How to Raise Paradise Fish Fry

With their brilliant colors and ornate fins, paradise fish (Macropodus opercularis) might look like fragile exotic fish, but in fact they are adapted for life in small bodies of stagnant water such as ditches and ponds. This makes the species well suited to aquariums, and they breed readily in captivity. The main concern with raising the fry is preventing other fish, including the parents, from eating them, which you can easily address by providing a dedicated nursery tank.

Things You'll Need

  • 30-gallon or larger freshwater aquarium with light and filter
  • Second freshwater tank
  • Gravel, rocks and aquatic plants
  • High quality fish flakes for omnivores
  • Live food
  • Phytoplankton
  • Infusoria
  • Gravel cleaner
  • Buckets
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Instructions

    • 1

      Find buyers or homes for the juvenile fish early, preferably before you start the breeding project. You can locate buyers through local aquarium suppliers, fish keeping groups and your own social network. Once they mature, paradise fish are notoriously aggressive. Attempting to keep a large group of them in the same tank will turn your relaxing aquarium into a bloody war zone.

    • 2

      Set up a freshwater aquarium with plenty of rocks and aquatic plants but no other fish. Plants and rocks provide hiding places and reduce aggression between a breeding pair of paradise fish. The male also needs aquatic plants to house his nest.

    • 3

      Introduce one mature male and one mature female paradise fish. Feed frequent meals with plenty of live food, such as brine shrimp, to condition the pair for breeding. Transfer the female to a second tank after spawning for her own safety. The male builds the nest and guards the eggs. He will even aggressively guard the eggs from the female. Remove the male two days after the eggs hatch. He should be fine housed with the female when there are no eggs to guard.

    • 4

      Feed the fry on phytoplankton, infusoria and newly-hatched brine shrimp once they start swimming. Phytoplankton (algae) provide the vegetable part of the varied diet that tiny omnivorous fish need. Brine shrimp and infusoria, which is a culture of tiny creatures such as paramecia, supply the meat part of a fry's diet.

    • 5

      Introduce crumbled fish flakes and larger sizes of live food as the juvenile fish grow.

    • 6

      Perform weekly water changes as you would for any freshwater tank. Remove up to one-quarter of the tank water with the gravel cleaner and bucket and replace with fresh, dechlorinated water. Dechlorinate water either by leaving it in buckets exposed to air for 24 hours or by using a commercial dechlorinator.