In the wild, paradise fish eat small insects and mosquito larvae, and experiments by the Taiwan Endemic Species Research Institute have shown that a male paradise fish can eat as many as 374 mosquito larvae in one day-eight times as many as the so-called mosquito hunters.
但比起台灣原生的蓋斑鬥魚，農委會特有生物保育中心的調查發現，在野外以小蟲和孑孓為食的蓋斑鬥魚，雄魚一天可以吃掉多達三百七十四隻孑孓，超出所謂的捕蚊魚八倍以上。