than four years, and often suffers from mycobacteriosis.
Interesting about macropods
Unpretentious to external conditions and omnivorous macropods, however, is listed in the Red Book as a species requiring protection. It's all about human activities. Active development of the national economy and the development of new territories leads to the destruction of favorable places for the settlement of paradise fish.
Female spawns caviar; for her, spawning retention adversely affects health, as caviar deteriorates. For the male, frequent spawning, more than 2-3 in a row, on the contrary, leads to exhaustion, even death.
In Europe, the first paradise fish appeared in France in 1869.
Macropod - the fish is very smart, it’s nice to watch and even play.
Macropods - the first of the aquarium fish were awarded the description of the standards, and a competition was specially organized for them in Germany in 1907.
The desire to select new types of macropod color often leads to the fact that the colors turn pale and the health of the fish deteriorates.
The emblem of the Moscow Society of Aquarium Lovers depicts precisely macropods. Love him for unpretentiousness and beauty. Despite the quarrelsome nature, macropods always delight their hosts.