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I have been reporting this fish in the census as a commercial bintan. This was imported as gunawani by Michael Hellweg into the USA. Although Michael had only seen this fish as juveniles, he did have the opportunity to see this fish in my aquaria as full adults, and then confirmed the ID. I am submitting some rather poor photos for other opinions. I received 2 males and 3 females and have F1 fish from all 5 parents. They are extremely secretive, even for a Paro. The photos were very difficult to get.
On the base of these images, it is impossible to identify the species. Although I know Michael Hellweg as one of the best specialists in the United States, I remain skeptical about that identification. I received the first P. spec. Danau Rasau (the later gunawani)by Horst Linke who found and imported them privately to Germany. I bred them, they were rather easy to breed. The offspring fish were less conspicuous and more similar to bintan variants than the wildcaught fish. These were distinctly stout in their bodily appearance and specific in respect to the small coloured fringes of their unpaired fins, but later on I saw some other wild caught specimens in Linke’s tanks that were less clearly shaped and coloured this way. So I think it difficult to recognize gunawani without doubt from a few specimens only; I even am not convinced that it is a clear separate species. It seems so, but there is a rest of uncertainty even with wildcaught fish. And I am very skeptical with respect to commercially traded fish named like this, since I know of several doubtful examples: the exporters had used the newest and most interesting names in oder to make sure they sell the fish.
We definitely need much better photos, big and sharp in best light conditions to say more.
I do appreciate your quick response. I will attempt to get better photos, but the color will be difficult to capture since males of this fish lose color quickly if disturbed. I only have a single pair of the original fish remaining but do have a fair number of F1. I will also examine these to check for variation and possible photos. The original males were so similar that I had difficulty determining which male participated in the spawnings.
These fish are definitely quite stout. Michael had lost the fish he had retained so was not able to witness the adult fish in his aquaria. I did find that they had a few attributes that surprised me. The fish would go for a considerable length of time without breeding, but once a pair bred, another pair would also spawn within a couple of days. On one occasion I had all 3 fish breed within a 2 week period. This meant that one of my males spawned twice in that period. All 3 spawns produced viable eggs.
They did not build a bubble nest. One of the males would always move the eggs to another site within 24 hours after spawning.
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