new Paradise fish

[Briarmoor]

I went to the LFS to look at their Australian Rainbows and Pearls, plus all their other tanks of course, just to see what they had.

I found 2 juvenile Pearls who were just lovely, so I purchased them for the 55g. I was looking in another tank and spied some Paradise gouramis with a very large fish that looked much like them. The LFS guy told me a fellow was moving and traded the big fish for some other stuff.

Turns out the big fish was a grown Paradise fish. I paid for her so they wouldn't sell her and moved some things around so she could have her own tank. Although she was in with young Paradise fish and some other gouramis, he said she'd not get along well with others.

She is very pretty, looks similar to a 3-spot in the head, especially the eye area, but her jaws remind me of a full grown male bettas jaws but bigger. Her body is more square than a 3-spot and certainly more than a Pearl. She is blue with some faint red stripes down her sides. Still a bit uncertain in her tank, but she does come to the glass if I walk over and stand quietly.

Anyone else have one of these? I'll do some searches on lifespan, etc. as I have only read general information on them in aquarium books. What are your experiences with them?

Pam in TN

 

[oneponygirl]

I had a paradise fish ages ago (before I knew better and listened to my LFS who told me he was non-aggressive) it killed everything in my tank. He was very pretty though. I liked him but ended up giving him back to the LFS partially due to their misinformation and partially due to the fact that I was moving.

 

[Briarmoor]

She's getting less shy. She watches the surface for food and considered coming up to take a flake, but decided to wait it out until the human dropped it and it floated down to her. I think she'll be eating out of hands very soon. She also likes to swim through her lava rock and through the live plant.

Wish these were less aggressive as it would be nice to be able to keep her in a community. I did read on the Web tonight they could be kept with fish at least their own size and fast enough to get away from them, mentioned tiger barbs. Don't know.

P.

 

[Kazman]

Hi,

We've got a male and a female in the same tank and they are great together but I think this may not be the case for all paradise fish. She's the second female we've had (the other sadly died a few months ago) and we replace her with an almost fully grown female. The last female we had was like a pale version of the male, sort of browny coloured body with darker stripes and blue around the tail but this female is very blue with quite dark stripes - she's lovely looking. They get on great and have had a couple of attempts at nest building and mating and did once successfully have some babies but they only lasted a week of so until the dad couldn't protect them from the danios!. We decided to let nature take its course. He did get very aggressive when the nest was built and babies born and he would chase everything including the female so we turned up the current so he couldn't make another one, he's absoluetly fine with the other fish and doesn't chase anyone, but as I said we may have just been lucky.

I think they're lovely fish though and very entertaining to watch.

Good luck.