parosphromenus paludicola

[size=5]Jacob – they are a beautiful species and I would join you in wishing to have them in one of my tanks. However, I have not seen them offered either privately or through an importer anywhere here in North America since I began watching the “Paros”. The last Paro census showed a few being maintained in Europe and one breeder in Thailand I believe.
Barbara and Allan Brown, in the UK, had some of them in the late 80’s and another group was available in the late 90’s. That group was attributed to David Armitage in the UK and someone by the name of Pinto. Perhaps that is Tony Pinto (I can’t confirm that however). I believe he is up in your area of the country. If you know him through the local club, you might check with him. If you find some please let me know. I would love to have a couple pair.[/size]

I confirm what Bill has written to your question, Jacob. And may add some further remarks. Try to ask
askkeyfish@comcast.net and
anubiasdesign@yahoo.com
That are US-companies that have imported Parosphromenus in the past.
In Europe (especially Germany) we have lots of P. paludicola (from different localities) which is a species rather easy to propagate and not as pretentious as many other species of this genus. If you will visit our first international meeting of the Project at the end of September 2013 in Hamburg you can have many of them.
But let me add that P. paludicola is not quite as spectacular coloured than many others. The fish from different localities look rather different and some are even a bit dull. There are other species in this genus that are much more eyecatching, and some are nevertheless rather easy to propagate.
I especially recommend for you three species in this respect: linkei, filamentosus and quindecim. All of them are bred by several good breeders and we have great numbers of them in Germany. Come to Hamburg and you will get them.
But they have been imported to the US before, too. Try the above mentioned addresses or the other friends in our project.

There is little variance among the offspring of certain parents in paludicola, but in the other respects you are fully right, Jacob. Of course you will have no chance to choose fish from a special locality, and what you get with this really widerspread species paludicola – provided you will not buy it from a private breeder but from trade – is open to fate. The most colourful variants are Terengganu, Kota Bharu or Paka, certainly not Wakaf Tapei. Wakaf Tapei is most interesting for the breeding colour of the female: it’s getting darker, even blackish, not lighter as all others including all the species of western Malaysia. Jörg Vierke therefore wanted to seperate it as a new species; I was able to stop him in the first run, but the issue remains unclear. Maybe he is right nevertheless. But I don’t like this splitter-mentality. At any rate: Wakaf Tapei is interesting, but not in respect of colour or the longishness of the male’s fins. Both is rather dull and short compared with Kota Bharu or Terengganu. There, the males have mostly very long filaments indeed.
Yes, I think that paludicola is widely underrated because the sparkling stripes and borders of the unpaired fins we know of many Parosphromenus are missing. It’s an odd species compared with the other Parosphromenus, sometimes more resembling a Pseudosphromenus, but very interesting in behaviour and in some variants with nice pastel colouring. I like them but I know some friends (f.i. Martin Hallmann) who don’t.
You will be very satisfied with linkei. Again there are local forms that differ. There are forms with a more silvery body and fins and those with a more brownish or even reddish tinge. They can become rather large, more than 6 cm, the long filament of the male’s caudal included. The most striking difference is that some varieties have lots of small red dots around those black side spots, others have not. (Don’t bother about that side spot: some individuals have one, most two, a few three and some even none). Again, in Germany we breed many of these forms in good numbers, but if you buy from trade all you get is “linkei“. Well, that’s enough, it’s a wonderful fish, sparkling in display and rather easy to prapagate (compared to some other licorice). It’s not a clearwater fish. It is found in blackwater as most of the others (except paludicola).
Try linkei if you get it. You will not regret it.

[quote=”Jacob” post=1078]I’ll definitely get linkei soon, they’re available from wetspot. I was thinking of getting 4, and then keeping one male and one female since it seems anything other than just the parents really lowers the chance of fry survival. The tank is 10 gallons, maybe 6 cm as adults justifies that, and maybe the large brood size also justifies it.[/quote]
That’s definitey true. But I nevertheless think it’s better to take a tank of half the size. Your will not be able to feed the fish, especially the young, properly in a tank too big.

The substrate is laterite and peat covered in sand, in some areas I think the sand covering the peat and laterite is probably too deep. If I don’t disturb it and the cryptocorynes become well established, hopefully there won’t be any complications from anaerobic conditions. From what I’ve read plants might like those conditions but if the substrate is disturbed it can poison the fish. It’s only under two inches of inert sand in the deepest areas but it’s fine sand so must be very densely packed.

It will be rather difficult to breed Parosphromenus in such a nicely planted tank. Yes, many Cryptos often occur in peaty biotopes with similar water conditions, but your aquarium is a tank! Mind the totally different structure of an aquarium compared with the natural conditions! The plants in nature are constantly delivered nutrients by the flowing fresh water und working “nutritional springs” in the huge soil-body of the waters. You cannot replace this by feeding them artificial fertilizers in a near to a destilled water-milieu of still-water. The thick layer of sand is of no use. You cannot rebuild the biotope of a flowing rainwater in a tank with still waters totally differently structured. Try it, but I remain skeptical. It’s good that you want to try to breed them. Mainly the American friends are fully concetrated on “keeping” these fish in a nice surrounding. They should try to breed them. Otherwise we will never have success with the aims of our sustainment project.

I thought linkei were clearwater because of the similarity in size, ease of care and lighter color which it shares with paludicola. For some reason it looks almost like trichopsis coloration on a parosphromenus body.

Thinking is not enough, knowing is better. P. linkei was discovered by Linke and Neugebauer 1990 in Kalimantan Tengah in the same area where they found P. opallios, at that time named P. spec. from Sukamara in the direction of the village Pudukuali. This clearly indicates that linkei is a blackwater fish. The colouring of paludicola is totally different. It’s the pastel-type without nearly any bright spots in the fins. This is different in linkei. M. Hallmann call’s it the “star-sky-type” (just as pahuensis). This is a clear indication of a blackwater fish.