Siamese fighting fish - incredibly beautiful, controversial and popular aquarium fish.

Siamese Fighting Fish are one of the most recognized, most colorful, and often most controversial and popular fish in the freshwater hobby. It is also known as also known as betta. The name of the genus is derived from ikan bettah, taken from a local dialect of Malay. The Scientific Name of the fish is Betta splendens and it is from the family of Belontiidae.

The male Siamese fighting fish is one of the most popular and well known of aquarium fish because of its brilliant coloration, and long flowing fins. Females are usually not as highly colored as male, and have much shorter fins. In nature, The Siamese fighting fish is not usually brightly colored. However, captive breeding programs have resulted in a wide variety of colors, such as white, yellow, orange, red, pink, blue, green, turquoise, brown and black. Both are male and female bettas have a torpedo-shaped body and an upturned mouth geared for eating at the surface. Mature adults reach a size of 7 cm, with females being slightly smaller than the males and the lifespan can be 2-3 years.

The fish is a carnivorous species of animals and therefore, the diet Siamese fighting fish is meat based. Siamese fighting fish mainly eats insects and brine shrimp and also the larger food particles that are part of the plankton in the water. For the small size of the Siamese fighting fish, bright colors and long, attractive fins, the fish is preyed about by many other animals and even humans who catch the Siamese fighting fish to keep in aquarium at home. The tattoo of Siamese fighting fish is also popular to tattoo maker.

Bettas originate in the shallow waters of Thailand (formerly called Siam, hence their name), Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and parts of China. The fish are also are called pla-kad (lit. biting fish) in Thai or trey krem in Khmer. These areas are the ideal home of Siamese fighting fish, due to the region has acres of rice paddies, ponds, slow moving streams and swamps.

And at last about the Siamese fighting fish is “They are incredibly beautiful, easy to care for and can be very active fish”.

Trumpetfish or yellow Trumpetfish.

The trumpetfish was described and named by the father of taxonomy, Carolus Linnaeus in 1766.  It’s from the family of Trumpetfishes and species of Aulostomidae. Trumpetfish also known as Trumpet, Atlantic Trumpetfish, Caribbean Trumpetfish, Trumpeter and Painted Flutemouth

This reef dweller is easily recognized by its long body with upturned mouths that often swim vertically while trying to blend with vertical coral, like sea rods, sea pens, and pipe, tubular snout, and a barbel on its chin, though it can be brown, green, or yellow with pales stripes, bar, and spots. The length of the fish can be 80cm (approx). The fish can easily change its color. Their vertically swimming tactics helps them to blend in with surrounding sea fans, pipe sponges and sea whips, thereby hiding from predators.

They use stealth and camouflage to prey on smaller fish, and a typical tactic is to attack from above after remaining motionless in the water to imitate a piece of coral, stick or weed. Somewhere the Trumpetfishes are taken for the aquarium trade. Trumpetfish have the capability to rapidly expand their jaws into a circular gaping hole almost the diameter of their body when feeding. Till now the spawning habits of the trumpetfish are unknown, but in the region around Madeira, it is known that the females have mature eggs from March to June.

The ribbon eel - an elegant sea creature

The ribbon eel (Rhinomuraena quaesita) is a species of saltwater eel and it is the only member of the genus Rhinomuraena of the Muraenidae (Moray eel) family of the order of Anguilliformes. Though it is now known as Rhinomuraena quaesita but it also includes the former Rhinomuraena amboinensis.

Ribbon eel in juveniles 

Unlike most other eels, ribbon eels change color and sex during their life. The eel is an elegant creature with a long, thin body and high dorsal fins and it can easily be recognized by its expanded anterior nostrils. Juveniles and sub-adults are nearly black with a yellow dorsal fin. As they mature, a female becomes yellow with a black anal fin with white margins on the fins and the adult males are blue with a yellow dorsal fin. The ribbon eel have leaflike nostril flaps, which sense vibrations in the water. The eel grows to an overall length of 100 (approx) cm and has a life span of up to twenty years.

Unfortunately, the ribbon eel is a difficult fish to keep though it is one of the most interesting of the moray species. It has several unique characteristics that are why it should place in its own family, the Rhinomuraenidae.

A pair of adult Ribbon eel

Ribbon eels make striking display sea creature for the home aquarium, but in some captive setups they may refuse to feed. To help initiate feeding in a stubborn ribbon eel provide adequate hiding places, so your eel feels secure. The ribbon eel is native to the Indian and Pacific oceans and live on coral reefs, mostly hiding in crevices.

Be aware that ribbon eels are especially proficient at finding small cracks and holes in the aquarium back stripping to exit through. Finally if it is possible to keep a ribbon eels in your aquarium, you need to be willing to give it special care.

The colubrine sea krait – a pretty sea killer.

The colubrine sea krait or Banded sea snake is a species of sea snake found in tropical Indo-Pacific oceanic waters. It is a member of the Laticauda genus of sea snakes.

It is found in tropical waters of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is common around East India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Borneo, Vietnam, Philippines, Nicobar Islands, Coastal Taiwan, Bay of Bengal, New Guinea, Japan’s Ryukyu Islands, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Mexico, El Salvador and Nicaragua.

Adult females are about 56 inches in length with males being only about 35 inches in length. It has a short head, thick trunk, and no easily discernible neck. The tail is simply extended skin, spread wide like a fin, and unsupported by any projection. They are light or dark bluish gray above, yellowish below, with uniformed width black bands throughout, sometimes narrowing on the belly.  Massing together near the shore, they breed between narrow cracks in the reef and in caves. It is a nocturnal snake, rarely seen during the day but it requires oxygen to breathe.

Though the snake is too slow to catch fish in a straight chase but these snakes are also very dangerous and can kill people if someone gets bitten. Their venom is ten times stronger than that of a cobra, making them extremely dangerous. They are known to cause a rash on the attacked area, which consists of small little bumps.

Clingfish – a small saltwater aquarium fish.

Clingfish, any of more than 150 species of small sea fishes of the family Gobiesocidae (order Perciformes), having a flattened elongated body with a sucking disc beneath the head for clinging to rocks, seaweed etc.

Beautiful Clingfish

Clingfishes are typically small fish, with most species less than 6 centimeters (2.4 in) in length. They are scale less fishes and have wide, flattened heads and they have tapering bodies with a single dorsal fin. The skin of clingfishes is smooth and scale-less, with a thick layer of protective mucus. Most species are about 7.5 cm (3 inches) or less in length, though the South African Chorisochismus dentex is up to 30 cm (12 inches) long. Some of the tropical American clingfishes of the genus Gobiesox live in rapid streams, but most clingfishes inhabit the sea.

They have a cryptic coloration, and in some cases can rapidly change color to match their background. Most species are marine, being found in shallow waters of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. They are bottom-dwelling fishes; some species shelter in sea urchins or crinoids.