[quote=”Jacob” post=1078]I’ll definitely get linkei soon, they’re available from wetspot. I was thinking of getting 4, and then keeping one male and one female since it seems anything other than just the parents really lowers the chance of fry survival. The tank is 10 gallons, maybe 6 cm as adults justifies that, and maybe the large brood size also justifies it.[/quote]
That’s definitey true. But I nevertheless think it’s better to take a tank of half the size. Your will not be able to feed the fish, especially the young, properly in a tank too big.
The substrate is laterite and peat covered in sand, in some areas I think the sand covering the peat and laterite is probably too deep. If I don’t disturb it and the cryptocorynes become well established, hopefully there won’t be any complications from anaerobic conditions. From what I’ve read plants might like those conditions but if the substrate is disturbed it can poison the fish. It’s only under two inches of inert sand in the deepest areas but it’s fine sand so must be very densely packed.
It will be rather difficult to breed Parosphromenus in such a nicely planted tank. Yes, many Cryptos often occur in peaty biotopes with similar water conditions, but your aquarium is a tank! Mind the totally different structure of an aquarium compared with the natural conditions! The plants in nature are constantly delivered nutrients by the flowing fresh water und working “nutritional springs” in the huge soil-body of the waters. You cannot replace this by feeding them artificial fertilizers in a near to a destilled water-milieu of still-water. The thick layer of sand is of no use. You cannot rebuild the biotope of a flowing rainwater in a tank with still waters totally differently structured. Try it, but I remain skeptical. It’s good that you want to try to breed them. Mainly the American friends are fully concetrated on “keeping” these fish in a nice surrounding. They should try to breed them. Otherwise we will never have success with the aims of our sustainment project.
I thought linkei were clearwater because of the similarity in size, ease of care and lighter color which it shares with paludicola. For some reason it looks almost like trichopsis coloration on a parosphromenus body.
Thinking is not enough, knowing is better. P. linkei was discovered by Linke and Neugebauer 1990 in Kalimantan Tengah in the same area where they found P. opallios, at that time named P. spec. from Sukamara in the direction of the village Pudukuali. This clearly indicates that linkei is a blackwater fish. The colouring of paludicola is totally different. It’s the pastel-type without nearly any bright spots in the fins. This is different in linkei. M. Hallmann call’s it the “star-sky-type” (just as pahuensis). This is a clear indication of a blackwater fish.