Malaysia in November

Catching Paros is an exhausting thing:

1. They live not in the free water, but in the riparian grasses.
2. Use very strong sieves and catching instruments only; everything else is useless.
3. You must work in the vegetation; this is heavy work.
4. They do not live near the surface but in greater depth than 20 inches.
5. You have to change waters very often; store enough water for that purpose.
6. The best time in the year is two or three months after the breeding season.
7. This means: November is not the best period; high waters are generally bad.
8. Restrict your search to blackwater habitats only; use measurement kits for water parameters.
9. You must obey the laws.

Many people have told that in the wild they never saw a Paro. This does not necessarily mean that there were none. It means that those people expected to catch them like Rasboras or Trichogaster. One has to know something about their behaviour in order to be successful.

Offcourse we expect a buttload of habitat pictures :cheer: :cheer:

I’ve been three times in Malaysia and have brought every time Paros.
Basically, nothing should be taken from the wild and exported to other countries.
Paros do not always come in black water before, paludicola for example, alfredi and rubrimontis occurs in clear water, and certainly a few other species. But most of Paros are sure to find in the black water. The equipment will be used for the fish is clear. Safety net, waders, container to collect the animals during the catch, transport containers and fishing bags or containers for the return journey.
We have mostly caught Paros on the first or second day in Malaysia and then in part three weeks transported to return them home alive.
Transports we have the animals in 18x13x5 cm flat and transparent bowls with lid, can be bought anywhere in household goods for a few cents, you can very well be stacked in styrofoam boxes. As transport water we osmosis water that you can buy as drinking water used, in every night we did 80% water change and now and then fed to a bit with Artemia.
Nets You can save you just need space in your suitcase. In the budget shops there are great noodle sieves, to purchase up to one meter in diameter, for a few €, prefer to take 2 pieces, otherwise you are angry when damaged a screen at the biotope you. With the sieve under the riparian vegetation, lift and shake the bushes, Paros then fall into the sieve. With a band I have bound me a bucket with a lid around the belly in which I then collect the fish and herziehe behind me. I am indeed in the water and start in the riparian vegetation and would have to bring every time out of the water to the fish in the box to the country.

I did not say that. I have always taken fish to take home. Last time safely 80-100 Paros. They are small and can not be seen by the light, they have always transported in the luggage and not in your hand luggage, that was no problem

Well, I have alfredi trapped in a large creek with clear water, I look at home if I still have a habitat photo of it. No idea whether there are also black water alfredi, but the habitat in Sedilli is clear water and rather have a small river than a creek.

I of course know very little about paro habitats, but from what I know about some South American species, quite a lot of them are not found in strictly one type of water as far as color goes as long as other parameters like hardness and acidity are met. Some Nannostomus and Rivulus occur in both blackwater and clearwater. + the color of the water may change over years. So if Bernd cought them in clearwater, it does not have to mean they occur strictly in clearwater habitats and vice versa. The coloration they have may be useful even in clearwater environment with dense growth of costal vegetation over the water surface as there is also very little light penetrating.