Paradisefish

Blue Paradisefish photo by Lynn

These fish are very easy to keep and breed, the sexes are also easy to tell apart because the males are more brightly coloured and have longer fins than the females.

Although they are classed has tropical fish they don't require (or like) the water to be kept all that warm and would be very happy to live in an unheated tank indoors with a temp range from 59 F to 74 F being ideal. They are not to fussy about the waters chemistry as long as extremes of pH and hardness are avoided.

There biggest draw back is the males aggression wich means that they should be kept alone in a species tank, with only a single male per tank.

They will eat all manner of food and will thrive on a diet of live food and flake, to condition them for breeding a large part of the diet should be made up of live, frozen and freeze dried food.

To breed this fish you should set up a tank 24 x 12 x 12 with a mature sponge filter and some fine leaved plants (planted in a pot) and put the female in the tank and feed her lots of live food and freeze dried Tubifex. The temperature should be around 72 F in the breeding tank, after a few days when the female has become noticabley more rounded the male should be introduced into the tank.

The male should begin building a bubble nest within a few hours breaking off occasionally to display to the female.

Unlike other bubble nest builders the eggs of the Paradisefish float up to the surface on their own so none will be lost on the floor of the tank. Once spawning is complete the female should be removed or she will be attacked. The male can be left in to fan the eggs until they hatch after about 24 hours or maybe a little longer.

The fry will be free swimming after a few more days and do not need feeding until then. Once free swimming they will need to be fed on liquid fry food for a few days and then on newly hatched Brineshrimps and powdered dry food. The Brineshrimps are not strictly essential but if you use them better growth rates will be achieved.

When the fry are about 2 to 3 weeks old you should begin making very small water changes and gradually increase these until you are changeing 25% per day, as this will help ensure rapid fry growth.

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