Paros. Sp. “Ampah”

Thank you very much! and please keep the pictures coming. I recently got 6 Filamentosus and am beginning to question the possibility of them being “Ampah”. They are still young and approx 1.25 inches so I must wait til mating behaviour to know for sure.

Hello RayCaruana

I cannot help you with the question regarding the excact species that you have, I am sure other will be able to.
But to your last question regarding the male behaviour to the female, – Yes, its quite normal behaviour for the male to be somewhat agressive – or I would maybe not call it agressive – but pushing, chasing, testing out the female somewhat. I think its part of the whole play towards getting ready for spawning, – at times, if the female is not ready, it may seem a bit hard, the male may seem a bit hard to her, but its never too much. And is probably part of the male activating the spawning reaction in the female.

Actually yes, – I was about to write that, – that even small, you do see similar behaviour with the licorice gouramies as in many labyrints, – and they are also territorial to some extend. They are small, so agression is seldom fatal, or really I have never experienced it, – but there are always dominant males and also dominant females.
I just had four very young p.parvulus in one small tank together, two males and two females and noticed that they werent really feeling optimal, – some of them staying in the back of the tank, not coming to feed properly and so, looking a bit dull and grey. So I decided to seperate them into two pairs, – and it has taken one day, and the two males are now colouring up nicely, chasing each his female, very eagerly. When together they didnt seem to have the hieraky sorted out. They are very young, but this definitely helped them ‘grow up’ quicker.

Ray, your fish are most likely not spec. Ampah. The male you show us is too colourful; the reddish tone in the caudal is typical for filamentosus. The spec. Ampah looks somewhat like “black and white” with some brown bands in the dorsal and anal. And the black bands are rather clearly marked. Some have extended filaments, too, others not. All females of filamentosus have smaller filaments than the males, but they have.

The relationship of Ampah to filamentosus is clearly to be seen. The only question is: Is Ampah a separate species or is it a less colourful form of filamentosus? The classical location of filamentosus is about 200 km south, but it is most likely to extend far more north.

Darkening (in the male) ist mostly a matter of temper. My main filamentosus male becomes nearly black all over if he is really in spawning mood. In between he will become much lighter again.

In spec. Ampah we normally see no red at all. If the caudal contains red or reddish brown and there are marked reddish parts in the anal and dorsal it’s more likely filamentosus. The females become very light (as other licorice) in spawning mood. With spec. Ampah, there are nearly always very marked and rather broad black bands to be seen in the unpaired fins, even in the females.

I do not think that the “darkening” of Ray’s fish is a matter of the water parameters (but I would not exclude that). It’s more likely that it is a matter of temper and mood, and that means: it is a transitory phenomenon.