Here are my current fish:

20 gallon:
4 cherry barbs(2 mated pairs)
3 honey gouramis
1 dwarf gourami
3 neon tetras
5 panda cories
1 siamese flying fox
1 african dwarf frog
2 ottos

15 gallon:
3 black skirt tetras
1 rainbow shark(3.5 inches)
1 hypostomus(5 inches)
3 bronze cories
6 guppies( 1 male, 5 females)
1 ram(female)

5.5 gallon:
2 guppies(males)
1 amano shrimp(baby, going into 20 gallon when larger)

My friend got a 30 gallon and likes my rainbow shark and pleco so i will ask him if he wants them( he has an aquaclear 50). I will eventually take them back once i get a 55. The guppies will be going into my friends 10 gallon and my cousins 10 gallon.
Then the 15 gallon will be a south american planted tank and i will add 2-3 ottos, the panda cories from the 20 gallon, and another ram for my female. The 20 gallon will become and asian biotape and i will just add 5 kuhli loaches and some amano shrimp. The 5.5 will have something like 5-8 neon tetras, 2 ottos, and 2 guppies.

The 20 gallon has an aquaclear 30, the 15 gallon will be getting an aquaclear 30, and the 5 gallon has an aquaclear 20.

Anybody see any problems? Too many fish in a tank? If this is too confusing i could make the new list if you need it.

You doing paradise in the 5 gallon?

You bet!

20 gallon: Filter= Aquaclear 30
1 dwarf gourami
3 honey gouramis
4 cherry barbs
1 siamese flying fox
3-5 kuhli loaches
5-7 harlequin rasboras

15 gallon: Filter= Aquaclear 30
2 rams
6 neon tetras
3 black skirts(I will not up the number, they have been together forever)
3 bronze cories'
5 panda cories
3 ottos

5.5 gallon: Filter= Aquaclear 20
2 paradise fish


The 5 will be set up last becuase i will need it for new fish to quarintine and incase anybody gets sick.

Are you doing blue paradise or albinos or...? Mine are blue w/orange tails. They're the "blue" paradise gouramis. The males have bright orange vertical stripes as well.

The ones i see around here are blue, the colors are amazing.

So far I know of a few different varieties of paradise fish...
Peach
Albino Peach
The orange & blue ones
black
One of the pet stores has a really good book with loads of photo's of them in it & there is one which is black & other colours ( unsure of the name ) which will kill everything you put in with it !!
BTW some of the fry that I have been feeding liquifry have died & they still havn't gotten any bigger...
The ones in the green slime have gotten bigger again, their tails are longer & they are darting around everywhere esp down to the bottom of the container where the slime is... There are no dead ones...
The ones with infusoria still look the same size as when they first hatched but none of them have died...
I'm going to race down to the shops & get batteries for my camera so can take more photo's for you guys...
The ones with the green slime should photograph a lot better now...
Back soon !!

So val, is there anything i should do to maybe trigger the paradise fish to breed? What do you feed the babies?

To trigger the pardise fish to breed - you have to simulate summer for them ( then it will happen quicker ) I find having the pair by themselves works best... Lower the water level ( not a great deal ) & you might find heating it if you're in winter over there will help... Condition them by feeding live foods & feed them several times a day...

I've heard keeping them in a quiet darkened room also helps...

Ive heard about the lowering water level and stuff. Robyn what did you do?

Lowering the water level is a good start. I don't lower mine. At least that's how Pari liked it, I dunno about Adam yet. Also I have mine in a medium-lit room. I turn their light off during the day & have it on only at night. Lowering th water does emulate the dry season in the wild. But in a 7-gallon hex the water is shallow as it is. I imagine it's the same ina 5 gallon. Everyone has different experiences. I'd suggest doing your own experimenting to find what worksd for you. Everyone will tell you something a little different than the last guy. That's why I just did the trial & error thing.

