Paradise fish

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Paradise fish

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Family:	Osphronemidae
Genus:	Macropodus
Species:	M. opercularis

Binomial name

Macropodus opercularis
(Linnaeus, 1758)

The paradise fish or paradise gouramis (Macropodus opercularis), are small freshwater labyrinth fish found in ditches and paddy fields in East Asia, ranging from the Korean Peninsula to Northern Vietnam.

Paradise gouramis were one of the first ornamental fishes available to western aquarium keepers, having been imported to Europe as early as the 1800s. These small fish (adults are typically about 3" (7.5 cm)) are ideal lone inhabitants of aquariums, being physically robust, somewhat colorful and more alert/behaviorally interesting than goldfish.

1 Behaviour
2 Habitat and Diet
3 Reproduction
4 References

[edit] Behaviour

Paradise Fish are fairly combative, harassing and attacking each other as well as potentially killing small fish. In the wild, they are predators, eating insects, invertebrates and fish fry. The popularity of this species has waned in recent decades as much more colorful (and often, less pugnacious) species of fish have become widely available to hobbyists.

However, if you keep these fish with other fish that are similarly aggressive, they will not harm one another. As long as they have another friend of the same species to be with, they will be fine.

[edit] Habitat and Diet

Paradise gouramis are tolerant of virtually any water conditions, surviving in cool and warm waters alike. They can be kept in outdoor ponds, or even the simplest of unheated aquariums. They will accept virtually any food, but should be given a reasonably high-protein diet (as opposed to vegetable-based foods of the sort sold for goldfish.)

[edit] Reproduction

Sexing is easy as males are more colorful and has longer fins compared to the females .

As is typical of most bettas and gouramis, spawning involves a male building a bubble nest (a floating mat of saliva-coated air bubbles, often incorporating plant matter) and attracting a female to it. If the female accepts the male's advances, the fish will 'embrace' in open water, releasing both eggs and sperm into the water. The male gathers the fertilized eggs after each embrace, spitting them up into the bubble nest. After spawning, the male has no further use for the female and may violently attack her (and any other fish that approaches the nest.) Once the fry hatch and have begun to swim freely, the male is best removed and the fry raised on infusoria or newly hatched brine shrimp.