Gouramis Breeding ,can You Breed Different Types Pearl And Paradise Fi

[lewismorris]

i recently added 2 pearl gouramis to my tank, my paradise fish which before was shy and timid has now gained a burst of life, chasing the other gouramis around?

is this normal?

and is it possible to breed the two if i put them in my holding tank?

thanks lewis

 

[sylvia]

What you are/were seeing is/was agression. Paradisefish are rather territorial - males especialy so. They rather similar to bettas (siamese fighting fish) in fact and two males may even fight to the death. The pearls, by contrast, are generaly peaceful fish when provided with enough space. They can be quite social too. I wouldn't personaly keep paradisefish and pearls together but, by now, I'm shure you know whether yours get along or not as this is quite a late reply (to say the least ).

Back to the point - paradisefish are Macropodus opercularis (or should be anyway ) whereas pearls are Trichogaster leeri. As a general guideline species from different genera (the genus is specified by the first of the two words in the scientific name BTW) cannot hybridise. there are some exceptions because the classification system is, obviously, devised by people and doesn't always reflect how closely related species are. Some fish change genus quite regularly (for example Colisa fasciatus which was also called Trichogaster fasciatus for a time). There are also some rift lake cichlids that disobey this guideline and can interbreed dispite being considered less closely related. Point is, the paradisefish and pearls can't be bred and paradisefish are generaly too aggressive for pearls anyway. Pearls spawn quite 'gently' by gourami standards whereas paradisefish can be quite violent and females are often injured during the spawning and chasing that follows.