The Brown
Spike-Tailed Paradise Fish (Pseudosphromenus dayi)
(by
theAquarian September 23, 2000)
 In
the aquarium hobby, the majority of hobbyists either use 10-gallon
aquariums or they did use them at one time. These aquariums often come
home with beginning hobbyists as their first ‘big’ aquarium.
Unfortunately, as beginning hobbyists become advanced hobbyists, a
10-gallon tank becomes much too small, and so they end up sitting in the
garage gathering dust. Well dust off the cobwebs if they’re gathering, or
go out and buy your first 10-gallon aquarium, because no matter what your
reason for owning a 10-gallon, there is a great little fish that is
perfect for that size set-up: The Brown Spike-Tailed Paradise fish.
(a.k.a. Day's Paradise Fish)
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
 Quite
frankly, this fish is perfect and I can’t figure out why more people
haven’t tried it. The only real drawback to this fish is its name. Most
people when they see the name Paradise Fish immediately think of a
mid-sized, brutish fish that is not quite as pretty as a dwarf gourami,
but much more likely to kill all of its tank-mates. This characterization
is unfortunate because the common Paradise fish Macropodus opercularis
is not the only Paradise fish. The Brown Spike-tailed Paradise Fish has
little in its behavior that resembles Macropodus opercularis. In
fact it is no longer included in the same genus as his more brutish
cousin. To confuse things further, there is another fish available called
the Spike-Tailed Paradise Fish. This fish maintains many of the same
characteristics as the Brown Spike-Tailed Paradise Fish, but it lacks some
of the coloration and the lengthy tail extension of the brown variety.
(Though admittedly, the two fish may be very difficult to tell apart in
pet stores, as the coloration of the Brown Spike-Tailed Paradise is rarely
its best in dealer’s tanks)
A DESCRIPTION TO REMEMBER
The Brown Spike-Tailed Paradise is a small fish that
reaches only about 1 ½" in length. This size is perfect for breeding in a
small aquarium of 5-10 gallons. However, very few fish in the aquarium
hobby are purchased due to their size alone. This fish is also very pretty
to look at. Both the caudal and anal fins are edged in a bright blue trim,
as is the tail. The tail is nearly as long as the fish's body and ends in
an elegant point that is really something to be seen. The body shape of
the fish is very similar to that of a female betta except that the head is
pointed downward slightly more than a betta’s head typically is.
 In
addition to its good looks and small size, there are several other
good reasons to keep this fish. First, you don’t need an elaborate
set-up to breed or keep this fish. All you will need is an aquarium and
the fish for the most part. The Brown Spike-Tailed Paradise Fish can live
and breed successfully and easily in a wide range of water temperatures.
In fact, you can keep them in any aquarium that has water between 70-80°,
which often makes using a heater optional (I personally prefer to keep
them in the cooler part of the given range though I have no scientific
reason for doing so). In addition, this fish is a labyrinth fish, so
aerating the water is not necessary. Water holds more oxygen at lower
temperatures and though this fish is a labyrinth fish that can take oxygen
from the air, it will also take in oxygen from the tank, so it is
worthwhile to improve the available oxygen by lowering the temperature.
BREEDING
Another of the noteworthy characteristics of this fish,
especially for beginning hobbyists, is its willingness to breed. What’s
more, the parents are somewhat permissive of their young, which simplifies
caring for the fry. Most gourami will eat any free-swimming fry in the
aquarium. Now I don’t want to say that this fish won’t eat the
free-swimming fry, because they will, but they don’t chase after the fry
with the same fervor that many gourami do. This means that you can often
raise some of the fry in the same tank as the parents. I don’t recommend
this if you are trying to maximize the amount of young you raise, but if
you aren’t all that concerned you will be able to raise some young without
doing much to protect them if there are a few places for the fry to hide.
