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Paradise Fish (Macropodus opercularis)

Reviews	Views	Date of last review
6	3840	Mon April 3, 2006

Recommended By	Average Price	Average Rating
100% of reviewers	$2.28	8.7

supersize

Description:

Compatibility: Territorial/Aggressive
Maximum Size: 4”
Minimum Tank Size: 10g
Temperature: 72-86F
Diet: Omnivorous
Level of care: Medium
General Notes: This fish shares many similarities with Betta splendens. It is highly territorial and will not tolerate other males. It can also become quite aggressive towards females. It hails from Asia and is a dark blue in coloration, with red/orange vertical bars. It has a long forked tail fin and extended dorsal and anal fins. There are small spots on the gill plates. Females are duller in color.

This species can be found in China, Taiwan, North Vietnam, and Hainan Island among other locals. They are frequently found in heavily vegated, shallow and slow moving water such as streams and rice paddy fields. As a result, this species fares best in a heavily planted tank, with a low to moderate current and ample hiding places. Dark colors in an aquarium promote brighter coloration. An ideal tank has a lot of live plants with adequate open swimming space. Floating plants such as Duckweed or riccia are particularly appreciated by this species.

It is actually a subtropical species and withstand slightly cooler temperatures than some other tropical fish.

Being an anabantoid, M. opercularis possesses a "Labyrinth Organ" or accessory breathing apparatus that allows it to breathe atmospheric air. It is located above the gills and is made up of many folded tissues which are covered with blood vessels to allow the exchange of oxygen. This permits the fish to breathe in even low-oxygen waters in the wild, such as stagnant or slow moving bodies of water.

They are frequently found in heavily vegated, shallow and slow moving water. As a result, this species fares best in a heavily planted tank, with a low to moderate current and ample hiding places. Dark colors in an aquarium promote brighter coloration. An ideal tank has a lot of live plants with adequate open swimming space. Floating plants such as Duckweed or riccia are particularly appreciated by this species.

When threatened, this species will flare its gill plates and fins and will intensify in color. This fish is highly individualistic in that behavior varies greatly from specimen to specimen. Some will not tolerate any other tankmates; others fare well in a community setting. It will eat ghost shrimp and small fry.

As with other Anabantoids, males will sometimes blow bubble nests (using pieces of live plants if available). These are generally regarded as a sign of contentment and can signal that the male is trying to catch the attention of a female.

This was one of the very first fish to be used in the fishkeeping hobby and was the second fish (after the goldfish) to be imported to Europe in 1869.

Author

lustrouseyes
Teenie Weenie Fish

Registered: October 2004
Location: Virginia
Posts: 42

Review Date: Fri May 20, 2005

Would you recommend the profile? Yes | Price you paid?: $3.00 | Rating: 9

Pros:	Nice coloring - very interactive
Cons:	Can be very aggressive/territorial

I got a paradise fish from a LPS and he was seriously aggressive. I was worried for the other peaceful community fish I had. He seemed unusually aggressive (possibly after bredding in the LPS?), so I returned him for another Paradise. I changed up the tank a little and added him in. Not too many problems since. They are still very aggressive for a gourami. I have him in with Cichilds and he does just fine. He\'s still my bully for new additions. Coloration is not as bold as the picture, but they are still somewhat vibrant.

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CAPSLOCK
Super Fish

Registered: July 2004
Location: Cape Cod
Posts: 3032

Review Date: Thu June 16, 2005

Would you recommend the profile? Yes | Price you paid?: $1.99 | Rating: 9

Pros:	Nice coloration, recognizes owner
Cons:	VERY aggressive, jumpers

These fish shouldn\'t be kept in a normal community tank. They can be very aggressive. They fight amongst themselves and can terrorize little fish. I had to return one after it ate an eye out of a tetra and a chunk of gill covering from another tetra. Another paradise fish terrorized platies to death. Seemed to do okay with danios and kuhli loaches.

