Labeo is an aquarium fish that is very popular among fans of observing the underwater world. It belongs to the carp family. This beautiful medium-sized fish comes from Thailand. Its beautiful coloring will become an adornment of any aquarium. The content of these fish has some features that novice aquarists should be aware of.
Habitat
The natural habitat of the Labeau are 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 reservoirs, they play the role of orderlies - small fish clear the skin of hippos from parasites.
View characteristic
Labeo is a fish with a slender, elongated and slightly flattened body from the sides. The back profile arches significantly more strongly than the abdomen. One of the features of this species are large fins, which resemble sharks in their shape.
Horny villi and a pair of antennae are clearly visible near the mouth. Labeo has lips resembling a suction cup scraper, which help to collect plant and animal fouling from the bottom, from stones, snags, algae.
Active and mobile creature - labe. The fish, as a rule, occupies a certain territory, which it bravely protects. It should be noted that the labeo is not aggressive to everyone, but only to fish with a bright color and their relatives. It is for this reason that it is important to choose the right aquarium of the necessary size, equip it, zon it in order to prevent hassles of aggressive relatives.
Types of Labeau
To date, twenty species of these cute fish have been studied quite well. Only a few of them can be kept in the aquarium:
- two-tone labeo - a fish with a magnificent color: a velvety completely black body and a luxurious red tail;
- green (Labeo Thai) - this fish has a dark brown body, cast with greens, and red fins;
- albino - reddish-brown fins stand out sharply against the background of a white body;
- Congolese - leopard spotted color;
- silver - the whole body of the fish as if painted with silver;
- harlequin (multi-colored) - at a young age, the body of this variety of labeo is painted in beige-brown with spots and orange-red spots on the fins, over time the color changes to gray.
Aquarium fish Labe two-tone: description
Sometimes they are called labeo bicolor. These are inhabitants of small rivers, streams and lakes of Thailand. In Europe, this species appeared in 1952, and was imported to Russia in 1959. The two-color Labeo 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 horny villi. It is located below and looks like a scraper-suction cup. The fish is famous for its spectacular color - it seems that her body is covered with black velvet. Dorsal fin - black, tall and sharp. 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 red tails. These fins are quite long, forked at the end, fiery red. Females of two-color labeos are much larger than males, but slightly paler in color. Under natural conditions, grow up to thirty centimeters in length, and aquarium labe rarely exceed fifteen.
Green labeo
The shape of the body of this fish is practically no different from its two-tone relative. Despite the name, the color of these fish is dark olive, with a bronze tint, and the abdomen is silver-bronze. A dark strip stretched along the stigma, through the eye, to the posterior extremity of the gill cover. 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 color.
Green labeo is a fish that has good sex differences. The body of the female has the shape of a torpedo, she is well-fed, and the male is more slender. Its dorsal fin is noticeably higher and sharper than that of the female, and during spawning, the anal fin acquires a black border. Under natural conditions, these fish grow up to 18 cm in length, and in captivity - no more than 8 cm.
Labe fish: maintenance and care
We have already said that these inhabitants of the aquarium need their own territory, which no one will claim. Based on this, it is necessary to choose a capacity of at least 100 liters per one “tenant”. A small volume can be suitable only for one pet, for example, Labeau Bicolor.
Owners of the aquarium should definitely consider the decor of the home. Labeo needed places of shelter. For this, stones, caves, grottoes, driftwood, pots or their fragments, other decorative elements can be used. You should know that the labeos can jump out of the aquarium, so it must be covered.
Another important point - Labeos are very fond of lush vegetation. It must be with powerful roots. Algae are necessary 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 lone fish will feel quite comfortable.
Water requirements
Labeo have high water requirements. It must be clean, so you can not do without aeration and filtration systems. An ideal water variant should have the following characteristics:
- acidity - pH 6.5-7.5;
- stiffness - 4-20;
- temperature - 23-27 ° .
At least once a week, water must be partially updated with 20% water. It is allowed to fill the tank with tap water. But for this it should stand 3-4 days. For the substrate, sand and pebble of a fine fraction are suitable.
Feeding
Labeau food is not very demanding. They are happy to consume live food. These are bloodworms, daphnia, tubule. Do not refuse plant foods and special dry food. If you want to diversify the diet of your pets, scald lettuce leaves and give them small pieces, use frozen spinach, slices of zucchini and cucumber, oatmeal.
According to the owners, these fish are very pleased when a sheet of glass overgrown with algae appears in their house. They are happy to eat them. Feeding labeos is recommended twice a day. With good care, proper feeding, this species of fish lives up to 12 years.
Breeding
In these beautiful fish, puberty occurs at the age of about one and a half years. Labe breeding is, frankly, a difficult process. First you need to get a large aquarium with a volume of at least 500 liters. It should have dim lighting and various shelters from stones and plants.
Particular attention should be paid to water parameters:
- acidity - pH 6.0-7.0;
- temperature - 24-27 ° ;
- rigidity - up to 4.
To this should be added good aeration and provision of a duct. For spawning, it is necessary to take two males and one female. For about two weeks, they should be kept separate and fed with daphnia, scalded salad, tubule maker, and frozen spinach.
Prior to spawning, fish are given hormonal injections into the back muscles. Six hours after this procedure, spawning begins. During this period, the flow of water should be significantly weakened. Caviar, which is at the bottom, producers eat, without touching the one that floats in the water. After spawning, the producers are transplanted.
Then the eggs are sorted. 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, which has the same indicators and light aeration.
Caviar matures within 14 hours. After two days, the eggs turn into fry and begin an independent life. They swim and feed freely. During this period, they need live dust, rotifers, ciliates. As a rule, during the first fifteen days, up to half of the fry die. The remaining ones are developing well and growing quite quickly.
Labe compatibility
In adults, a dominant and belligerent character is manifested. This is especially true of males. These aquarium fish are distinguished by a strict hierarchy - the strongest male allows himself to swim into other people's territories, while not allowing anyone to his own.
Labeo is a fish whose compatibility with other aquarium inhabitants must be taken into account in order to avoid conflicts. They are not recommended to be lodged with fish that have a similar color, and with large cichlids. They prefer to meet with their relatives exclusively during spawning, and they cannot constantly get along on the same territory.
However, if your aquarium is spacious enough, non-predatory and non-aggressive fish can become ideal neighbors - labia, sklyariya, tetra, barbus, zebrafish, gourami. Unlike labeos, they prefer the upper and middle layers of water, therefore they rarely intersect with neighbors. In addition, these fish are fast and small; labeos often simply cannot catch them.
Labeo is a wonderful fish that is suitable for both an experienced aquarist and a novice lover of the underwater kingdom. It is interesting to watch her, she does not require very complicated care and, under appropriate conditions of detention, will long please her with her beautiful appearance and interesting behavior.