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Hello,
I,ve never posted before and I really like this site.
I really want to set up a tank for these lovely fish with little blue fins. I found Tom’s “bucket o’ mud” so inspirational.
I was wondering if licorice gouramis could be kept with chocolate gouramis and if any one has had experience of this.
In principle, licorice gouramis and chocolate gouramis harmonize very well, since they both live in the same biotopes (small running blackwater streams in peat bog rainforest areas). Therefore both prefer deeply brownish coloured water of very low conductivity (well below 100 microsiemens/cm) and a pH well below 7.0, mostly between 3.0 and 6.0. Their preference of different regions in the waterbody (chocolate in free water and near the surface, licorice near to structures as caves and the bottom area) are appropriate, too.
But: Sphaerichtys could be much more aggressive than Parosphromenus and they have different movement and feeding habits. Doubtless, one could keep them together in a tank big enough for the establishment of rather separate territories, but then it could be difficult to feed the licorice appropriately. One thing is very difficult indeed: to breed both of them extensively in such a tank because the adequate feeding of the young is nearly impossible.
Whereas chocolates are still widespread living in nature presently (especially osphromenoides), the many variants of licorice are strongly confined to mostly small surviving habitats under high pressure of imminent destruction, and therefore all of them are rare and endangered fish. They are much more specialized than the chocolates. The Parosphromenus-project has not been launched in order to make licorice popular for simple fish-keeping, but to find people all around the world to engage in their sustainment. For an aquarist this means breeding them, in the first rate, and engaging in nature conservancy in south-east Asia.
Simply buying or catching a group of this rare fish and keeping them in a nice aquarium is nothing I would recommend. Simply keeping very rare and endangered fish just for establishing a decorative aquarium is somehow besides the reality; for this purpose there are enough nice fish which are not endangered at all.
But as I described in the beginning: It could really be a very good fish-community and a nice, biologically founded tank. Therefore I would suggest the following way to proceed: First one should learn to breed the licorice (and the chocolates). If interested in endangered rare fish, in my view this is a prerequisite to everything else. That means: You should breed a pair of these fish in a suitable small tank, better two or three species in two or three small tanks. Only there you will observe the full behaviour. A year later (or so) one could have enough offspring. Then time has come to establish that nice big tank following ecological and other biological considerations. Before it’s only fun without thoughts on the circumstances.Thank you Peter for such comprehensive response.
I’ll certainly bear in mind the aims of the project that you have outlined when setting up my tank. Or tanks where breeding may be concerned.
Whilst I appreciate the concerns of conservation of rare and endangered species, I personally find conflict between conservation and keeping decorative fish as an aquarist. For us it is a hobby to which many sincere people are dedicated however in terms of conservation and from the perspective of the fish surely our efforts are trite when their habitat is being destroyed so that the human race can pursue gratification, dare I say in hobbies amongst other things. These pursuits ultimately are not at all for the benefit of the fish we keep.
However, these are topics which are far beyond me and I don’t have the knowledge of many more experienced people. Personally, I have seen both chocolate and licorice gouramis in my local fish shop and I ask myself if I can provide them with a better home. With some plenty of advice and useful information here I believe I can and I can only hope that is enough.
Thanks again Peter for your great response and it’s so encouraging that you are fully engaged in the subject. I will definitely update on any progress I make.
Happy Christmas and Merry New year
Dear Mike, thank you in return for your very conscious and honest answer. I assure you that your position sounds fully reasonable to me, and I support your way to proceed entirely.
My position will sound very hard and inexorable to many aquarists, I know. Therefore I shall try to explain it here with some words.
The Parosphromenus-project’s main aim is to inform about the Licorice gouramis: their diversity, their behaviour, their habitats, their demands on nutrition and milieu values, and their fate. In a way, they are ideal aquarium fish: small and colourful, peaceful and ready to be satisfied if given the right conditions. But their fate is imminent extinction. We think that an aquarist living far from the rainforest logging in south-east Asia should know this. He engages in a fine hobby, but he should be aware of its connexions and interrelations.
Most fish that are caught and sold for aquaristic purposes live a short life as individuals, die and are replaced by the next. The normal aquaristic hobby is consuming nature to large an extent. I do not reject that, but we should try to influence it to a certain degree: by making people more aware for the connexions and interrelations that are bound to a fine hobby that is followed by millions of addicts in the whole world. It’s commerce, too; we freely use the resources of nature for decorating our homes. That’s all right, too, it’s for pleasure and learning and both are good things. But we should be aware that sometimes we love fish which are highly endangered in nature, as the licorice are; there are others, too. And therefore there is a second aim bound to our project: to try to influence the hobby in general. The second aim is to participate to a certain degree in strategies to reduce the threat on natural diversity by using the hobby as a means to fight that mere consuming mentality.
