Paradise Fish, breeding

Hi, my name is Val. I just bred a pair of blue paradise fish for the first time. It has been successful so far. Today he had a huge nest in the top of the tank. They're in a 7 gallon tank with 2 ottocinclis. They copulated many times this evening & she released hundreds of eggs. They BOTH then gathered them up & took them to the nest. I imagine he'll chase her away when the work is done & will guard the nest from her. We should see little ones in about 24-48 hours. Short incubaiton period. I'm super excited as this is my first dealing with paradises. I have video footage of the process over the last week. It's awesome...the local pet store has offered to hire me as their new paradise fish supplier if it's successful. Keep your fingers crossed & thanks for letting me share. Peace out...

Congrats and good luck! My paradise fish make nests all the time but I have only actually seen eggs once. They are the smallest fish eggs I've seen. I gathered some up (this was about a month ago) and took them out. By the next morning, those that I left were all eaten. Four babies hatched from about 50 eggs I had. They hatched in just a few days (the shortest I'd ever seen!) and didn't look anything like fish. Only one survived past a week and is now getting pretty big in a net breeder. He's already eating adult food in small pieces. I first fed him liquifry.

I hope your adult paradise fish don't eat the eggs or fry when they hatch. Mine always do. If you need/want a web site to put up photos, short video, or info, I'd be happy to link it to my site or put it on my server.

Hi Robyn...the babies hatched yesterday & there are probably about 200 of them. The mom (Eden) is in her own tank now & Pari (dad) is guearding them with his life. When they move from the nest he takes them in his mouth & spits them back into it. He's so obsessed w/the nest that he's not eating. I figure when he starts ignoring or eating them that'll be the time to move him in with mom. I'll see what I can do about sending you some video or pics. It's awesome. Thanks for your support. They are SO tiny. All I could see at first were their little tails hanging down from the nest. They looked like tiny clear tadpoles. Now you can see their eyes & they're about 33 hours old. I'll keep you posted on their progress.

Sounds great. Yeah, my baby paradise I got last month was the tiniest fish I've ever seen but he or she is growing fast and will be out of the net breeder in just a few more weeks! The little guy has all his/her stripes and acts just like the parents. My adults ate all the eggs, most likely since I have 3 of them in a 5 gallon. The baby will stay in the 20 gallon without other paradise fish (and hopefully stay out of trouble!). The male is supposed to protect the fry at first but I didn't get to see that. I'm glad your daddy is being good. 200 is a lot of babies!

My baby paridise fish are doing well...about 25% of them surviced. The crazy thing is momma's pregnant again & poppa has another nest going!!! Geez they're worse than guppies! The babies are in a 5 gallon tank & parents are int he 7 gallon. He obsessed over the nest to the point that he didn't eat so I'm thinking I may scoop the nest out after the eggs are laid. I'm feeding the babies Liqui-Fry II & they're just swimming all over the place. this is really really cool. I'm going to burn a DVD of the vidoe I took & copywrite it. That way I may be able to make a small business out of breeding & selling them to local petstores. SO fat it's been very sucessful as far as the breeding goes. I wonder how long it takes them to get about an inch long.

If you don't try to protect the fry, they probably will all get eaten. My baby is about half an inch long at about a month old. My guess is that it would take 3+ months to get an inch long.

My plan is to try & take the nest out w/the eggs in it & put it in w/the other fry. That way I'm not moving all the fish around & the fry I have now are too small to eat their new sibs. It's too much to try & separate mom & dad & babies all at once. I'll try it this way & see what happens. Thanx for the info & I'll let you know what happens. The eggs will be in a tank where they won't get eaten. the fry I have aren't even a week old. They sure are tiny.

They're at it again...as I write she is laying more & more eggs. I'm looking at about a week apart between batches. Geez this is nuts! They ARE worse than guppies. It's been a very educational experience, especially for my kids ages 9 & 6. They have a 10-gallon tank w/11 assorted tetras, 2 dwarf frogs & a common pleco. They have sat up wVal& watched a guppy give birth to up to 17 babies at once at 10 pm. They have 3 glowlites, 2 blacks, 4 white clouds & 2 cardinals. So they're just as addicted to fish as I am. I'll et you know how this 2nd batch works out. See you in a couple days!

The 2nd nest made it okay...I haven't scooped it out, I'm going to wait & see what happens if I leave it in w/both parents. I've heard that they will both raise the babies. We'll see. I'm gonna be overrrun with fish if this keeps up lol. I guess I got more than I bargained for. There aren't as many eggs though so they may not have been ready. He doesn't seem as obsessed w/the nest & the eggs are a milky color so I guess that they may not be viable. We'll see what happens. Have a good one

The babies should be hatching today. Eden AND Pari are tending the nest. She helps put eggs that fall back in but he still chases her off about 70% of the time. What am I going to do with all these fish? I wonder if I can sell all the fry from one batch for about $50. That would support my fish habit lol.

If you have room to grow them out in other tanks, then you can sell them. If you can't handle all the babies, do nothing, and the parents will eventually turn on their babies although they sound like very good parents.

Mom & Dad destroyed the nest overnight but it looks as if he's building another one. The eggs got all fuzzy so I vacuumed them all out & assumed the were dead. He's being ratehr aggressive toward her. The babies in the lower tank are doing well alothough it looks like a few have expired. But with that many fry it was bound to happen. Have a good day.

Well it's been about 3 or so weeks & all the babies have died. I'll try again. This time I'm putting Pari & Eden in the baby tank & letting them do their thing there. Then when they're done I'll put her back in their tank & keep him w/the fry for a time. Then when he's done playing house I'll put him in the other tank w/momma. This is quite an experience & I've made a DVD of it. It's a trip. Have a good day!

thats sad about the babies. I need to see that dvd!:)

They just bred ahgain however Pari had no nest built & the eggs have all turned opaque & fuzzy again. They breed like guppies (or worse!) but he seems very ho-hum about a nest. He tried to keep all the eggs togetehr (he's a good father) but to no avail. I need to clean that tank & put Eden back in & see if he'll build again. Thanx for your sympathy & I'll try to include the pics of the mating process. It's a trip.