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Paradise Fish (Female)
The Paradise fish - Macropodus opercularis, originates from Taiwan and the surrounding regions.
In the aquarium they grow to 3-4 inches.
I keep mine at 25C which is in the upper regions of its temperature range.
Feeding consists of flake food, high protein granular and occassionally a few pellets.They will also take live foods, amongst these they will eat Planaria [discworms] if no other food is around and are sometimes used by people to eradicate these from an aquarium.
It is extremely important to ensure you only buy captive bred specimens of these fish, if the exact origin/breeder cannot be shown imported examples should be avoided as due to environmental factors such as pollution of the natural water sources and habitat loss these fish are in decline in their natural habitat to such an extent that the Taiwanese government has banned all capture of wild Paradise fish and has also banned their export.
Several environmental and educational programs are under way with captive breeding projects restocking nature in various locations where the environment has been maintained or reduction in the pollution and remedial activity has been undertaken to such an extent as to allow this.
The Paradise fish is also known as the "Taiwanese Fighting Fish", much as the betta is fought in arenas in Thailand and is an integral part of Thai culture so the Paradise fish is to Taiwanese culture.
Due to this a great understanding and knowledge base is available, children grow up with these fish, undertake breeding projects at school and study their habitat.This has helped greatly in projects for reintroduction with schools and entire communities all playing their part along with government departments.
The fighting style is different from the betta in that they fight face to face so to speak, should one male turn away and swim off the dominant male does not chase after it tearing at the fins, he accepts the rival male has been defeated.
That said, they are tough customers, and before any such defeat occurs they will fight extremely fiercely biting each other in the mouth,face and gill area.
Therefore 2 males should not be kept in the same tank.
The females colouration is as above, both male and female have a small circular blue marking on their gill area.
In addition the males have 10 vertical blue stripes on their body, these should be straight, unbroken and intense in colour, with clearly defined edges.The males also have elaborate finnage and tails.
There is also an albino variety, I have not personally seen one of these, only a photo of one, it had a pink background with red stripes and was really stunning, I don't usually find albino fish very appealing but I always keep my eye open locally for albino Paradise fish but have yet to see one.
A black colour morph is reputed to also be available, although I have not as yet seen these, either in reality or in a photo.
Many stores give Paradise fish and Bettas a raw deal by not stocking them, its due to people buying them and having problems based around aggression, if kept in the correct conditions with the right tank mates or set-up both Paradise fish and Bettas will thrive in your care, just not in the same tank.
They like a larger aquarium with plenty of swimming space and live plants, when breeding they build a bubblenest the same as bettas below a floating leaf, if a densely planted area with tall plants is unavailable to them they may tear a leaf or 2 to support the nest, I have not otherwise observed them to damage plants at all.
The males can build really large bubblenests which they will continue to construct and maintain, a 2 ft x 1ft bubblenest is not unusual, some can be much larger.
Breeding and care of fry is similar to bettas (see breeding section ).
If you like them and wish to house them in a species tank then there is another breeding method - this is where you use a 50 (imperial)gallon tank, you heavily plant the tank with live plants and leave the immediate front area open for swmming.Place 5 or 6 small hides for the females and they should also have enough plants to hide in at the surface without the male being able to see them, as like bettas they are surface feeders, can take air at the surface and also like to investigate everything near the surface area as well as resting there.
You then add one male and 3 females.The male and females permanently live together in this tank.
The male will breed will all of the females he may make one very large nest and destroy it each time, it is more likely that he will maintain the nest long term, in addition he will also make several other smaller nests in the tank and he will maintain them too.
Those who use this method then harvest fry from this tank at regular intervals taking the 20-50 largest each time, as the smaller ones grow this is repeated.
You have to remove all males out of the fry as soon as you can clearly identify them as the adult male will soon see them as a potential threat to his dominance and eat a few of them otherwise.
The benefit of this method is it is a reproduction of nature, provides a constant supply of fry, although the male parentage is known the mothers of indivudal fry are unknown .
Often this is the down point and should you wish to enhance a line then you would be best to use the same method as used for Bettas, you are then aware of the parentage of all fry and have more control over the results and your breeding records.
According to Baensch the Paradise fish was one of the first tropical fish kept in Europe, records show the only fish imported for the hobby before Paradise fish were Goldfish.They have stood the test of time, being in the hobby around 150 years or so.
They are not too difficult to breed and a large genetic pool of captive bred stock is available to the hobbyist, there is some inferior stock around but a little research will soon give you many pointers as to how to select the best available stock for your projects.
Anyone entering into breeding these fish has the motivation that although the ban is in place illegal capture and export of wild fish to meet demands within the hobby does continue to place a stress upon the species and its future existance in the wild, good quality captive bred fish is the way to remove this activity.
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