The normal hobbyist (and I repeat: there are millions, far less in the case of the licorice, maybe one thousand? In our database there are about 250 addresses up to the present day, but nearly every week new friends join) is a mere fishkeeper. He could be a friend of nature, I admit, but he feels rather weak and powerless when the fight against the destruction of nature is concerned. As you told us quite convincingly. This is realistic an attitude. But I like to add: You are not powerless and weak. You can act, in small measures yourself, of course, but nevertheless: act. And you can influence the thinking and acting of others. By talking about it and behaving as a sort of model. There is a slight chance of changing the hobbyist’ world from mere keeping to participation in positive action. At least we can try to gather people who share this opinion.
This thinking is behind our website. Simply keeping nice fish for learning and pleasure is a fine thing; I never would dispute that. And what you, Mike, are intending is still more: Giving the fish a better home than in the tanks of the fish-seller. But trying to breed and propagate the fish not for putting it back to nature (that’s irrational, for many reasons) but for becoming a bit less dependent from their resources and from the markets is a reasonable aim. I read that from your lines. And therefore you are welcome here.
Thank you for the good wishes and have a happy New Year yourself.I agree with you Peter, in many ways, – but as I see it, – there is also another way to see this. When I find an attractive parosphromenus species in a shop, I must admit I buy as many as I can afford, and rarely settles for one or two couples. Mostly because I find it ‘vulnerable’ to have only one pair, – if one fish is lost, its all in wain.
So if its worth it (attractive species, good condition, etc) its possible to have one or two pairs for breeding, and a smaller flock as ‘spare’ so to speak, – and then I find it quite interesting to try to make a good ‘mixed’ tank with these fish.
I have done it for some time with my quindecims, – where I had 5 females and 1 male, – the four females were then in a tank with a few betta uberis and a lot of boraras, – that worked really well, and was quite attractive.
I also have a tank with parosphromenus anjunganensis, indostomus paradoxus and shrimps :).. that is also kind of interesting, although you dont see the indostomus paradoxus very much :).. they are the tinyer species here.But I admit, its not always easy to make it work good. And breeding is really important first and foremost.
Isn’t it interesting that there can be quite a few perspectives of the same side of the coin. This is certainly welcome and I am pleased that as a complete novice, my views are treated in such a democratic way. Thank you Peter and Helene for your thoughts on the matter.
I am sold! Breeding the licorice gourami as a way of reducing dependency on a natural resource is definitely something I shall endeavor to do. This way we “hobbyists” are not completely powerless in the face of extinction of such a remarkable species.
I am starting at step zero, at first wanting to know if 2 interesting species could be mixed in a community, but now I will certainly bear in mind the knowledge shared on this site. As I said in my last post, I will update on any progress I have made and will certainly appreciate any advice on the way.
Cheers.
PS I would really love to see a section of some inspirational tanks and methods that people use. Maybe small feature articles. I have mentioned before that Big Tom’s bucket o’ mud is something that drew me here and has lead me down all sorts of interesting avenues.
[quote=”humike7″ post=664]I would really love to see a section of some inspirational tanks and methods that people use. Maybe small feature articles. I have mentioned before that Big Tom’s bucket o’ mud is something that drew me here and has lead me down all sorts of interesting avenues.[/quote]
There are quite a few interesting tanks pictured here in the forum, but at different places. Have a look in the four “Pictures”-categories in the four forums Asian, American, European and Global. These are designed to show all of us impressive examples of tanks and settings that are specialized or at least conveniant for licorice gouramis.
But I admit: There could be more! Please, friends of the genus, show us your tanks, racks and settings! We all love to look at other aquaria. One needs not always to see the fish pictured very big. Its the general setting and decoration, the caves, plants and wood that make things interesting for other viewers.
And there is one kind of pictures especially rare, of course: Tanks (or parts of tanks) with licorice gouramis visible in it. Many of Helene’s photos are of that kind. But we can have much more of those.Hi Humike,
I am glad to hear that my tank has helped to interest you in keeping Paros. However, I very much agree with Peter on the need to try and breed these little fish, rather than just to ‘consume’ them. I had hoped that they would breed in the Bucket, but I have been struggling to maintain the correct water chemistry for successful egg development, and so I will soon be setting up an additional small spawning tank to move one of the pairs into. I hope this way to be able to enjoy the Paros as a community fish and to be able to contribute a little to the conservation project.
Cheers,
Tom
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