This issue develops to a very interesting end, as it seems.
These fish are no sumatranus, but probably something much more rare und little known: The odd P. spec. Palangan from Kalimantan Tengah.
It was found for the first time by I. Baer, N. Neugebauer and H. Linke in 1990 in the so-called “Planduk” (“deer stream”, famous amond Paro-lovers!) at the end of the village Palangan on the Sungai Kenyala, near to the Sungai Sampit. They lived there in company with Betta foerschi and Betta anabatiodes.
One year later the same species was caught in the area of the village of Pundu in the Sungai Cempaga region. Pundu lies on the road from Palangkaraya through Tangkiling to Kasongan on the Sungai Katinganin. The road runs about further 20 km in westerly direction across the Sungai Cempaga in the Pundu area. The river and the road finally reach Sampit. (Dates thanks to friend Horst Linke). Therefore, this species was for some years known by two names: spec. Palangan and spec. Pundu. But a mistake happened with Pundu: a wrong photo was associated with it showing a fish with a lanceolate tail (spec. Palangan has a rounded caudal fin), and so they were wrongly believed to be separate species.
Even a third name is associated with it: in 2000 our Japanese friends led by Hiroyuki Kishi (“team Borneo”) travelled extensively through Kalimantan in search of new fish, and the found this species in The Parenggean area around 25 km norh of Palangan.So, they called it P. spec. Parenggan.
The fishes live in slowly flowing or even current free blackwater within densely vegetated riparian zones and were extremely difficult to be caught. This explains that it was never vound again up to now. The temperature was 76 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit, the pH 4.6 to 5.5; measured by our Swiss friends Krumenacher and Waser in 1991.
Last year, Horst Linke travelled extensively through Kalimantan Tengah in search of this odd species. But when he arrived at all the three points where it had been found formerly, he saw them completely destroyed: no blackwater anymore. Therefore he concluded that we would see this fish never again.
And now the unexpected happy end. Our friend from the U.S. David Jones (Ekona) realized that there were some strange looking Paros in the tanks of a commercial fish frader. Looking for P. sumatranus, whish he had never seen before, he bought them and made excellent photographs. These fish are definitely not sumatranus, but it is largely probable that they are P. spec. Palangan! I showed the pictures to Horst and he confirmed my suspicion. So, because of the attentiveness and curiosity of our friend it seems that we may have found this species again, named “deissneri” in that commercial tank (of course …). The future will show if we are right.
High compliments to David. Now, we must try to breed them.
A short note on sumatranus: We have sumatranus; they don’t seem to be more endangered than the other species. There are some stocks in Germany. At our meeting in Hamburg they can be seen and probably in small numbers purchased.