Whom to add to the aquarium to the cockerel?

When choosing pets for your aquarium, remember a few simple rules that apply to all species.

• Each fish lives for a long time and feels good at a temperature that is comfortable for it.

• Neighbors in the aquarium should match not only in quickness and temperament, but also in terms of water parameters – hardness, acidity.

• Before buying fry, check the dimensions of an adult fish. Side by side, fish of about the same size usually live without problems.

• Buy an aquarium and all the necessary equipment in advance. Fish need to be launched into a ready-made aquarium with soil, a filter, plants and decorations. Three to four weeks should elapse between the start of the aquarium and the settling of the fish.

• Do not overpopulate the aquarium. One cockerel fish in an aquarium with a volume of 15-25 liters will be in perfect order. But a dozen assorted fish in a 50-liter container are not comfortable conditions, but the interior of a bus at rush hour. Here even the most harmless aquarium creature becomes brutal. Make sure that your wards settled on different levels of the aquarium. If fighting fish breathe at the surface of the water, then Ancistrus can lie at the bottom for a long time.

Suitable neighbors for bettas: armored catfish corridors, catfish plecostomus and ancistrus. Swordtails, platies, mollies, parsings, irises, tetras and zebrafish are suitable.

Before moving into the aquarium, do not forget to quarantine. A new fish in an aquarium should be not only friendly, but also healthy.

Beginner aquarists, when choosing fish-neighbors for bettas, should feel free to ask questions to consultants in the aquarium department, more experienced fish owners on the forums, under publications on specialized resources and under thematic training and information videos. This is a quick way to get an answer or recommendation, a link to the information you need from experts. There is no ultimate truth in the question of fish compatibility, but there is an important guideline. These are aquarium fish compatibility charts.

On the help resources you will find not one, but several compatibility tables. All of them are slightly different from each other, but any of them will give a basic idea of ​​uXNUMXbuXNUMXbthe basics of species compatibility in an aquarium. The first step is to follow the detailed guide.

Understanding which fish can be housed together will certainly come to you with experience.

In the compatibility tables, pay attention to which fish are named incompatible with your veil-tailed pet. If the compilers of the table do not unequivocally recommend a certain neighborhood, there is no need to reinvent the wheel and learn from your mistakes. Don’t put your pets at risk.

It is not necessary to settle piranhas and related metinnis to the cockerel. Protect the fighting fish from the society of astronotus, cichlids, sac-gill catfish. Barbs, tetradons, labeos, and gourami are not suitable for cockerels as neighbors. Shrimps and snails are suitable for the role of lunch, and not a neighbor for a cockerel. Goldfish, other veil-tailed and bright aquarium inhabitants in the company of a cockerel will not do well. Fighting fish will consider them competitors and show aggression. The same can be said about colorful neon and guppies. Keeping a cockerel fish in an aquarium with angelfish will not end in anything good – adult angelfish are aggressive and require a lot of space for themselves.

Remember that an aquarium is a piece of wildlife in your home. All the natural instincts of the fish work in the aquarium. And even if you settled with the cockerel suitable fish-neighbors, but you see that the cockerel is constantly chasing some kind of fish and clearly does not like it, put it away, do not force the fish to live in a situation of constant stress. Between the inhabitants of the aquarium there is also a personal enmity, just like between people.

Do not unnecessarily demonize the cockerel fish. This is far from the most dangerous aquarium neighbor. Even peaceful ancistrus at night can sting with their suction cup dozing fish outside the shelter. Astronotus perceive small inhabitants of the aquarium as potential prey. A cichlid knife is able to attack the eye of his neighbor. So cockerels – gentlemen are quite adequate.

But bettas have a weak point – intraspecific aggression. This is why these fish are called fighting fish. Two males in one aquarium are ideal conditions for a fight to the death. There is a trick that allows you to keep the males in the same aquarium at a safe distance. Divide the aquarium into two parts with a transparent partition. Your wards will cock in front of each other, demonstrate their superiority, but the partition will not allow them to attack each other.

You can try to put two male fighting fish in a large aquarium, about 300 liters. Then they will be able to sit each on their own territory and not intersect. There is a risk, but a small one. In such a large aquarium there is a place for many fish. Cockerels will have someone to distract themselves with.

The cohabitation of males and females of fighting fish is also difficult. Experts advise adding a couple of females to one male. During the spawning period, the color of the male becomes brighter, he begins to build foam nests. At this time, you should carefully monitor the behavior of the wards. It may happen that a male fighting fish kills a female immediately after love games.

If you want to have only female betta fish, you can take at least five fish at once. Female fighting fish can live in the same aquarium, there will be no deadly fights without rules between them. But there will be competition. In the company of female fighting fish, a hierarchy will soon be built.

A competent choice of neighbors for a cockerel fish in an aquarium and maintaining good living conditions are far from the only ways to achieve peaceful coexistence of the inhabitants of the aquarium. Zoning will help reduce the risk of aggression between fish. This is the name of the thoughtful division of the aquarium space into separate zones or estates with the help of stones, decorations, snags, plants.

Zoning is necessary if you decide to place partially compatible fish in one aquarium. Or just worried about whether your charges will get along well. Large tall plants like vallisneria and decorative elements will help to delimit the space. Every flock of small fish, every larger fish greedy for personal space will be able to find a corner of safety. We wish your aquarium pets to be healthy and live together.