I am somewhat annoyed by this discussions how to “keep” the Paros. There are hundreds if not more than a thousand very different and beautiful ornamental fish, many of them readily available in the pet trade, that are not threatened at all. Many of them are constantly bred by private or commercial breeders, others are caught annually in great numbers in the wild without harming the stocks at all.
I think it completely wrong to use organisms, plants or anmals, which are threatened to extinction in all species mainly by the logging of the rainforests for ornamental purposes in community tanks only. Licorice gouramis are. That the offspring of some of them is caught each year for commercial purposes is acceptable as long as it harvestes a number only which does not add to the threat of the populations. So we can try to breed them, enlarge the stock in our aquaria and try to become independent from the consumer mentality of the hobby. Therefore, heavily threatened organisms are nothing suited for tanks the only purpose of which is simply “keeping” them, for this means to consume them. I am not against the usual consumer mentality of 95% of the normal aquarists as long as it is to be satisfied from the huge stock of non-threatened fish. But I plea that all friends of the licorice gouramis should first sincerely try to breed and enlarge their stock in tanks suited for that purpose. If they know how to do that and have enough young, they may “keep” some of them in large tanks or even community tanks. This may be the case with the friend who wrote the last posting (although this community with corys, ottos and ruby tetras is certainly not a fully adequate environment for fish from Asian blackwater habitats …).
At any rate I hope so.