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‘ello all! I am now certain I will be acquiring – and attempting to breed – paros, and have two 7.5 litre/2 gallon bowls to do so with (don’t hesitate to tell me if those are too small…I can go bigger, was hoping for a pair in each). Due to financial constraints and the fact it is late fall in this part of the world, I will not be trying to acquire any until next April at the earliest (and more likely May or June), so I have plenty of time to get ready for these new arrivals!
Anyhow, here is my question; roughly how much BBS should a pair of parosphromenus receive daily? From personal experience, even 1/16th teaspoon of BBS is far too much for my colony of micropoecilia picta in my 10 gallon, which currently consists of about 7 or 8 fish only marginally smaller than a paro, and that 1/16th teaspoon is more than enough to feed not only that tank but also a 20 long community with 12 danios, 5 white clouds, 3 platies, and 3 paradise fish (who love BBS in spite of their relatively large size). Granted, they also eat flake food, unlike paros, but I imagine a pair of paros couldn’t possibly need 1/16th teaspoon of BBS a day. Any thoughts would be appreciated. (I can collect mosquito larvae for the paros in the summer and am considering starting some small moina cultures for them…not sure what to do for the fry, as my vinegar eel culture doesn’t seem to have taken off)
Hi,
It’s great to hear from your future attempts to breed paros!
Actually, it is quite a tricky question. You certainly don’t want to overfeed them but they need nutrients to build eggs and spawn.
I also want to mention the fact that the amount of food needed for Paros strongly depends on the size of the adult animals. I experienced this with my linkeis that have grown to a remarkable size and therefore also need a lot of food, compared to the much slimmer tweedieis.
I always practice about the same method which seems to work pretty well. I use a really small plastic spoon which is probably about the amount of 1/4 teaspoon or so of EGGS which I put into the hatching box. Since they don’t hatch all at once, I can easily find BBS for about three days. Usually, the second day is the strongest day by means of productivity. Since the BBS loose a lot of their nutritional values shortly after hatching, I feed them before I put them into the paros tank.
This procedure leads to a pretty efficient nutrition and also to a variation in the amounts of food I give them. Sometimes, when I’m too busy, there will also be a day of starvation but that’s no problem for the adults. I use this amount of food for every tank with Paros I have but in neither of them, there is only one pair so in your case, It would be less.
I would also like to mention that, especially while the paros are growing, they need more food than they would need when they are grown up.
I think, If you observe your animals a lot, you will get a feeling for the right amount…
I also would think over your tanks size again… 7 liters is not that much… If you want to extensively breed, you need a bigger tank with many hiding places for the fry to survive and If you want to breed intensively, you will need more larger Tanks since the offspring will stop growing if there is not enough space…In 7L water volume is definitely to make sure the move only so much food into the aquarium as the fish can eat in a short time, otherwise there is the danger that the aquarium water is bad and the fish die. I spend very little food, that is, a Paro can possibly eat 5-10 Daphnia, then he is tired. The water is living in the Paros not very healthy for Daphnia and they survive very long and not die, with other food animals similar, also hold the BBC not long by. Furthermore, I am of the opinion that Paros do not have to be fed every day, 3-4 times a week is sufficient. Only in young animals should be fed every day. With this amount of water 7L I would definitely change once a week 30% water.
Greeting Bernd BusslerHmmm…get something larger than a 7L, then? Perhaps I will get a 20l tank to keep the adults in and then remove a pair to breed them in one of the 7L’s. Thankx for the quick replies!
Another question: it is common practice in aquarium circles to take certain water tolerant house plants (such as pothos or lucky bamboo), rinse all the dirt off their roots, and then stick them into a fish tank so they will grow, absorbing nitrates and the like in the process. Would this work for paros? If not, which aquarium plants could serve this purpose? (I am cursed about water sprite…I always manage to physically break it 🙁 ) I was thinking a houseplant could escape issues caused by the tannin stained water reducing the amount of light available.
I have used some of the house plants in my wild betta tanks with success. They actually will extend out of the tanks and up the walls close to my windows. I have not used them in any of the Paro tanks as I keep them away from the windows because of excessive light. In the Paro tanks I have stayed with Java fern, Java Moss and a few Crypts. Recently I have been investigating Bucephalandra for use in these tanks. These plants are not readily available in the trade however. They come from the island of Borneo only and are found in the waters along with Paros and wild bettas. They grow in low light and in blackwater I an told (we will see over time). Presently they are expensive to purchase but beautiful. There is some discussion going on that they have been tissue cultured and if that is the case, availability will increase and prices will come down appropriately as they will not have to be collected from the forests of Borneo.
Thankx for all the help! Anyhow…another question: which species would you guys recommend I start with? I’d prefer one that doesn’t run for cover whenever someone approaches the tank (is that a possibility? Not a deal breaker…it would just be nice to see the fish I put so much effort into breeding), and I would prefer to avoid P. parvulus and P. ornaticauda (don’t want any devilishly hard paros!)
Almost forgot…other than humic acids, what are some common, non toxic chemicals that can be used to push PH down in a softwater tank? I’ve heard of people using white vinegar…but those were NOT parosphromenus people, and I’m not sure if vinegar would affect the TDS as well as the PH.
Thanks for the tip with the Bucephalandra, Bill.
I’ll try it.
A friend cultivates Bucephalandra – soon he have a few less. 😉I would say the linkei, tweedei or rubrimontis are suitable for “beginners”, they do not need so exremen pH values and are already at pH 5 to breed.
Arno — that’s great you have a source of these plants. They are almost impossible to acquire in this country. I found a young man who is attempting to cultivated these species and he lives relatively close to my home. He has someone on Borneo that will send him plants to sell and raise. Does your friend have photographs of his plants that he would share?
BillHello Joshua, Nitrate so low as you can, i think. Only in the tanks whith young fishes and many food i found Nitrate in low amounts whith normal test-sets.
Hello Bill, some pictures you can find on Marios site:
http://www.mario-hamann.de/neues-von-meinen-bucephalandra-s/
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