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Blue Neon is a fish from the tropics, it is often bought for aquariums. A neon fish has two nicknames, or it is called blue neon or ordinary. This breed belongs to the harazion family, and lives in South America.
Neons live in the calm tributaries of large rivers. They settle in areas with gloomy water and dense plants; practically no sunlight enters these territories. In nature, fish feed on insects, which are quite a lot in those places where neon fish live.
Neon story
Why neon The fish stands out for its neon horizontal strip that runs from the head to the tail. The adventurer first discovered this specimen in 1934. The French traveled through the Amazon rainforest, and he quite by accident caught several brilliant fish from the Amazon. The traveler brought his booty to France, he wanted to sell them, and he succeeded!
In 1935, a full-fledged article on neons appeared in one of the European newspapers. Soon, fish began to populate the aquariums of Europeans, many were delighted with the iridescent neon fish. And to this day there are people who admire the overflowing grace of neons.
Aquarium habits
Fish lives in the aquarium for about 4 years. Prefers temperature from 20 to 24 degrees with soft and sour water. She also needs good filtration, the best option would be to use a canister filter, which does not impart flow and well cleans the water space from all kinds of harmful bacteria and contaminants.
Gender Features
During spawning periods, it needs very soft water and elevated temperature, reaching up to 26 degrees with a plus sign. Remember that the higher the degree, the faster the fish ages!
Puberty of neons occurs at 6-8 months, but sometimes a little earlier. The female is capable of sweeping up to 150 eggs. Fry emerges from eggs after 5-10 days.
Females are larger than males, although this is not visible visually. The female reaches 4 centimeters in length, and the male grows to 3.5 centimeters. The most noticeable difference is the abdomen, which is full and round in females.
Relations with other fish
As a rule, blue neons are kept at the bottom and in the middle water layer. Neons do not harm plants and are terribly afraid of large fish, since they can swallow them, for example, cichlids are able to eat neon fish.
Neons love peaceful fish, but predators obviously do not like them, like large waterfowl. Neon individuals, although very brisk, but at night become vulnerable due to their bright reflection.
Appearance
The body is quite flexible and excessively narrow, overflowing, luminous strips pass from the sides. A little below the famous strip is a red strip, it goes from the middle of the body and reaches the tail. The fins are colorless and transparent.
At night, neon loses its bright color, and the fish themselves become less active at night. Also, the fish may lose their condition during stressful situations or after them.
Dangerous neon disease
The most common disease is plethophorosis. The diseased fish loses its color, this is especially noticeable in the neon strip, which begins to fade. Also, the fish loses coordination and stops moving in time, in some cases refuses to eat any food.
It is currently impossible to cure plethophorosis.If one of the fish gets sick, then it is necessary to destroy all the living creatures in the aquarium, or put in some kind of quarantine place. After this, the soil needs to be replaced, and the entire aquarium and all water supplies should be thoroughly disinfected.
Preferences
A beginner is recommended to buy neon individuals, as they do not need to be very carefully looked after. Fish can stay in any aquarium, even a miniature vessel. However, the fish do not adapt very well to sudden changes, therefore, they should not be immediately launched into a new aquarium. First you need to wait until all parameters are stabilized, and only then proceed with the housewarming.
Increase the hardness of water and change other parameters should be gradually. Although the fish do not like changes, but if you introduce them a little bit, then nothing bad will happen.
Neon loves flocks, for this reason you need to immediately place five or six neon fish in the aquarium, and some knowledgeable aquarists advise even more, up to 20 pieces.
There should be a minimum of light, as well as luminous decorations in the aquarium. The fish does not like bright colors, it is best to lay the Gothic soil and highlight the dark, dense vegetation. However, you must also give her a place for swimming, otherwise, the fish will not feel very comfortable and show aggression.
Nutrition
Fish loves live food: small raspberries, small daphnia, pipe makers, cyclops are suitable.
In general, neons are omnivorous; they like both live and dry food and even fodder substitutes. It is important to remember that neons do not pick up food from the bottom, for this reason you need to let go of small portions of food and not use frozen, easily sinking feeding.
Feeding best with versatile foods rich in vitamins and proteins is a very important rule for tropical fish. The thing is that feeding forms the color of the fish, if it is fed diversely, then it will be enough for everything, which means that the color will be very bright and beautiful.
Mature fish do not need a lot of food, they can be fed once a day, believe me, this is done for their own good. Neons can get fat - they have a predisposition to it! If you feed them often, unfortunately, this can lead to premature death.
Breeding
It is difficult to breed fish in any domestic vessels, because you need to not only create the conditions, but also successfully pick up a pair. The fact is that the male and the female breed only if they experience mutual attraction to each other.
To breed a neon fish, you will need to create a special spawning aquarium with 24 degrees of heat. After the launch of sexually mature individuals, it is necessary to gradually increase the level of illumination in the spawning, over time, the fish will begin to spawn. In addition, in order to increase the speed of the process, we recommend that you feed the producers, the best food during spawning is bloodworm.
There should not be anything superfluous in spawning, only small plant decorations for the comfort of fish.
Amazing fact! Females in aquariums produce eggs much more than in nature. If in nature an average female throws about 35 eggs, then in the aquarium this indicator reaches 150.
Be careful: neon caviar does not adapt very well to changes in lighting and changes in water parameters. Females and males after spawning can eat their own eggs, so you need to put a separator cage on the bottom and do everything possible so that mature individuals do not reach the eggs or hatching fry.
A day will pass after the spawning, and at this time, larvae will begin to appear from the eggs. In a week, all fry will calmly swim in the spawning grounds, and look for food. Starting food for fry is boiled egg yolks, rotifers and ciliates.
A few more weeks will pass, and the fry will begin to taste Artemia, and after a month they will look like mature fish, including, they will have the appropriate color.Filters for fry are not needed, since they have a meager size, which means that they will die immediately when the filter mode is introduced.
Popularity
For a short period of time, neon could be liked by both beginners and experienced aquarists. These lovely and vibrant creatures will become a real decoration in any aquarium, they will not only attract the attention of others, but also will not harm the vegetation and other inhabitants of the water kingdom.
There are many pluses: the neon slaves are unpretentious, have a peace-loving character and have a unique bluish iridescent line with a bewitching red addition.
Video: neon aquarium fish
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