[quote=”Deepin peat” post=6002] (…) He seems to be doing ok so far, wild fish are usually good parents (…) [/quote]
Pavel, you speak of “wild fish”. What do you mean by this? Have you been in Kalimantan catching the parents yourself? Where did you get these fish? P. parvulus has only rarely been traded; in fact we know of only one case in several European countries to which nearly all fish swimming presently in our tanks refer to. Before we had self-caught fish from different origin in Kalimantan Tengah only (Linke, Perrin), not mention the first appearance of this species that led to the description of the late J.Vierke.
If your fish refer to ancestors of the trade action I mentioned, we should not call them “wild fish”; if they refer to a new trade action, we should be cautious either since it is normally unclear what the line of descendance is. Normal trade fish are wild caughts, but meantime sometimes there are filial generations of aquarium fish mixed sometimes and at some places.
Helene mentions rightly that there are exceptions to the cave rule in some cases. It has been more often experienced with P. parvulus than with other species since parvulus tends more often than others to move their clutches to new places; mostly below dead leaves at the tank bottom (= that is a form of natural cave), but sometimes more openly as Helene proves by photo of a different species. It would be interesting to compare P. especially ornaticauda as closely related species. At the moment I don’t remember that we had a similar “open cave”-situation with it, but that maybe wrong. In other species, such a behaviour is possible (as Helene’s photo shows) but extremely rare, in each case an exception.
P. parvulus males normally care for their clutches and larvae rather tenderly and without any aggressive action; so I should try not to change that situation besides removing the female. When the young swim free, they hide very efficiently below leaves, dead wood and plants for some weeks, and it is only later that you will encounter them again. But surely, if your priority is raising this first clutch of a rare species, you will take the other path. I could understand that, of course.