Common name: Paradise Gourami or Paradise Fish

Scientific name: Macropodus opercularis

Family: Anabantidae

Origin: China, Korea, Taiwan, Southern Vietnam, and Japan

Maximum size: 4-5 inches

Minimum Tank size: 20 gallons

Temperature: 58-82�F

Care: The tank should be well-vegetated (for protection/cover and for female retreats). Fish prefer large tank with lots of open swimming area. A partial cover of floating plants is beneficial to aid in bubble nest building. Has been known to jump out of the tank, so should be covered (ideally with a weighted lid). Ideally kept in water with a pH of 7.0. Multiple males, in a tank, have been known to attack each other (sometimes to the point of death).

Feeding: Accepts a variety of tropical flake foods. Also excepts live and frozen foods such as bloodworms, brine shrimp, and planeria. Is also known to eat algae from leaves of plants and rocks.

Sexing: The male is more colorful with longer fins.

Breeding: Take a strong, established pair and place them in a tank alone. Initiate spawning by lowering the water level and increasing the temperature to 75-84�F. Eggs are collected by the male and spit into a bubble nest. Remove the female at this time. There can be up to 1000 eggs in a single spawn and they are guarded by the male. The eggs hatch in 24-28 hours and are free-swimming in 3-5 days. The male should be removed at this time. Feed the fry with infusoria and/or powered dry foods. The fry can later be fed with Artemia (brine shrimp).

Comments: A very hardy fish that can withstand "not-so-ideal" conditions. There are five varieties: red with blue ("original"), red, blue, albino, and black (jet black with red fins)--subspecies concolor.

Paradise Fish, not gouramis

Paradise fish are gouramis!

Yes, but they are refered to Paradise Fish.

Nevertheless, they are still gouramis and either name is correct.

Our Local Fish store sells them as 'Gourami Paradise Fish'

WTF?!?!? I always thought they were but then I was corrected and told that they weren't! Hmpff...

well, they aren't technically gouramis (gouramis are Trichogaster, paradise fish are Macropodus) but they are labyrinth fish from Asia. by common name logic, that makes them a type of gourami.

of course the beauty of common names is that i could call them "purple-spotty seacows" and so long as i got everybody in my region to use that, it'd be a valid common name. (this is why you should never use common names to research fish.)

>>> gouramis are Trichogaster

Gouramies are fish of the family Osphronemidae. This family contains many genera. The genera included are:-

Luciocephalus/Trichogastrinae.
Colisa
Ctenops
Luciocephalus
Parasphaerichthys
Polyacanthus
Sphaerichthys
Trichogaster
Macropodinae
Macropodus.
Betta
Malpulutta
Parosphromenus
Pseudosphromenus
Trichopsis
Osphroneminae.
Belontia
Osphronemus

The red entries are Sub-families. All species in these genera are technically gouramies. This classification has recently been worked over. Many fish now placed in this family were previously included in the family Anabantidae.

The Paradise Fish was one of the very first species kept by aquarists in the early days of the hobby. It's ability to breath atmospheric oxygen, tolerate moderate pollution, and very wide temperature tolerance made it eminently suitable for the extremely low tech equipment available in the late 19th early 20th century.

paradise fish

My Little beauty

This post has been edited by Lateral Line: Jun 9 2006, 07:39 PM

They come in albino too



One of my blues



This post has been edited by Lateral Line: Jun 9 2006, 07:38 PM