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The surface breathers


Pegasus

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heaps I have a variety in my tank alone- giant gourami, thick-lipped,snakeskin,moonlight,siamese fighter. i believe a fire eel can breathe air through some other method although I know it isint a anabantid. I have seen kissers and blue gouramis, but have never seen a climbing perch or a nile perch. snakeheads arent anabantids but once again they can breathe air too.

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Good selection you have there Benny.

Apparently most of the eel types can travel overland for several miles provided they can keep moist. I was wondering if any member had an unusual Anabantoid or as you say, even an air breather.

Don't seem to hear much about the Paradise Fish (Macropodus opercularis).

Are these fish legal in NZ as they can withstand quite low temperatures.

According to the books they only grow to 8cm, but my last male seemed bigger than that, but it was some years back and the female was not much smaller. It also states that they don't like heated tanks, but mine were in a nine foot tank with juvenile Oscars and other fish for quite some time and even spawned in there :)

Really beautiful at spawning time, with fantastic colours, but also pretty aggressive and not to be trusted with smaller fish.

Bill (Pegasus)

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Paradisefish are legal here. I used to have a beautiful male in cold water but as he grew he got more and more aggressive. I gave him away in the end as he was hassling the other fish. He was the only one of his kind in the tank and at the time I could not find a female for him.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Question.

How many true Anabantoids are available in captivity, and what are they?

How many are available in New Zealand?

Bill :)

Paradise fish are wild in some NZ districts, they can survive average temperatures of 16Degrees and lower for short periods.Sometimes they turn up for sale at Wonderworld Aquarium here in Rotorua.Last time I went in there they had a few males and females for sale.

You could try giving DOC a ring an see if there are any wild in your area, in Rotorua we have alot of wild mosquito fish, and also guppies aparently but I have never found any.

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One of the best sites for information on both exotic and native freshwater fish in NZ is www.niwa.cri.nz/rc/freshwatewr/fishatlas/fish finder.I do not know of any wild populations of Paradise Fish in NZ but if any one does I would like to hear from them.There were swordtails in a stream at the Taupoend of the Napier Taupo road but last time I was there didnt find any.There are still mollies in a swamp a little west of Turangi

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One of the best sites for information on both exotic and native freshwater fish in NZ is www.niwa.cri.nz/rc/freshwatewr/fishatlas/fish finder.I do not know of any wild populations of Paradise Fish in NZ but if any one does I would like to hear from them.There were swordtails in a stream at the Taupoend of the Napier Taupo road but last time I was there didnt find any.There are still mollies in a swamp a little west of Turangi

I will ask Ardi at wonderworld where he got his from.I have heard of populations in Tauranga, aparently the local kids used to catch them in the drainage ditches, the same places you would expect to find mosquito fish.I will do some investigating and get back to you.

Thanks for the info on the swordtails and mollies, looks like I might be going on a mission sometime soon.

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Pegasus said...

> I was wondering if any member had an unusual Anabantoid

While I don't have any, I've seen several different anabantoid

fish in NZ including Chocolate gouramis (Sphaerichthys osphromenoides)

which is one fish I'd consider keeping in my new fishroom if I

see it again. I've also seen Croaking gouramis (Trichopsis vittatus)

and Sparkling gouramis (Trichopsis pumilus) as well as the usual

Colisa and Trichogaster species etc.

They're out there, you just need to be patient and hunt them down.

Andrew.

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I have sparkling gourami,paradise fish,pearl gourami,betta splendens,and have in the past has honey dwarf gourami,along with a variety of the different color variations of dwarf gourami.

On a side note I was appauled some months back when i visited a local chain petstore named Petco (they normally have good plant selection) As I entered the store I noticed the normal endcap display with all of the tiny cups with Bettas in them-only this time the idiots had filled them all the way to the top and put lids on them! :evil: :roll: I quickly removed all of the lids-the bettas that were still alive were frantically trying to get air at the surface.It must have happened recently as there were quite a few still alive.I was very angry at the senseless waste of life-I gave the staff a piece of my mind and left without making a purchase.

David

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I have sparkling gourami,paradise fish,pearl gourami,betta splendens,and have in the past has honey dwarf gourami,along with a variety of the different color variations of dwarf gourami.

