Breeding Paradise fish
78The Paradise fish, Macropodus opercularis,also known as the Blue Paradise Gourami, is one of the easier tropical fish to keep and breed. Native to East Asia (China, Taiwan and Vietnam), Paradise Fish were first imported to Europe in the early 1800s. Since they could be kept in small, unheated containers and bred readily, they quickly became popular. Although their popularity has waned, they remain attractive fish that are easy to keep and easy to breed.Like their cousins, the Siamese fighting fish, Paradise fish are air-breathers. In their natural environment they inhabit small pools which are often oxygen-poor.
Paradise fish are bubble nest builders. A male will build a bubble nest on the surface of the water, usually interspersed with floating vegetation or under a leaf on the surface. Breeding can be triggered by raising the temperature, although I have found that they will breed in winter with no apparent change in environmental conditions. When the female is ready to mate she will approach the male and turn on her side. The male wraps his body around hers, and she releases eggs at the same time that he releases sperm. The eggs are lighter than water and float up into the nest. The parents then separate and the male will chase the female away from the nest and often add a few more bubbles.
Mating takes place repeatedly over the course of a few hours. In my experience, this tends to occur at night. Between 500 and 1000 eggs are commonly produced. Once they are done mating, the male chases the female away from the nest, and it is best to remove her. In a community tank I have observed that the male will keep the female away from the nest, but that she will patrol and outer "perimeter" and keep other fish away from the male.
Eggs hatch in about 24 hours, and the fry remain in the bubble nest until they absorb their yolk sacs. Once they start to swim away from the nest, the male can be removed - if he remains with the fry, he won't eat. Once he starts eating, he is likely to eat the fry. So for the best health of the male and the fry, it's a good idea to remove him.
Free-swimming fry should be fed with commercial fry foods or infusoria. After about a week they can be fed on newly hatched brine shrimp. As they get bigger they can be switched to more conventional fish food. Although they have a reputation for being aggressive, siblings raised together will tolerate one-another quite well. The biggest challenge is figuring out what to do with the babies you have raised - it's easy to raise 50-100 offspring from a single spawning.
PrintShare it! — Rate it: up down flag this hub
Comments
I think it's fine to take out the male once the fry are free-swimming. It can be fun to watch him try to keep an adventurous brood of fry in line, but it puts him under a lot of stress (since he won't eat as long as he has babies to guard), serves no real purpose (since there are no other fish for him to defend the fry from) and poses a constant danger that he will choose to start eating his own children.
i read this web.
i have a lot og breeding fish but not these.
i am going to get some thx for the advise.
bettas r easy
Hi I read your page and i think its really good and I got a lot og info from it.
My paradise fish builds a little bubble nest and then over night it disappers. I think the catfish might be destroying it. I only have 1 catfish and 1 male paradise with 2 felmales in the tank and if you think its not my catfish- What could it be?
Hi
I accidentaly triggerd my paradise fish to make a bubble nest... by putting my female in a sepperate tank right beside the male... only problem is... i cleaned the males tank out because i didnt know! (was sold the fish and the fish guy told me lies... and that they wouldnt breed) So whilst his new tank settles for 24hrs and she is still broody i am keeping them together (side by side in two seperate tanks) then transferring him to the new one... and her into it the next afternoon. Ive transferred some of the floating plants from both tanks into the new main one... so with any luck... might still get babies?
HELP!!!???? did i just accidentally ruin the chance of them reproducing?
hey i have paradise gouramis and they mated. i was wondering how often do they mate
does the male make the bubble nest when he is ready to mate or after he mated
so cool but how do they have them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If the nest is breaking up overnight, it might be water or air currents. If you're running a filter, the water current will break up the nest once the male stops maintaining it. Since they aren't active at night, even a fairly weak current can do a lot of damage. On the other hand, a dense mat of plants will do a lot to reinforce the nest.
If you see the male and female embrance, you probably have eggs. Don't worry too much if you destroy a nest with eggs - they'll keep trying. You can usually tell if there are eggs or fry based on the male's behaviour - if he's chasing the female away, there are eggs in the nest.
Once they have laid eggs, the male will maintain the nest, but may do so rather half-heartedly. After the eggs hatch, the male will continue to blow bubbles and try to keep the fry together. If you don't feed them, they'll disappear in a couple days. I've had a few babies survive and grow to maturity in a community tank, but the odds of survival are low.
I have bred paradise fish a few times now and everytime they hatch and then start dying... i have separated the male from them and there are no other fish in the tank....they last a couple of days and then die off. I have been feeding them... do you have any ideas as to why they are dying???
I have a male paradise fish, Hes on his own right now as the female I was sold was actually a male and had to be rehomed! Hes been on his own in a tank with cloud minnows but has started building a nest over night? Is this normal? What is he doing?!
i now have 2 babys left out of a heap of them just like last time what am i doin wrong
I have a pair of Albino Paradise Fish. Can I keep a pair of Albinos and another, more colourful female in the same tank together and will the Albine male mate with both females? What will the fry look like? Any info would be gratefully appreciated!
I recently hatched paradise fish and so far they seem to be doing well. They are about a week old. I shut off the filter and leave the light on constantly to evcourage algae growth because I read some where that they will eat micro algae so far it seems to be working I still have probably 50 or more. I have also tried feeding them frozen baby brine shrimp but I'm not sure if they are eating it, it is too hard to tell yet.
We are having a hot spell and my male paradise is building a nest. They live in a large rose bowel on the veranda. Last year i got 5 fish to maturity so this year i thought i would take the older ones out. I couldn't tell if their were eggs in the bubbles so i took all the fish bar the male out. I kept trying to feed the male and he kept feeding so i thought i had taken them out to early. I then put the female back in thinking they hadn't bred and tonight with a torch i looked into the water and saw one little fry. Question- Do you know if all the fry hatch at the same time and i can also see these little white lines wriggling around, only tiny, about 2ml long. What are these and are they fry too.
maggie33 says:
13 months ago
Hi, I just had my paradise fish breed again for the third time. The first time I have 8 or 10 left. The second time I lost the whole batch. This time they hatched in a 10 gallon tank (breeding tank) Friday night. Now I have a bunch of wriggling black little fish. I took the female out finally after trying to catch her for hours, she sure gets away and hides good! I had to take out the plants on her side all the while trying not to disturb the nest, but finally got her. I just took out the male today as I have several black swimming fish. I am wondering if I should have left him in longer? I read your article and enjoyed it thoroughly. It is funny that the fry turn from black to almost opaque almost overnight. Thanks for letting me post.
Maggie3