Here's a photo of the fry that I'm feeding "green water "
I've circled swimming ones in red & feeding ones in green... I didn't circle all of them as would take me too long... I didn't worry about doing anything with the photo's of the ones being fed liquifry the ones being fed infusoria - you can't really see them that well...

I think only lower the water level if they are in a large tank...
I'm doing the trial & error thing this time, trying a few things that people have said & then decide whats best when I get to the end result... Then I can say hey guys this works best & so on & henceforth...
So far the green slime ones are doing the best...
BTW I have done some research & the albino fry's will be white but most others will be black...

What else can work besides lowering the water level? rasing the temp?

My water was room temp & they did just fine. Again little or no surface agitation is supposed to be good but Pari built his nests rightt near the filter intake. It's trial & error. You have to find the method that works best for you. Here's what I've found that works for me:

Low surface agitation

Room temp

fluorescent lighting (nighttime)

shut off light during the day

feed them 3+ times a day

Low water level (shouldn't matter in a tank as small as a 5)

Surface plants or other floating decor (I use fake lilies)

Keep mom & pop together 24/7

When the fry hatch leave them in the tank until the nest starts to disintegrate

***Personal experience***use a brine shrimp net to mive fry to nursery tank after nest starts disintegrating

Feed fry proper food at least 3x/day

Low surface agitation in nursery tank is best (as they're very fragile & don't need to be knocked around)

Surface plants in nursery tank for them to hide in & feel safe

After the babies are moved I still keep mom & pop together I never separate them

Usually within a week there's another nest & she's pregnant again.

Right now she's pregnant again & Adam's color has intensified. There's no nest but he's still young yet. Usually when the male's colors get darker that means he's ready to spawn. Also remember that when the eges are laid & the fry are hatched she wil take the rebels that won't stay in the nest into her mouth & spit them back into the nest. Some may end up in her tummy but that's nature. As a rule she will help him tend the nest until it's disintegrated.

Hope I wasn't too rambly. These are my experiences from the last 8 months & like I said, use your own methods cuz everyone will tell you something different.

Tommy, the few times I got fry from my paradise fish, I wasn't trying to breed them so I didn't do anything special. The advise from the others works if you want to induce breeding.

So i just feed the fry liquifry? I can do all the things you mentioned val. I dont have a fry tank though, can i use a net breeder?

In a 5 wouldn't that be a tad cramped for mom & dad? Those things are bigger than they look. Even a small 2 gallon will work for awhile. Like I said before...try a local 2nd-hand store. You might find a treasure there. Of course I know you'd take all the necessary steps to enure the durability of the tank. I had mom & ad & a net breeder in the 10 at one time & it just looked really cramped to me & Pari obsessed to the point of depression when he saw the fry in the net. It wasn't worth it to me to have them all together like that. He was a very emotional guy.

I was thinking of putting the breeder in the 20 gallon like robyn did with her latest batch of fry. I have a net breeder and you are right they are huge!

In a 20-gallon the net breeder should be fine. I won't be coming in here anymore but you know where to reach me if you need to. I still want to be kept posted on your breeding. NaughtyFish has some insightful stuff about feeding the fry.

I've decided to stay. For awhile at least.

Adam started building his first nest today next to thge filter outflow (opposite where Pari built this next to the intake). I'm glad to see he's acting like a male now lol. Evie is hugely pregnant so it's about time. Both of their colors have really intensified which is nirmal during spawning.

You haven't posted for a few days...hope all's well.

Hows adam doing with his nest?

It's still very small but he seems more interested in spawning than building a nest. It'll come with age I guess :rolleyes:

ASAP you might wanna move from Liquifry to something like Hikari First Bites. It's a powder that you can let sit in water to soak down for bottom feeders. I just use it right out of the pouch into the tank because they're mostly top feeders.

Like Naughty Fish I was also told (today) that it's been known to cause fungus in the tanks.

liqurifry causes fungus?

