That’s one of the remaining problems we have. I don’t know what is possible in the trade of the future but tzere are limitation set by commerce, This is one of the very good feature of the Parosphromenus aquaristics: Beginning with the fish and ending with the equipment we are very less dependant from the commercial trade than the main aquaristic modes.
We know that Parosphromenus feed heavily on shrimps in nature. But we obviously don’t receive those species up to now in the aquarium trade. And I don’t think that this is a matter of time only: The shrimp mode is not using the waters we need for Paros.
There have been some experiments with quite a few shrimp species available but nearly all of them failed because the water near to destilles water is improper for them all. Only one species was able to stand it for quite a long time, and that is Neocaridina parvidentata, a rather small greyish species that could multiply quickly. But is very rarely traded. Why? Because the aquarium trade concentrates on species for the bulk of aquarists as it concentrate on them with fish. Just as the Paros are only rarely traded because on cannot make money with them the same is valid for shrimps.
But Neocaridina parvidentata (I do not know any English or German name) is probably not the best companion for Paros, since in all communities we know they did not survive more than half a year. If the Paros have very small young, they are being eaten by the shrimps, and if the shrimps have young they are being eaten by the adult Paros. Nevertheless, it’s the only species available sometimes that stand such a water.
The conclusion is clear and I mentioned it already: Obvioulsy we do not know the right species of shrimps upt to now, at least: We do not have them.
What should we learn from this? The idea of constructing a nature-like living community tank for Paros is good an idea, but it is presently hardly to to realized. We should concentrate on breeding the rare Paros and watch their interesting and diversifeid behaviour instead of trying to build a community for which we don’t have the means to do it properly. You cannot imitate the huge peat body, the ever flowing fresh water stream, the bulk of tropical invertebrates, including infusoriae, herons, kingfishers. Ans the point is: You must not. You could produce healthy, lively fish with the reduced means of the aquarium structure. I have often seen that people do not realize the huge difference in the structure of an aquarium as compared with nature. We must try to imitate the natural conditions, but there are restrictions for it. Some are changing, some are rather stable. some are dependent from the offers of the trade, some are different in principle.