Maintaining an aquarium has been my hobby for the past
60 years and I am still fascinated by it. It all started when I was in school,
at the age of 10. My tuition master would ask us to clean the tank and feed the
fish. One fine day, I was amused to see one of his molly fish giving birth to
baby fish or ‘fry’ as they are called.
The process of maintaining an aquarium fish has advanced so
much. However, it is quite simple and easy to maintain a fish tank. Who said
you have to start off with a whole aquarium?
People who want to go easy on their pockets can begin with
something as basic as a Horlicks bottle. While the fact remains that you can’t
have such a small space for any fish, I would suggest breeding Siamese Fighters
or Bettas as they are commonly called.
These fish can be bred in bottles or one litre jars. And if you
want to watch a live ‘boxing match’, try keeping two fighters in two separate
bottles side by side.
Do not worry if you want to call a time out— it’s as simple as
placing a paper partition between the bottles. Out of sight, out of mind right?
Of course, if you have enough room for an aquarium, here’s a
crash course on what you need to know:
— Aquarium fish are live bearers or egg layers
— Female live bearers release their young ones
alive, while the egg layers lay their eggs among the plants and they hatch by
themselves
— There is also a type of fish called the Chiclids which lays
eggs and looks after them once they hatch, till the young ones fend for
themselves
— The easier ones to keep are the live bearers such as guppy,
molly, swordtail and platys, which are common and cost as low as `20 to start
with
— Egg layers could cost you `50 and above. The popular ones are
Angel fish and the Tetras, of which there are 200 varieties to choose from.
(The
writer, Rabi Venkatesan, has been breeding fish for the past 60 years and presently
has different varieties at his fish farm in Uttandi) CHENNAI 19th November 2014
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