The
PAROSPHROMENUS PROJECT

The
PAROSPHROMENUS
PROJECT

Undescribed species from Johor

#9491
Peter Finke
Participant

Zahar, please be more careful in claming “new species”. The only thing I can see on your photos is a special arrangement of blue and red colours. We know from sincere studies with alfredi and tweediei that this can be widely dependent from food. Red tweediei have been suddenly blue only within months, or the other way around, or (most likely) partially mixed in a “new” way; alfredi appeared equally “new”. Some “new” species have been clamed by amateurs. But there is no proof up to the present day.

If there are more hints than colour, say structure and/or behaviour, this might be a different case. But I cannot see those in your photos. And you do not mention them in your words.

Besides: The location that you roughly give, is a rather well-known “old” location. Nearly all places have seen deep changes by human action, including bringing-out of species that have not been found there decades ago (P. nagyi for instance). The primeeval forest is largely gone and partially replaced by plantations; the important blackwater is widely completely gone and partially replaced by clear water that is more mineralized. It is entirely unlikely that now decades later a Paro-species new to science should be found. Your fish are probably colour variants of alfredi and/or tweedie. Whether the cause for this variation is natural or human I cannot say. The latter is more likely.