 I
recommend keeping the Brown Spike-Tailed Paradise in a very well planted
fish if you intend to breed it. There are two reasons for this. First off,
the fish will build a bubble nest at the surface of the water. Bubble
nests stay together better if they are attached to plants. Secondly, if
you have a lot of living plants in the tank, you are likely to have
lots of microscopic food. Anyone who has raised gourami fry will attest to
the fact that getting the fry through their first month is the hardest
part of raising them. This is because gourami fry are quite small. Unless
you have a very small food, you will lose hundreds of them to starvation.
Having a well-planted tank will help to prevent those losses, especially
if you supplement the natural food with a very small, prepared food such
as OSI’s microfood.
The fact that you don’t need an aerator or other filter
in a gourami-breeding tank makes keeping this fish not only inexpensive,
but it also helps the breeding process. Gourami will not build bubblenests
if they cannot find a portion of the water that seems to be perfectly
still. This is very true of the Brown Spike-Tailed Paradise Fish; so if
you do intend to use any type of devise that will disturb the surface of
the water, make sure that at least 5 inches sq. of surface water is
absolutely still.
If you intend to breed this fish there are a few other
things that you should keep in mind.
  First
off, you will want to put your breeding aquarium in a spot that is
little bit off the beaten path. This Paradise Fish is skittish and very
likely to devour the eggs while in the nest if someone goes walking by
the tank every 10 minutes.
Secondly,
make sure you watch the tank. Now while this may seem contradictory to
the last statement, it’s really not. I don’t recommend spending all your
waking hours next to the tank. However, you will want to keep an
especially good look at the aquarium during sunrise and sunset, as these
are the most likely times for this fish to breed. If you want to keep
the highest percentage of fry possible, removing the female immediately
after breeding will help you immensely as females eat the eggs and
stress out the male, causing him to lose eggs from the nest. The Brown
Spike-Tailed Paradise fish breeds in typical anabantid style. The male
will build a bubble nest and then entice the female under the nest. The
male and female will then embrace and the female will release a few
eggs. The male then carefully places each egg in the nest. The process
will be repeated many times. Once the male isn’t trying to get the
female under the nest anymore, it is safe to remove the female.
 Once
the fry are almost free swimming (i.e. spend more of their time swimming
up than free falling through the water) I recommend removing the male if
you want to keep a high percentage of the fry. Now as mentioned before,
you can leave the male with the fry and expect to keep some of them.
I’ve always found it interesting to see which species of gourami are
permissive of fry being in the aquarium with them and which are not. The
Snakeskin gourami appears to be the most permissive, while others are
not so permissive of their fry. I’ve hypothesized that it might have
something to do with the amount of water that the fish usually lives in
naturally. If a fish lives in a small amount of water, say a small pool,
then there would be an evolutionary advantage to being permissive
towards fry. Otherwise the fish would eat all it’s fry and quickly drive
itself to extinction. I don’t know if this is the case with the Brown
Spike-Tailed Paradise fish, but it’s certainly fun to think about.
The
last note I have is to make sure your water is only about 6" deep.
Usually I will fill a 10-gallon aquarium halfway full to breed gourami.
If the water is too deep, you will lose a large number of fry as they
try desperately to get back to the top of the tank when they first
become free-swimming. Gourami fry require air from the atmosphere, and
they will drown if they are unable to reach the surface. When they reach
the surface, the air they breathe needs to be moist in order for their
labyrinth organ to develop properly. So make sure the aquarium is always
covered. This will provide the layer of warm, moist air that they need.
 The
Brown Spike-Tailed Paradise Fish is very easy to keep alive and breed. I
personally like to breed different fish to see how they behave. Among
the many fish I've bred, the Brown Spike-Tailed Paradise fish has been one
of the most exciting to keep. It is also very under-appreciated for its
color. As such, I highly recommend it to anyone out there who wants to
raise and breed a fish they haven’t tried before. It will delight you with
its colors, and be more than worth your time.
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