In every house where there is a child, sooner or later, talk about pets begins. The child several times a day asks his parents for a bird, a doggie, or a kitten ... He wants to look after and watch someone, feed the pet, play with him and take him for a walk, show off a new friend to his comrades. But what if the apartment is too small for the dog, dad is allergic to cat hair, and mom just can’t stand the piercing sounds made by the parrot?
Fish
Great way out - get an aquarium! Hassle with fish at least, and the whole family will get the maximum aesthetic pleasure! In addition, these vibrant tropical creatures can be admired endlessly. Such contemplation of the home underwater world calms, gives peace of mind and has a beneficial effect on the psyche.
In addition, the aquarium will bring a rich touch to the decor of the room, and your child will look after its inhabitants, thus getting used to discipline and responsibility. Moreover, the modern "house" for fish can look like anything! The aquarium can easily be chosen so that it harmoniously fits into the overall style of the nursery. Be sure to take the baby with you to the pet store, let him, as an adult, help you choose a tank of the desired shape and size, and find residents for it. In addition to fish, you can purchase leisurely snails, a variety of algae, as well as all sorts of paraphernalia - decorative castles and delicately curled shells. As for the choice of the pets themselves, it is better to start with unpretentious species of fish, such as guppies, mollies, zebrafish, barbs, neons ...
Swordsmen
For more pampered scalars, funny shrimps and slow telescopes, if you want, come back later. Explain to your child that you must first learn how to handle simpler fish. Naturally, in any case, consultation with the seller is necessary. He will make sure that in one "house" there are no predatory and peaceful fish; advise feed, soil, decorations, net; will tell you which compressors, filters and lighting are most convenient to use.
Surely in the list of inhabitants proposed by him, there will also be a swordfish fish.
These undemanding fish (most often bright red or black) with beautiful sharp tails are ideal as the first pets for your baby. Firstly, they do not need special conditions of detention, secondly, they easily get along with other species of fish, and thirdly, they are viviparous. The reproduction of the swordsmen in the aquarium, it can be said, occurs almost by itself. Imagine how much joy the child will have when he sees the first fry that will grow before his eyes!
Breeding aquarium fish
So, the choice is made - the swordsmen. Their reproduction is a fairly simple process. Fish reach puberty at the age of 6-8 months. The female of the swordsman is larger, the male is smaller, but only he has the famous long tail in the form of a sword, for which, in fact, this species got its name. Therefore, to distinguish between them and understand how many “boys” and “girls” are in the aquarium is not difficult. It is better that there are more females than males. There is one more detail: if there are only two males, they can behave aggressively towards each other and often fight.
Therefore, let it either be one, or four or more - then their attention is sprayed, and the aquarium fish-swordsmen will behave much calmer. Consider this nuance when buying them.
Advice on keeping and breeding
In order to get offspring, you need to maintain a stable temperature of the water, make sure that the filter works well, there are areas shaded by algae where fry can hide. Moreover, it is desirable that the plants are different - and those that are planted in the ground, and those that float on the surface (duckweed, riccia, pistia).
About once a week, or as it evaporates, carefully pour a certain amount of clean water into the aquarium. Only, God forbid, not from the tap!
First, it should stand for at least three days, and only then can this water be used. Of course, from now on the child’s holy duty is to feed the fish on time. Sword-eaters eat mostly live food, such as bloodworms, tubule, daphnia or cyclops. However, they do not disdain both combined types of food and crushed oatmeal, but they can also pinch algae.
Aquarium swordfish will not disappear, even if you decide to leave them for a week, for example, to go on vacation to the village. They will be able to find food on the bottom of the aquarium and its walls, among the pebbles and on the plants. But this does not mean that they can be left to their own devices without looking into the aquarium for 2-3 weeks.
Features of keeping fish
When biological equilibrium is established in the fish house, the swordsmen get used to each other, their reproduction will take place without outside interference. One fine day, a child will simply notice that one or even several females noticeably “rounded up”, become more pot-bellied and slow. Explain to him that the fish will soon have children. There will be joys!
Pregnancy lasts about a month and a half, and after this time a whole flock of fry is born. They can be either 15-20 pieces, or much more, sometimes the number reaches as much as a hundred. These are fully formed fish, only small and translucent. They swim, feed on their own, have the instinct of self-preservation - they hide in the branches of algae, swim under decorative ornaments. However, if you want to save all the fry, at first they still need to create special conditions. So, it is better to relocate a pregnant female shortly before birth from other inhabitants of the underwater world.
Important Notice
For this purpose, a small aquarium or even an ordinary glass liter jar washed with baking soda is suitable. There you need to pour part of the settled water and part of the water from the aquarium, plant a couple of plants. It is desirable that the algae be small-leaved and of both types - ground and floating, then it will be easier for newborns to hide in them. Let the child carefully, with a special net, catch the future mother and quickly launch him into the prepared temporary housing.
After the offspring is safely born, the female needs to be returned back to the aquarium, since she can destroy careless fry with her sharp teeth. It is better to feed newborns with cyclops and daphnia. When the fish in the bank grow up a little, they can be shared with other relatives.
Interesting feature
In fish such as swordsmen, breeding under favorable conditions - stable water temperature, good lighting, live food - can occur every month. The fry quickly turn into sexually mature individuals. So, already in 3-4 months the males will acquire a tail-sword, and in a couple of months full-fledged adult swordsmen will swim in the aquarium. Breeding of fish will begin in a new way ... However, if pregnant females are not relocated to another container, such a law of nature as
natural selection will act
, during which not all fry will survive, but only the most dexterous and brisk.
Little conclusion
Here they are unpretentious, swordfish. Reproduction of them, as you already understood, practically does not need any correction, and if you give them free rein, the inhabitants of your underwater world will breed to such an extent that fry can be gifted to all friends and relatives. We wish you success in breeding them!