Liquifry is very very hard to work with... It's very very easy to overfeed them which then contaminates their water ( I don't know about fungus but yer I guess thats a huge possibility... ) I think the product is probably a good product, just one that has to be used down to the letter... I don't know if you have been reading but I did a little experiment & set up 3 containers all with roughly the same amount of fry & fed one on liquifry, one on infusoria & the other green water which is just green slime... The fry are 8 days old today, so far there are 4 ( I think ) alive with the liquifry, about 8 alive with the infusoria & around 72 ( none have died at all ) that are with the green slime... Also the fry in the green slime are much bigger then them & also much more active... I think with the green slime because it's a natural thing they would munch on in the wild & also if you overfeed it doesn't contaminate the tank as the microscopic protozoa eat whetevers left over & also because it's just not clouding up the container, it sits on the bottom & they go down to eat it...
I had about 60 fry in each container to begin with but as you can see a 100% success rate with the ones fed the green water... And seeing I'm not quite the mathamatician a very bad success rate with the other foods... I have also got 3 day old fry from the same parents, too many of them to get a real accurate number but around 150 & at this stage they were dropping off like flies ( the liquifry & infusoria ones ) but these ones are all living as well on the green water...
It's important that once you scoop the fry out ( I really think a small container is best because they are so tiny & need to be able to make it to the surface for air & to the bottom to feed & alos it doesn't cost you anything... ) not to relocate them until they are big enough to eat bigger foods... From everything I've read on here or been told or done myself they are very sensitive little babies & they get stressed very easily... Basically just feed them, thats all... Don't move them, don't put chemicals in with them, always use the water from the parent tank & for cleaning just use boiling water... The saying the simple things in life are often the best kind of makes a lot of sense right now...
I gotta go - make the kiddies breakfast...
Any questions just ask...

Hey Val, I'm really gonna have to sperate them for a while so I can concentrate on the other fish that are breeding away altho I just had an idea of topping their water level back up, stopping the live foods so much & if that doesn't work giving them a few tank mates to stop them being so frisky for atleast a couple of weeks... ) Otherwise I am going to end up with oodles of containers all over the place, atm I just have 4 of fry but when the other fishies eggs go into containers I'm going to have loads more... LOL !!!.
Can you suggest any tank mates ???. Gourmami's or something peaceful like that altho I also don't want the male to nip them ??? I could put the juvenile blue & orange ones in with them, do you think ??? Altho they have been making nests & then breaking them up, think because they are a little young yet, they are half the size atleast of the adult albino's...
The other peach lesbian one started to develop fin rot altho I had the treatment already in with her & she's back to normal eating as much as ever & coming to my hand whenn I go to feed her & swimming fastly again... As soon as she is better I'll look into getting her a boyf altho I'm not sure if I can get a male peach so it might have to be another colour...
Cheers...

The guy at the petstore told me to put 2 ottos in w/them. But the male ate at their tails & one burrowed under the rcoks due to the stress & died. I have a pleco (same size as the paradise) in the 7-hex w/them right now & 3 Chinese algae eaters w/the 3 fry inthe 10.

I would ask Tommy about goutami compatibility as he knows WAY more about the species than I do. I only do paradise fish & have tried being selective about what goes in w/them.

BTW he java moss is making a mess in the tank but the fry are hanging out in it all the time now & I imagine they're eating any food that gets trapped in it. I'm only feeding them First Bites every other day to see if they'll eat any of the funk in the moss.


Tommy let me know what goes w/the paradise. The pleco will eventually outgrow the tank.

Im probaby just going to put an aplle sanil in there, a snail is probably the safest! Have any gourami questions naughtyfish?

