Paradise fish?

[william]

i've recently put a paradise fish into my pachytriton tank to go with the other fish, zebra dianos, aurelius barbs, white cloud mountain minnows and european minnows. before you tell me about pachytriton being very good at ambushing fish, i haven't had a single casualty, and i've had them since early august together. i am thinking about buying a paradise fish, will this be okay in the tank? i've heard that they are aggressive but the tank is 60 gallons, any advice would be great.

 

[alexander]

Paradise fish are kinda like bettas and Gouramis they could be very agressive.... but you kinda have to test it out some are less agressive then others.
And a 60 gallon sounds very good...
Ill look for some links in how to well take care of them..... i was also intrested in getting one but they don't seem to sell them around here.

 

[joseph]

I've kept paradise fish, and I think that it is not a good choice because paradise fish are greedy fish and can grow surprisingly large. You may notice those white cloud mountain minnows dissapear. Also, I had one attack and ended up removing an eye from a zebra danio. While I've had some interesting flukes especially with the fry that I raised and introduced to community living early, I wouldn't risk it.

As far as the pachys eating paradise fish, I would think they are too large unless you acquire very young ones. I remember keeping them with crayfish and while they occasionally ate another fish, the paradise fish were never caught.

 

[william]

well i've got it so i'll put it into the tank, if i find any problems then i'll remove it

 

[ira]

{William Jones (Will_j),Monday, November 29, 2004 - 13:42,#POST40030,well i've got it so i'll put it into the tank, if i find any problems then i'll remove it}

not to be a jerk or anything, but that is a really poor Philosophy to have when dealing with animals. you should focus on preventing problems from happening, not correcting them after they have already happened. These are living creatures and by taking them into your care you should provide them with the best environment possible.

just my 2 cents.

 

[rose]

Hi William,
It's true that paradise gouramis can become very aggressive as they become larger. But what also concerns me is that they are technically a tropical fish, not a temperate or coldwater one. So even if a fight did not break out in your tank, you could be doing the paradise gourami a huge disservice during the winter months.

 

[william]

the tank is at a constant temperature 18 degrees C, and paradise fish can stand temperatures of 10 degrees C, or so all my tropical fish books have told me.

 

[joseph]

Yes, the cold water is fine. Don't try keeping them under 60 unless you are willing to risk possible losses. I have wintered them outside as low as 40 but some of the weaker ones tend not to make it esp. if they are small.

Still I do not like the idea of putting these fish in a salamander tank. One thing I can see coming would be for you to wake up one morning and realize one of your pachys is missing a leg or two.

 

[william]

okay, i've taken your advise, the fish is now in a separate tank. the salamander is 8-9 inches long, no baby! so i thought that there would be no problem with leg nipping, i chose this fish because it wasn't too small to be swallowed and not too large to do any damage but i have moved it just incase. thanks for the advice.

 

[rose]

It's cool that you decided to move the fish. I'll still argue with you, though, about the temperature for them...just because a fish can "stand" a temp doesn't mean it would be a good idea to let it live at that temp constantly. One thing I've noticed with keeping these fish at a constantly low temperature is that they tend to be more prone to disease, including fungal problems, which would of course be dangerous for the other inhabitants, too...

 

[william]

hold the phone a second, i never said that i was keeping it at that temperature, i was just showing that i was well with in the correct temperature range

, sorry if there was confusion

 

[i.]

Maybe I'm wrong, but doesn't paradise fish live in the same streams of Japan then the pachytriton does? Seems I read that somewhere once...

 

[william]

pachytriton arn't found in Japan only in China, i think paradise fish are all over S.E. asia, not sure about japan, so maybe they are found together in China.

 

[rose]

Hi William, I think you're right about them being in S.E. Asia. I think most of the gouramis and other labyrinth-organ fishes live in warmer areas where there would generally be less oxygen available in the water. Isn't it correct that Pachytriton prefer cold, moving water?

 

[william]

yes, you are right, but as i have said the paradise fish are very hardy, they were supposedly the first tropical fish introduced into the west. and they can be kept in cold water situations, as long as it isn't to cold. the pachytriton is in cold water, which is good for both it and the fish. but anyway as i said the fish is in a different tank now.