Tropical Aquarium Fish

Anabantoids family is part of the Anabantoidaea class. This class is divided into Anabas, Ctenopoma, Malpulutta and Sendelia genus.

This fish class is represented by freshwater fish; their origin is in tropical zones. They have an auxiliary breathing organ called labyrinth. Most of times the bronchi are not enough to breathe in oozy waters, oxygen less, so these fish developed the labyrinth as an auxiliary organ. Anabantoids fish go to the surface of the water and breathe atmospheric air. The labyrinth is more or less developed depending on the specie and age of the fish. So these tropical fish accommodate fast to the oxygen less waters. From the body shape point of view, Anabantidae fish can have prolonged to stumpy body, lateral oblate, with short and small mouth, thick and marked lips, breech scalds medium developed. The dorsal and anal fins divide into two parts, a longer one with firm rays, and a shorter one with soft rays. The abdominal fins are very close to pectoral area; to some species these fins are very prolonged being considered antennas. On these fins there are a lot of taste cells. The lateral line can be continuous or incomplete. In this case it is formed by spots, points, but this line can also be completely absent. The abdominal cavity is very big; it reaches the bottom of the tail. The anus is situated in the front part of the body, and the swimming vesicle is prolonged and placed in the back part of the body, being divided into two parts.
Anabantidae family fish are spread in south-east Asia, Indonesia and Africa. They are only fresh water fish and because of economical reasons they have spread over Sunda isles too. They are unpretentious fish but they need lot of heat. The tanks with Anabantidae family fish must be covered because of the atmospherically air breathing they are sensitive to temperature differences between water and the upper air. The tank should also be covered because these fish may be terrified and they can jump out of the aquarium (especially Trishogaster ones). From this point of view, this fact is obvious in the nest care period. Even if they are friendly with other species, Anabantidae family fish are very aggressive with the opposite sex (especially with females) in the reproduction period.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 27th, 2006 at 2:18 pm and is filed under Uncategorized aquarium fish, Anabantoids aquarium fish. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response.