Well thats great, they'll be pigging out on all the goodies in the java moss... I think all that natural stuff is way better for them & they should do really well from now on...
I do have a few questions about gourami's - it doesn't matter which type they are most info about them is the same... Just wondering how long it takes their eggs to hatch & if they fry are as tiny as the paradise fry ?? And if I should be feeding them the same thing as the paradise fry ??? The Gourami's made a bubble nest, it wasn't very big unlike that of the paradise fishies, then it disappeared but now they have another one which is a little bigger than the first... I'm just keeping an eye out for any eggs, do the gourami's eat them or do they look after them ???
Perhaps I'll scoop come out & leave some in ??? ATM moment it's very hot over here - we're having heatwaves so they don't have a heater altho when I get the big communal tank I will have a heater & filter & lights etc... I want that one to be spot on... I'm thinking I will let them breed say 3 times over the summer then off into the communal tank they will go... They should be fine living with female paradise fish, if the males are placid they can go in as well ( we all know you do get placid ones - all of mine have been placid so far but you do read about them getting quite nippy... ) How big is an apple snail ??? Not sure if we get them over here but the common water snails here are quite small & they eat them but that doesn't matter as I can get as many as I want from the creeks... We have these huge snails which we call Mystery Snails, theres no way they could eat those, they are massive & very good at cleaning the tank... They are about $3.00 each over here !!!. I don't have any atm but I will in the communal tank...
The Albino's have more eggs... Again... I'm going to scoop as many as I can out, give their tank a clean out & get them ready to go into the 3 footer... I'm going to need their tank to put the fry in once they're big enough to eat bigger foods, about 3 weeks or so do you think Val ???
Getting back into fishies has been the best thing for me you guys... I'll be honest on here I was having a bit of a gambling problem but since I've had the fish & been so busy with them I havn't been gambling at all... Also I suffer badly from depression, very very badly for which I take medication & always will so I really understand what you said at your site Val about them helping you !!!. Sigh... Not an easy thing to talk about but yer having all my animals is really helping me so much !!!. Thanks you guys for esp Val for not getting too wild at me for saying the A word & yer once again, I'm sorry for getting uptight about it altho the good thing now is we're all respecting each other & it's all good... : )
Cheers : )

Well I'm glad to hear that the fish are working to curb your gambling...it's a whole lot healthier pastime. I have some pics (CLOSE-ups) of my 3 fry but as for whetever reason I can't get in here as a member I can't post the pics. They're awesome! Their actual size is like this long: ----

They're less than 3 wks old!!! The green ick is working it seems. I've named my 3 Chinese algae eaters Chai, Tea & Cup. Isn't that terrible?

Tommy a snail is really a great choice. I had a ramshorn for a long time & it died in the fry tank at the start of the week. That's why I got the algae eaters.

I do have a few questions about gourami's - it doesn't matter which type they are most info about them is the same... Just wondering how long it takes their eggs to hatch & if they fry are as tiny as the paradise fry ?? And if I should be feeding them the same thing as the paradise fry ??? The Gourami's made a bubble nest, it wasn't very big unlike that of the paradise fishies, then it disappeared but now they have another one which is a little bigger than the first... I'm just keeping an eye out for any eggs, do the gourami's eat them or do they look after them ???

I havent breed gouramis yet but im going to breed paradise fish and honey gouramis soon, maybe val can answer those questions.

Naughty Fish, "mystery snail" is just another name for apple snail. They're the same thing in most cases. People started calling snails that they didn't know what they were "mystery snails."

Paradise fish are a type of gourami. Which other species of gourami are you breeding Naughty Fish? The breeding and care will be very similar to that of paradise fish. Fish are really individuals. My paradise fish eat their eggs but Val's fish protected their nest. So, I think it matters which fish you're using, not just the species but the individuals.

I dunno about other gouramis but paradise. As a rule the paradise fry hatch within 24-48 hrs of being laid. They are VERY tiny resembling little black hairs or specks of dirt. I would imagine that other gouramis breed the same. As I've only had the one mated pair up to this point to go on I can't safely answer all your questions.

Adam has destroyed his nest but is now making one that is thin & goes all the way around the edge of the tank :rolleyes: What a goof. He's growing very quickly.

The fry are eating First Bites once daily & living off the guck in the java moss the rest of the time & have tripled their size in less than a week. Youcan see them from 5 feet now.

Tommy the eggs are a light cream color & will make the bubble nest look 3x as thick. You'll know if she lays them becasue they'll be chasing them all over the tank to spit them back into the nest. I would assume this is what all gouramis do as the paradise do this.

