Paradise fish temperature/ with cardinal tetras?

[BettaMan2000]

Has anyone kept a paradise fish in warm water of 25 deg C and with a small group of cardinal tetras?

Just wondering on some stocking ideas, again theres a lot of conflicting stuff on the web regarding keeping pardise fish in warm water and with smaller fish

 

[Essjay]

The most reliable site is Seriously Fish (although at the moment you have to use Wayback Machine to access the data in their profiles). SF is written by fish experts. Other sites are written by people who just keep fish, and are not necessarily experts. Seriously Fish should always be your go-to site.

Paradise fish
Cardinal tetras

As you will see from these profiles, paradise fish need a temperature of 10 to 22 deg C and a tank that is at least 80 cm long. Cardinals need a temperature of 23 to 29 deg C and a 60 cm long tank.
Their temperature ranges do not overlap so they are not compatible. And paradise fish need a tank bigger than your 54 litre.


I know that you want blue fish but in a tank the size of yours you are much better with just blue shoaling fish. Small tanks like this do not need a centrepiece fish, and usually look better without one.

 

[BettaMan2000]

I appreciate your help but I’m probably going to go with a dwarf gourami of some form.

Just cardinals are a bit boring imo.


Update: there’s a few videos of people keeping paradise fish with dwarf gouramis on the web, so it is clearly possible!

 

[Essjay]

That is asking for trouble. They are not compatible temperature wise, and they will most likely start to fight as they are both aggressive territorial fish.

As you learn more about fish keeping you will realise that people keep the most unsuitable fish together. They may post videos, or write things in forums saying how well their fish get on, but it is quite likely that shortly after they made the video or post that things went drastically wrong but they are hardly likely to post a video of their fish killing each other, or tell us that in a forum post.

Just because people do something does not mean it is right for the fish.

 

[fish boi]

I appreciate your help but I’m probably going to go with a dwarf gourami of some form.

Just cardinals are a bit boring imo.


Update: there’s a few videos of people keeping paradise fish with dwarf gouramis on the web, so it is clearly possible!

if you look on the internet you can find anything. like plecos in 20 gallon and stuff like that. paradise fish would be too big in you tank, you might see some in the same tank as yours but that's just cruel.

 

[Demeter32]

I have owned exactly one paradise gourami and he was amazing until he took a leap of faith from a holding bucket during a major tank re-scape.

The only bad thing about him was his appetite for smaller fish. He mopped up the remaining few of an old neon and glowlight tetra school. He also had a taste for rams horn snail, he was a good one for snail control. Any fish that was larger or similar in size to him was an enemy in his eyes. I would never keep a paradise gourami with another species of gourami. They are more aggressive that many of the other species IMO. I mean, just look at them. They are so similar to bettas, more so than others and their attitudes match their looks.

I agree that they need larger tanks, I say a 29gal minimum.