Brown spiketail paradisefish

Care at a glance

Overview

House a pair in a 45 litre tank at 20 to 28 C with soft, slightly acidic water around pH 6.0 to 7.5. Offer small live and frozen foods like daphnia, cyclops, and grindal worm, with frozen bloodworm as a treat. Peaceful but shy, it does best in a quiet planted tank with few or no boisterous tankmates. Dim lighting and floating cover bring out its color and confidence.

In the wild

Lives in soft, often tea-colored streams and backwaters shaded by forest and packed with vegetation. The water is warm and low in oxygen, so it breathes air at the surface using its labyrinth organ. It spends most of its time near cover such as roots, leaf litter, and plant thickets. Populations were once wrongly reported from Vietnam, but the species is native to India.

Good to know

Pseudosphromenus dayi sits in the family Osphronemidae and is the browner, redder-finned relative of Pseudosphromenus cupanus. The two look similar and were mixed up in the trade for decades. Males of this species show more red in the tail and longer fin extensions.

Common questions

Related species

• 

  Spiketail paradisefish

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  2.6 in (6.5 cm) · 12 gal (45 L)

  2.6 in (6.5 cm)12 gal (45 L)68–82°F (20–28°C)
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• Midas betta

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• Obscura betta

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• Lehi betta

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  2.4 in (6.1 cm)16 gal (60 L)72–81°F (22–27°C)

• 

  Croaking gourami

  Trichopsis vittata

  2.8 in (7 cm) · 25 gal (95 L)

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