They can be kept without filtration, provided it\'s a big enough area, because they can breathe from the air. They must have a cover, because they can and will jump to escape.

jeremy
Little Fish

Registered: July 2005
Location: DePere, WI
Posts: 148

Review Date: Fri July 8, 2005

Would you recommend the profile? Yes | Price you paid?: $1.84 | Rating: 10

Pros:	Beautiful
Cons:	agressive

I just picked up 2 so that I could make my 29 a Gourami tank. And I am pleased with them so far. The male seems to pick on my 2 Blue gouramis though. But it has seemed to calm down a bit.

Fruitbat
Medium Fish

Registered: January 2004
Location: Garland, TX
Posts: 330

Review Date: Sat October 22, 2005

Would you recommend the profile? Yes | Price you paid?: Not Indicated | Rating: 10

Pros:	Excellent information, great picture
Cons:	none

Very nicely done! Unfortunately, Macropodus opercularis (which is sometimes called the Paradise Gourami by pet stores) is not kept as commonly as it should be. They are almost always available in pet shops, are easy to breed, and can be exquisitely beautiful. In my experience they do well with other anabantids like gouramis and combtails that can take care of themselves. I currently have my M. opercularis in a tank with a small Asian Climbing Perch (Anabas testudineus) and both species of Combtails (Belontia hasselti and Belontia signata) and, once the pecking order was sorted out, they have established a truce that allows them all to co-exist without much squabbling.

-Joe

denis coghlan
Teenie Weenie Fish

Registered: February 2006
Location: Ireland
Posts: 29

Review Date: Mon February 6, 2006

Would you recommend the profile? Yes | Price you paid?: Not Indicated | Rating: 8

Pros:	Nice colouration, Good movement around tank, Hardy
Cons:	Territorial (fin nipping and eye ball removal of other fish).

This is a great little fish if you are able to find the balance in a community tank to reduce its aggressiveness. The fish is naturally territorial but I have a couple of suggestion that I have found effective to reduce this behaviour. The tank in which I have the fish is simple cold-water 20g number, containing 10 white cloud mountain minnows, 2 small black moores, an orange fantail and two hill stream loaches. The tank is situated in a room with no heating so the tank temperature is low about (50F or 10C). I had seen “paradise fish” (common name in Ireland) Macropodus opercularis in the pet shop but I had thought that the tank would be too cold for their temperate/subtropical normal water temperature. So I place an old thermostat in the tank and bought the water temperature up to the lowest setting of (64 F or 18C). Four days later I was leaving the pet shop with a “less aggressive” red female (denoted by length of tail “apparently”). Two days later I had two white clouds missing gill covers and a black moore in a recovery bowl after having its eye removed. So what to do? I needed a fix and eye patch for the moore. The next day I was back at the pet shop buying another “less aggressive” red female. This is the first trick to stop the aggression of Paradise fish towards other members of the tank that are less equipped for “scrapping”. The new paradise fish went into the tank and the two set about giving each other a good beating, this went on for about 3 days until it stopped.(dont worrie about them fighing between each other as they are built for it, extra hard gill covers etc...) Now the paradise fish spend nearly all of their time checking out where the other one is and vice a versa, leaving very little time for picking on other communal fish. Although the introduction of the second fish has reduced the physical attacks the paradise fish where still intimidating other fish. So to teach them a lesson I took away the thermostat, the tank is now at its original temperature of (50F or 10C). This reduction in the water temperature seems to make the paradise fish less territorial but still remain active and healthy, plus the other fish prefer the lower temperatures.

So my tips are=> Always have more than one paradise fish in a communal tank.
Keep the water temperature as low as possible.

P.s The one eyed moore made a full recovery.

Check out pics of my paradise fish at,

Cold 20g

ZenGoalie
Teenie Weenie Fish

Registered: April 2006
Location: Southern NH
Posts: 75

Review Date: Mon April 3, 2006

Would you recommend the profile? Yes | Price you paid?: Not Indicated | Rating: 6

Pros:	Gorgeous color
Cons:	can be a bully

I have one of these beauties in my 10 gallon tank. I just recently got a 30 gallon tank, and may just leave him in the 10. He does very well with a rosy barb and two gold barbs. They seem to get along fine. I don't want to move him into the larger tank with new fish and have him terrorize them...

He is gorgeous to look at. It's pretty neat that when he gets a bit agitated and protective of food, his colors deepen. I'd recommend him if he's going to be the "top of the chain" so to speak.

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