On a side note I was appauled some months back when i visited a local chain petstore named Petco (they normally have good plant selection) As I entered the store I noticed the normal endcap display with all of the tiny cups with Bettas in them-only this time the idiots had filled them all the way to the top and put lids on them! :evil: :roll: I quickly removed all of the lids-the bettas that were still alive were frantically trying to get air at the surface.It must have happened recently as there were quite a few still alive.I was very angry at the senseless waste of life-I gave the staff a piece of my mind and left without making a purchase.

David

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I am alittle surprised by you stating that the female bettas need to be in their own tanks-are you sure you havent been getting short fin males(the most aggressive betta) mixed up with females-they look Very similar.I have kept 30+ females in a 55g with no problem-stores routinely have more than that in a 20g here in the states. I bred bettas and the interesting thing seemed to be that the brood could be kept together with no problems even a 1" but if you separated them and then put them together there would be fighting.

David

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I think he meant they have to go in a seperate tank from the males. The fighter I used to have was always pretty agressive towards guppies, but I never let him have a chance to get them. I decided it might be a bad idea to put him together when he started attacking them against the side of a cup I was floating the guppies in.

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I am alittle surprised by you stating that the female bettas need to be in their own tanks-are you sure you havent been getting short fin males(the most aggressive betta) mixed up with females-they look Very similar.I have kept 30+ females in a 55g with no problem-stores routinely have more than that in a 20g here in the states. I bred bettas and the interesting thing seemed to be that the brood could be kept together with no problems even a 1" but if you separated them and then put them together there would be fighting.

David

My females are fine together, I just can't put them with other types of fish, they cause no end of trouble.The males go in with my guppies and they seem to leave them alone, but if I put female fighters in with my guppies all I would be left with the next morning is dead or dieing guppies.The females have occasional conflicts together, and it is usually the older females causing the trouble, I don't use females for breeding that are older than about 6 months, I have had them kill my good males and even drive them away and take over the nest, and they never do a very good job.

Peter

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I have never heard of this before-again;I have had short fin males mis-represented as females and lots of trouble ensues,but females are normally considered comunity fish and I kept them as such for a long time.

I do keep a single male in a few tanks as I no longer breed them.

David

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I have never heard of this before-again;I have had short fin males mis-represented as females and lots of trouble ensues,but females are normally considered comunity fish and I kept them as such for a long time.

I do keep a single male in a few tanks as I no longer breed them.

David

I know what you mean about the males that don't develope tails, when I started breeding them about 4 years ago I got many of them in my hatches, but after a while of breeding haven't seen many crop up in my batches at all.

Maybe with my females it's just the way they are but they definately cause more problems for me than the males do, I have in the past kept a batch together as long as 3 months with no real problems even with the males fighting.I can leave a male in with the females if I want and the rest of the males are segregated either into large jars or one male into each of my guppy tanks.

Peter

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There is a definate subspecies of Bettas that are the short fin males and they do have increased aggressiveness.I am interested as to why your females are so pugnacious-I have never heard of anyone else having this problem-will your females fight to the death? Do they bully other fish?

David

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Hi David, Peter,

Seems there are quite a few Betta's,

B.bellica, B.brederi, B.imbellis, B.smaragdina, B.macrostoma

The B.smaragdina has shorter fins, but is classified as the "Peaceful Betta"

The B.brederi is apparently a Mouthbrooder, and doesn't build a bubble nest. Don't know if we get these over here??

Bill.

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There is a definate subspecies of Bettas that are the short fin males and they do have increased aggressiveness.I am interested as to why your females are so pugnacious-I have never heard of anyone else having this problem-will your females fight to the death? Do they bully other fish?

David

It would be great if you could give me some advice, The only other thing I can think of is that I have bred my females to be highly coloured, some of them are just as colourful as the males.Would them being colourful have something to do with this problem.They are definately female, some of the most colourful ones I have bred and they have good batches of fry.

I could try crossing out and bring some new males from outside as I have only bred brother to sister for the last 4 years but I am worried I might loose the colour in my females.

Peter

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I wonder whether the repeated inter breeding with no "new blood" has bred in an aggressive streak to your females.It would be interesting to take females from the same brood and bred some with brood mates and some with new stock,continue this for a couple of generations and see what happens to the aggressive tendancies.

David

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