Paridise fish tank mates

[leongreenway]

Hello,

can anyone suggest good tank mates for a paradise fish in a 20 Gal

Cheers

Leon

 

[bobwumba]

They mix well with active fish such as barbs, sharks, swordtails. Guppies, angels, and small tetras are a no no because they can be aggressive. Also gouramis could be a option and you could make the tank have a southeast asian theme.

good luck

 

[MegTheFish]

Be very carefull when choosing tankmates. Mine killed a good sized tetra, platies, guppies, mollies and a smaller gourami. I wish I had known it was him sooner. He has lived in a small 1 gallon for a year and I just recently divided 3 gallons out of my 10 gallon for him. He's still kicking around...hardy little bugger. I would not put paradise fish with any fish, wouldn't want to chance it and end up with a tank full of dead fish.

 

[Dwarfs]

Paradise fish are kind of like bettas, they are aggressive towards fish like them, won't stand very active fish, and prefer to be pretty much alone. Cories or otos would be the best choices for tankmates, so would other small catfish

 

[MegTheFish]

And it could be that I just got a really grumpy paradise fish! LoL

 

[FishEnthusiast]

My hubby got a paradise fish once without knowing what it was. It killed every fish in his tank in 24 hours. I am talking about angels three times it's size among other fish. It then proceeded to jump 6 feet across his living room behind the T.V. Unfortunately they didn't find him in time.

Of course this all happened before he met me. Had it happened after he never would have gotten the fish in the first place!

 

[leongreenway]

At present, I have a Black Calvus Cichlid, who is V territorial. A BNose Pleco who is pretty tuff and a Red Tailed Black Shark that although is not agressive at the moment is only 2 1/2 Inch long, this is going to change when it gets bigger.

Will they be OK?

 

[ncjharris]

hmm, I read everyone elses accounts of paradise fish with great interest. We have a pair (male and female) who have lived in our 30 gallon (and before that a 20) with out any sign of agression to the other fish. I'm wondering if its the pairing that reduces the agression?

He patrols the tank and never so much bats an eyelid to anyone other than his mate.

That said, they have just started to breed (yeah!!) and now he has his bubble nest he won't let anyone near it!

We keep our pair with 3 sunset/red robin gouramis, 7 zebra danios, 3 panda cories and a pair of river shrimp.

He takes no notice of the danios (even the three long-finned we have) and the worst he has done to the tank is make us buy a new ornament, when he got stuck on a hole in our pseudo-log - twice!

Looking at your stocking, the choice of terratorial fish will, I think, be a big problem. Don't think 20 gallons would be enough space for all three (Cichlid, RTBS and PF) to have a terratory and live happily.

 

[sylvia]

I love the calvus - very pretty fish.

Anyway, I don't think adding a paradise fish is a good idea either. IME, these fish are aggressive when kept in too small a tank with too many other fish. They react very badly to being in crowded conditions and keeping them with territorial tank-mates could be disastrous. If you want these anabantoids (males especialy) to be peaceful, you need to keep them in a tank with plenty of cover, lots of plants and hiding places and areas where they can set up an undisputed territory. Having said that, all gouramies, bettas and their relatives, including these paradise fish, have characters all their own. Each is unique and often you'll find many exceptions to what you considered the rule. There is a small chance you could stumble across an individual that works well in your tank. However, I'd only consider it once your current fish are full grown - I suspect you'll realise then that actualy adding another territorial or aggressive fish to the mix will just result in chaos. If you still think it's a good idea then, re-arange the tank to create new territories and then add one and see how it goes but please watch carefuly in case of trouble - it would be a shame to lose any of the fish. Personaly, I wouldn't think it's worth the risk.

 

[MegTheFish]

Mine just ate a guppy who decided to jump the divider.