Labeo - fish aquarium: compatibility, breeding, maintenance and care

Labeo - an aquarium fish, which is veryis popular among fans of watching the underwater world. It belongs to the family of cyprinids. This kind of a beautiful fish of medium size comes from Thailand. Its beautiful coloring will become an ornament of any aquarium. The content of these fish has some features that beginners should know about aquarists.

Habitat

The natural habitat of the Labeo are the rivers,Lakes and streams of Southeast Africa and Asia. These fish prefer shallow water with flowing clear water, with a large number of plants. In such water bodies they perform the role of nurses - small fish clear the hippopotamus skin from parasites.

Characteristics of the species

Labeo - a fish with a slender, elongated and slightlyflattened from the sides by the trunk. The profile of the back is more strongly bent than the abdomen. One of the features of this species are the large fins, which resemble shark in their form.

Near the mouth, the horny villi and the pairantennae. Labeo has lips resembling a scraper-sucker, which help collect from the bottom, from stones, snags, algae, plant and animal fouling.

An active and moving creature is a labeo. Fish, as a rule, occupies a certain territory, which it defends bravely. It should be noted that the Labeo is aggressive not to everyone, but only to fishes with a bright color and their kindred. It is for this reason that it is important to choose the right aquarium of the necessary sizes, equip it, zonate, to prevent the hassles of aggressive relatives.

Types of Labeo

To date, twenty species of these cute fish have been well studied. In the aquarium you can keep only some of them:

• two-color Labeo - a fish with magnificent color: velvety absolutely black body and a luxurious red tail;
• green (Labeo Thai) - this fish has a body of dark brown color, with greenery, and red fins;
• albino - on the background of the white trunk reddish-brown fins stand out sharply;
• Congolese - leopard, spotted color;
• silvery - the entire body of the fish is colored like silver;
• harlequin (colorful) - at a young age torsoThis version of Labeo is painted beige-brown with specks and orange-red spots on the fins, with time the color changes to gray.

Aquarium fish Labeo two-color: description

Sometimes they are called Labeo bicolor. They are inhabitants of small rivers, streams and lakes of Thailand. In Europe, this species appeared in 1952, and was imported to Russia in 1959. Labeo two-color has a slender slightly elongated body with a curved back and flattened sides. Her head is small, and her eyes are red and disproportionately large.

The mouth is surrounded by two pairs of mustaches and hornyvilli. It is located below and looks like a scraper-sucker. Fish is famous for its spectacular coloring - it seems that her body is covered with black velvet. Dorsal fin black, high and pointed. The pectoral fins, as well as the anal and abdominal fins are well developed, but not colored - they are transparent.

The main decoration of these fish are redtails. These fins are long enough, at the end bifurcated, fiery red. Female bicolour Labeo much larger than males, but slightly paler in color. In natural conditions, they grow up to thirty centimeters in length, and the aquarium laboes rarely exceed fifteen.

Green Labeo

According to the shape of the trunk, this fish is practically nothingis different from his bicolour relative. Despite the name, the color of these fish is dark olive, with bronze outflow, and the abdomen is silvery-bronze. Along the stigma, through the eye, stretched to the back of the gill cover dark band. Almost at the very base of the tail is a black speck. These fish also have red tails, and all of their fins are painted in scarlet.

Green Labeo - fish, which is goodSex differences are seen. The body of the female has the form of a torpedo, it is well-nourished, and the male is more slender. His dorsal fin is markedly higher and sharper than that of the female, and during spawning the anal fin acquires a black fringe. Under natural conditions these fish grow up to 18 cm in length, and in captivity - no more than 8 cm.

Labeo Fish: Maintenance and Care

We have already said that these inhabitantsThe aquarium needs its own territory, which no one will claim. Proceeding from this, it is necessary to choose a capacity of at least 100 liters per one "tenant". A small amount can fit only one pet, for example, Labeo bicolor.

