My experience with Parosphromenus Sp. Bintan

Dear Marcin, I like your way of telling us your various attempts to get your fish propagated. Everybody who reads it can sympathize with your hopes, and I do hope with you that finally you will be lucky and succeed. I do not think that you did handle anything severely wrong, to the contrary: you did everything very well. But sometimes it nevertheless doesn’t work out as it was to do, because we are dealing with living creatures. So, it could be that your male cannot fertilize the eggs, often later on it will work, but not in the beginning. Our fish, if young, must learn quite a lot of things as all living beings have to. Jörg Vierke once publicized a nice little movie on Parosphromenus paludicola Wakaf Tapei showing that the pair only slowly learned to fix the eggs at the ceiling the cave.
So, let me recall some points in short that I think to be important:
– It’s easier to produce the first young licorice gouramis not in a rather empty tank but in tank with plants (including floatings plants) and a layer of leaves on the bottom, since the youngest fish have much cover there.
– Four or five leaves are not enough; they must form a cover on the ground. At least that enlarges the living-chances of the young fish in a tank with adults.
– It’s much more difficult to raise a clutch of eggs separately without the adult fish because the male’s care must be substituted somehow.
– There is a time of ten or twenty days in which young after having swum out of the cave are very hard to detect. In most cases I have not succeeded, but there were many of them.
– You can offer caves of nearly any kind at nearly any place in the tank. The small black film containers are favourites with the fish because of very good small measures are their darkness inside. The can float on the surface (perhaps at a side glass of the tank) and will readily by taken.
– But small caves from pottery at the ground are equally conveniant. Mostly, the smaller one are preferred to those with a rather big hollow.
– Absolutely essential is the absence of Calcium, at least to 95 or 98%. Otherwise the eggs will not develop. Other minerals are less important, but should be restricted to a very low level.
– The pH is less important, but since the lowest degree of a concentration of germs is to be strived at, the best means to regulate that is an acid pH. It should definitely be below 6.8; about 6.0 is not bad for the beginning. But it could be 4.0 or even lower.
– An important point is the feeding of the adults. But in this respect you do all what can be done. Glassworms are very good for producing females with a good fertility.
– At any rate you should be prepared with live food for the youngest fish: Rotatoriae are best, but Paramecium is possible, too. In an older tank with leaves and plants the young fish will find something for the first days, but then, at the latest when they are to be seen in the open water or at the surface, active feeding must begin.
– Last remark: There are species I would recommend to begin with (filamentosus, paludicola, linkei) and not fish from the bintan-group. But I know that if one has to take the fish from a pet shop, you cannot fulfill those wishes. And eventually, you will have success. I am sure.

Marcin, some remarks:
1. I should never try to breed licorice gouramis in a fully empty tank even without any surface plants. I use at least some javamoss and Ceratopteris at any case and leaves or peat on the bottom, and even some small roots, too. Mostly, that makes things easier.
2. You need not to see “everything”. You need to see everything happening in the cave. Place the cave in such a way that you have a good view in it using a torch.
3. It is very risky indeed to keep several species of Parosphromenus together in a community tank. If you don’t mean males only but females, too, I wonder if you would be able to select the “right” females if you want to breed a species. This keeping-together is possible in quite a small number of species only, but very hard if not impossible with the great majority, especially nearly all species (and other forms!) of the bintan-related forms with a rounded tail. We are not sure whether the males could achieve this at any rate; mind that we have no information on the closeness or distinctness of species (or subspecies?) so far. Such a community tank is only an alternative if you have a very well-chosen selection of forms that allow to recognize the females without doubt (or you have so many fish self-bred that you don’t need them fro breeding again). Otherwise the risk of producing hybrids is high. I hope that your hitherto failures are not due to that factor.
4. The caring males try to remove snails from the inside of their caves. They do not feed on them, but try to bite them away. But they don’t succeed in any case. The only thing one can say is: In breeding tanks there is no room for snails as long as there are eggs and larvae within the cave. At least one should try.
5. The caring male should be left as long as possible. It is possible but very difficult to raise eggs without the help of the male. It is impossible without use of effective chemical means against funghi. The males work very effectively in this respect. They will find and remove any bad single egg.
6. The male should (or could) be removed when the young leave the cave. This is not the same moment for all, it can differ from hours to one day. The young will swirl around within the cave a long time (days) before they leave. The father will put them back to the nest, at least he will try (but rather effectively).
7. The thing becomes difficult if the pair has spawned a second time shortly after the first; that happens. Then you have larvae and fresh eggs mingled together at the ceiling of the cave. Then it is best to leave the male at the place and give shelter to the young by the leaves on the bottom and the swimming plants at the surface. Many males (and females) don’t harm their young, but some do.
8. Extensive breeding is the best way to first successes (= leaving the pair in a highly structured breeding tank and feeding it with fresh small Artemia naupliae that could taken by the young, too). Intensibe breeding (= breeding without the permanent presence of the parents, breeding for quantity) is much more difficult. One should learn it, but later only.

Martin – I have attempted to adjust you photos a bit to see your wee little ones a little better