new here looking for help breeding paradise fish

[durisimo]

I got a few paradise male and female all adults and have tried to breed them unsuccessfully 2 times!

Male makes nest; female is gravid, both times the nest filled with eggs; however they were an odd mucus/snot color and 4 days later never hatched; temp is at 80f and water is at 4 inches in their 10 gallon tank; some plants are in there, they do everything they are supposed to; please help as I really need to breed them as to fill my 200 gallon; I have the albino, red, black, blue, Spikey and the rare round tail type paradise fish; all pairs male and female.... All my girls are gravid as they have been conditioned with daphnia and artemia the past few weeks, I have spawned bettas for over 20 years and didn't do paradise fish because they were easy to find but now they are rare and I want to fill my downstairs tank full of them and keep my Oscar/cichlid 320gallon upstairs

For a guy like me who has had no problem breeding gouramis, Oscars, discus and angels.... This is disheartening!!!! I need this to work as me and my girlfriend love paradise fish, please help me and tell me what I did wrong; I did them just like betas setup wise, why are the eggs not hatching??

 

[Andy Sager]

Check water temp and PH/ hardness. These are the main culprits to unhatched eggs. If the pairs are young, that might be the problem but I've had first time breeders hatch so I doubt that this is the problem. I recently had a problem with Angel eggs not hatching and it turned out to be a temp issue. It was summer and they were outside ( in FL) so the temp was too high to keep the eggs viable. Took the spawns indoors into A/C with a heater and PRESTO, hatched eggs. So I would suggest you check those things out first. (You might also want to raise the water level about 2" to 6 " deep and make sure the light is either dim or diffuse.) The green may have been a slime type algae that killed off the eggs. According to some of my breeder books, 80 degrees is too high. Optimum breeding temp is mid 70s (75-77 degrees) but while your fish spawned at 80, it might still be too hot for the eggs.
Lastly, make sure the tank is covered so the humidity is high ( like with Bettas).

Hope this helps

 

[durisimo]

Thank you for your reply, I tested the water and it's all within normal parameters, this morning I have set up the 10 gallon breeding tank with 6" of boiled water to eliminate any kind of thing that could have been in it, one of my gouramis in the 200 gallon tank died overnight, but I think it might have been old age as he was 6 years old, I am in a frantic breeding mode now I want to have fry from all my fish because I am not going to buy more. The water in the breeding tank is at 78f and should stay that way with my electronic heater, my Opaline gouramis are paired up and building a nest in the community tank so I might be pulling their nest away once eggs are in it. Going to try a pair of black paradise fish in the 10 gallon, I hope this works

 

[Andy Sager]

For what it's worth, I've found that Gouramis breed better at higher temps than the paradise fish did. I looked at another book which had a section on the Spike Tailed paradisefish and it said that that fish shouldn't be considered a tropical fish as it lives in a more colder climate BUT it doesn't seem to have any preferences for spawning. (CRAZY, RIGHT? I know!! )
So try the 10 gal with the boiled water and see how that works. Hatching should be in less than 48 hours. If they don't hatch, it has to be the water parameters that most likely are not to their liking. "NORMAL" parameters are for living, specific parameters are for breeding. They are not always the same values.

Keep us posted.

 

[durisimo]

This ended in total disaster, my male has died from his injuries that he sustained from the female which is sad because he was larger than her, I think I will give up on this dream I don't have the cash to go order online so e expensive black paradise fish or an odd rare round tail paradise (macropodus ocellatus)

I still can't comprehend what went wrong here,female is gravid with eggs and he was displaying and stuff and had a nest built

 

[Andy Sager]

Sorry to hear this but this is what can happen when dealing with aggressive fish like Paradise. Actually, this kind of thing happens a lot with Cichlids frequently as well. It sounds like if your male got the brunt of the aggression, HE wasn't ready to be bred or he was paired with too large a female. But we will never know for sure at this point.
Maybe give it some time and try again have some better meds on hand if you try again.

Good luck

 

[henningc]

I have not spawned them in 20 years, but if memory serves me correctly, the males must be super conditioned as well. I isolated both fish and feed live briane shrimp and livebearer fry gut loaded with brine shrimp and crushed high protien flake. I also used the mason jar trick I use on the bettas to let everyone get worn down a tad.

 

[durisimo]

I have not spawned them in 20 years, but if memory serves me correctly, the males must be super conditioned as well. I isolated both fish and feed live briane shrimp and livebearer fry gut loaded with brine shrimp and crushed high protien flake. I also used the mason jar trick I use on the bettas to let everyone get worn down a tad.

Mason jar trick... For paradise fish? Could you please elaborate? I so don't want to give up yet

 

[henningc]

Before releasing the female in the breeding tank, I use large plastic sweater boxes, put the female in a mason jar with the water filled 1 1/2"-2" higher than the plastic box. With the water line higher she can escape by going up. Put the jar in the box and the male will go bonko and wear himself down. You can keep this set up going for 1-2 days prior to releasing the female into the box with the male. It works so well with bettas, and yes I've done it with paradise fish, that is how I do it every time.

 

[durisimo]

Hmmm yeah I was thinking it was Something different I do something similar, but I let her out at night in the dark after the second day, with exception of paradise fish this has worked on opaline gouramis, betas and colisa lalia, I am going to try macropodus spechti and see if I get lucky