Owners of the aquarium shouldthink over the décor of the home. Labeo needs shelter places. For this, stones, caves, grottos, driftwood, pots or their fragments, other decorative elements can be used. You should know that the Labeo can jump out of the aquarium, so it must be covered.

Another important point - the Labeau is very fond of lushvegetation. It should be with powerful roots. Algae is needed for these fish not only as an additional food, but also as excellent natural shelters. They will also help the owner to divide the reservoir into separate zones, where single-fish fish will feel quite comfortable.

Requirements for water

Labeo's water requirements are quite high. It must be clean, so you can not do without aeration and filtration system. Ideal water should have the following characteristics:

• acidity - pH 6.5-7.5;
• rigidity - 4-20;
• the temperature is 23-27 ° C.

At least once a week, water is neededpartially renew the water by 20%. It is also possible to fill the tank with tap water. But for this, it should stand for 3-4 days. Sand and gravel of fine fraction are suitable for the substrate.

Feeding

The food of the Labeo is not very demanding. They are happy to consume live food. This bloodworm, daphnia, tubule. Do not give up vegetable food and special dry food. If you want to diversify the diet of your pets, scald salad leaves and give them small pieces, use frozen spinach, pieces of zucchini and cucumber, oat flakes.

These fish, according to the owners, are veryHappy, when in their house appears a sheet of glass, overgrown with algae. They eagerly eat them. It is recommended to feed Labeo twice a day. With good care, proper feeding, this type of fish lives up to 12 years.

Reproduction

These beautiful fish have pubertyat the age of about one and a half years. Breeding Labeo - a process, frankly, not easy. First, you need to get a large aquarium, a volume of at least 500 liters. It should have dim illumination and various shelters from stones and plants.

Particular attention should be given to the parameters of water:

• acidity - pH 6.0-7.0;
• temperature - 24-27 ° С;
• rigidity - up to 4.

To this should be added a good aeration andduct maintenance. For spawning it is necessary to take two males and one female. Approximately two weeks they should be kept separately and fed with daphnia, scalded salad, tuber, ice-cream spinach.

Before the spawning season, the fish are made hormonalinjections into the muscles of the back. Six hours after this procedure, spawning begins. During this period, the flow of water should be considerably weakened. Caviar, found on the bottom, the producers eat, not touching the one that floats in the water. After the spawning, the producers are transplanted.

Next, the eggs are sorted. The dead white eggs, which become noticeable after two hours, must be removed, and the remaining eggs should be transferred to a twenty-liter incubator with water having the same parameters and easy aeration.

Caviar ripens within 14 hours. After two days the eggs turn into fry and begin an independent life. They freely swim and feed. During this period they need live dust, rotifers, infusoria. As a rule, during the first fifteen days, up to half of the fry are killed. The rest develop well and grow quite quickly.

Compatibility Labeo

In adults, the dominant andmilitant character. This is especially true of males. These aquarium fish are distinguished by a strict hierarchy - the strongest male allows himself to swim on foreign territories, while not allowing anyone to his own.

Labeo is a fish whose compatibility with otherthe inhabitants of the aquarium must be taken into account in order to avoid conflicts. They are not recommended to settle with fish that have a similar color, and with large cichlids. With their relatives, they prefer to meet exclusively during spawning, but they can not always get along on the same territory.

However, if your aquarium is spacious enough,non-destructive and non-aggressive fish can become perfect neighbors for the Labeo - bots, sclerias, tetras, barbs, danios, gurami. Unlike the Labeo, they prefer the upper and middle layers of water, so they rarely intersect with neighbors. In addition, these fish are fast and small, they often can not catch up with their laboes.

Labeo - a wonderful fish that will suit andFor an experienced aquarist, and for a novice lover of the underwater kingdom. It is interesting to observe it, it does not require very complicated care and, under proper conditions of content, will long please its beautiful appearance and interesting behavior.