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Long time no hello, everyone! My Parosphromenus ‘sentang’ all slowly died off for unknown reasons earlier this year, and I am thinking of trying again with paroes. Has anything changed with paro care in my absence from the forum? I was planning on the following:
Tank: A 40 cm long standard 5 gallon/20 litre, at least 2 2 gallon/7.56 litre water changes a week with distilled water heated to tank’s temp with sodium bisulfate and tannins added (unsure what I will use for adding tannins). Tank will be bare bottom with a box filter and some floating plants (water sprite perhaps?)
Feeding: Daily 1/4th teaspoon baby brine shrimp, enriched once or twice a week with selcon (I am wondering if I was underfeeding the gouramies…hence why they died off. Was previously doing no more than 1/8th teaspoon three times a week)
Temperature: low 20’s celciusAny changes you guys can recommend? Thanks 🙂
Hello there.
Its a pity that nobody has answered your question, – I will try to answer as best I can.
First I can say that no, of course nothing has changed in terms of how paros are best kept.What you describe sounds mostly okay, – but what is sodium bisulphate and why use that ??
You should definety add some leaves, for tannin but also for the fish to feel comfortable. Bare bottom is not in my mind the best always.
Regarding your question about feeding, – are you using live brine shimps ? Is that what you mean by baby brine shimps ??
Of course it depends on how many fish you have, – but for one tank with a few fish, you really dont need a lot. I feed every second day, – and only feed live artemia, – and I just add a tiny bit to each tank.
But its really difficult to say, – I doubt that is the reason that they died, unless you didnt feed live food.There are a number of things that can go wrong keeping paros, so the reasons could be many
Sodium bisulfate is an acidic salt that can be used to reduce the PH of fish tanks…I was using it in my prior setup. I was using live baby brine shrimp…about 1/8th teaspoon every other day for a maximum of eight paroes. PH and conductivity stayed in the 4’s and below 40 respectively, and I was doing 40% water changes every week (this tank had the unusual attribute of having the conductivity drop over the course of the week). For tannins, the substrate was made of peat moss and I put decaffeinated tea bags to seep into the new water before water changes.
Anyhow, I have decided to alter my plan slightly. The tank will have a layer of peat moss on the bottom (I bought the peat moss before I remembered how destructive its harvest is 🙁 may as well use it now that I have it), capped by a layer of sand and with plants and leaves above that. May boost water changes to 3 times a week. Also, may add a second tank to my paro setup…if I spot fry I would be able to move the parents quickly and maximize fry production.
Good Evening, maybe you could start culturing a moina or another small daphnid species for your paros. They are a freshwater species that you could simply drop into your paros tank in numbers and allow the fish to consume them as they please. This may at least eliminate starvation as the cause of their demise. Good luck!
[quote=”AlmightyJoshaeus” post=6184]Perhaps this would have been better put under ‘methods’?[/quote]
Yes, I think so. We have thought these categories over very carefully at the beginning. Nobody has compained about it all the years. Everybody has tried to fit his not into one of them. You create disorder! Think again before writing next time!
[quote=”AlmightyJoshaeus” post=6184]Perhaps this would have been better put under ‘methods’?[/quote]
Yes, I think so. We have thought these categories over very carefully at the beginning. Nobody has complained about it all the years. Everybody has tried to fit his note into one of them. You create disorder! Think again before writing next time!
Hi A.J.!
Perhaps Helene (webmaster) can move the threat to “methods”?
As far as water preparation is concerned, you shouldn’t use any industrial chemicals!
Sodium bisulfate is for swimming pools and not for small fish tanks!Long time no post, everyone…I was going to start a new thread, but realized I still had this lying around and I could post my questions here. Anyhow…I am once again considering keeping paroes. Can you assess how my setup would do?
Tank: A standard 20 liter
Light: A 50 cm aquarium light
Water: Reverse osmosis water from the store, 2 gallon/7.5 litre water changes a week (maybe twice a week when trying to spawn them). May add phosphoric acid or API ph down?
Heater: Generic ebay heater
Aeration: Air pump, maybe with a box filter filled with gravel. Also, LOTS of plants
Decor Floating water sprite and water lettuce, likely java fern in the water (not so sure on java moss…too messy in my eyes). LOTS of leaves and maybe branches. Perhaps film canisters for caves.Anything I should change?
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