I wouldn't know about other gouramis eating or tending the eggs & fry. The paradise (in my personal experience) will do it untiul the fry are about 3-4 days old (when the nest goes bye-bye) & that's when I separate the fry & the adults. After 3-4 days their egg sacs are pretty much gone so you'll need to feed them something else.

Like I said...all I have to go on is the paradise experience. Good luck & hope I could help.

I am going to turn my 5.5 gallon to a nano reef after i fix up my 20 and 15 gallon.

Robby ( the female albino paradise fish ) also ate the eggs, I'm not sure if Merrick ( the male ) was in on it too... Altho the male is MEANT to watch over the eggs, spitting any that drift from the bubbles back in & also for the first few days of life, he's also MEANT to shoo the female away ( & can apparently get quite nasty ) from the bubbles & fry ( which is why people say to take the female out... ) Obviously the fish are very individual like you say Robyn, thats what I found with my very first paradise fishy, anyone I talked to said I was mad having him in with loads of other fish & yers if he had a bad temperment it would have been a mad idea...
The juvenile blue & orange ones I have now, the female spends a great deal of her time hiding in the driftwood away from the male, only coming out for air or food, otherwise he nips her... The Albino ones love to hang around with each other, the Lesbian pair were great friends too...
I am breeding the Pearl Gourami... They have a huge nest so just waiting to see what happens there... I will get the Flame ones next... I have read a zillion things at good old Google with many days ranging between egg laying & hatching & some very contradicting advice... My pet shop mate thinks they're about 3-4 days to hatch, I've read anywhere from 1 day to 7 days at Google... So guess it's another thing I will be learning !!. I plan on keeping a very good eye on them so I can get as narrow a time frame as possible as well as when they stop feeding from egg sac ( I shall look like Sherlock Holmes, magnifying glass in one hand - minus the pipe & big dorky hat... )
Val my young blue & orange paradise pair keep making nests & then they disappear... My pet shop mate said they are just mucking around til they're mature enough to mate, maybe Adam is doing the same thing... The male one sometimes makes a very tiny nest & every now & then he'll have a massive one all in different places in the tank... I guess a bit like teenagers - just goofing around...
Tommy - I would keep a good eye ( a very good eye ) on the paradise eggs after they hatch just to make sure Mr & Mrs Paradise don't get any ideas about having bacon & eggs for breakfast !. We have 2 out of 3 pairs that like bacon & eggs !.

Val, are you positive yours didn't eat any eggs ? Just asking as they should lay anywhere from 200-500 eggs... I had to keep checking on Robby as she looked like she was spitting them into the nest so I kept leaving her in there, then I caught her doing it on several occasions, so out she came ( plus I noticed probably half the eggs had gone missing :blink: ) thats when I decided to use Robyn's advice about scooping them out... How many fry did you start off with when you separated fry from adults ??? Robby was very sneaky about it, it was almost as if she knew thats what I was watching for so she tried to show me she was only spitting them back in... I snuck up on her the times I caught her eating them, each time she'd swallow several & they wouldn't come back out !. I would have had easily twice as many fry!. I was fortunate to have plenty of time for spying on them...
Ciao Meow...

Im turning my 5.5 gallon to a nano reef so no paradise fish until i get my 55 gallon gourami tank.

That sounds like a plan. It sounds like you're gonna be really busy anyway lol.

Im be busy but i enjoy it. ;)

As a rule Evie doesn't seem to eat her eggs. Maybe a couple here & there buy accident but she tried to always spit them inti the nest from what I saw.

My stock so far is:
1-3 sexy shrimp
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Di...cfm?pCatId=1135
5+ nassarius snails
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Di...cfm?pCatId=1133
3 dwarf zebra hermits
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Di....cfm?pCatId=613
2 dwarf red tip hemits
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Di....cfm?pCatId=621

and maybe some more, Im getting s skimmer, an aquaclear 20 powerhead, and all the other stuff.