My first paros spawning!

[Ryan P]

Hi everyone,

I don’t know exactly when it occured as I was away for a few days. But I noticed today that the pair which has been spending much time with each other has spawned. I noticed for the past few weeks the female has been very pale, and when the male would display to her, her eyes looked like they twinkled (sexy eyes?). Anyway, I have in the corner of the tank two film canisters two inches a part from each other. The male tends to stay in the one without any eggs, or stays within a 6 inch radius of them to chase other fish away. Every few minutes he goes into the tube with the the eggs. The eggs are not on the top, they are all on the bottom of the tube. Should I remove the tube from the tank?

Another interesting behavior, I saw him go into the tube and do something with the eggs. About 5 minutes later a chocolate gourami swam by, and maybe it scared the male, but I noticed two eggs fell out his mouth, and the chocolate gourami ate them… Why would he keep them in his mouth, why doesn’t he stay with the eggs continuously, and why are the eggs at the bottom of the tube (does this mean there is something wrong with the eggs?).

Also, what species is this? Looks very similar to the “sp. Dan” I saw in another picture.

Tank temperature is 81, and the ph about 6.4.

Thanks,
Ryan

[bartian]

Cool they spawned! It is a bintan-variant, impossible to tell which one exactly. It seems very similar to one of mine.

Parosphromenus‘s sister group, Betta, contains a lot of mouthbrooders. Some bubblenesting species are know to sometimes carry their eggs ot fry, and in B. brownorum some strains even really mouthbrood at certain conditions.
Since Parosphromenus and Betta are closely related it won’t surprise me if similar behaviour would also occur with paros.

About the eggs being on the ground:
Perhaps the male isn’t experienced enough to correctly stick the eggs to the top of the canister.

[helene schoubye]

Congratulation with the spawning.
The male is taking the eggs in the mouth as he attempts to get these to sit in the nest. They probably fell down – where they are now lying on the bottom of the cave – and he is trying to get them to stick in the nest. Parosphromenus are in no way mouthbrooders 😉
That the eggs doesn’t stick to the ceiling of the cave has to do with the water and microsiemens not being low enough, – what is your water quality in that regard ?

It seems your paros are willing to spawn – but being together with chocolate gouramies there will not be any offspring growing up.
It doesnt matter whether the cave is at the bottom or floating, – paros often choose caves situated at the bottom as well.

[Ryan P]

Hi Helene,

TDS is at 105. I remember Peter saying (I think) something over 50 would cause a problem with the eggs sticking. I dont remember if he said TDS or conductivity. I was thinking i could remove the cave to a new tank without the male? How long before the eggs hatch? I have to get food ready! Baby brine shrimp is all i can think of right now.

The male stayed with the eggs all night. I really see a difference since I have been feeding blackworms.

Ryan

[helene schoubye]

I am afraid the spawning this time is what you could consider ‘not so successfull’ – I have experienced the same situation as you some times, – where the eggs does not stick to the ceiling, – and these eggs will not develop. They will most likely be gone by tomorrow. The male was trying to either get them to sit at the ceiling, or indeed he could have been eating them.
What happens is quite ‘normal’. The spawning is not succesfull when the eggs lye at the ground, so the parent fish give it up after a little bit, and they then eat the eggs. The nutritional value of the eggs is then preserved in the fish, meaning its not wasted. And the fish will produce eggs again.

If you have another tank I would definitely say you should get the male and female paro in that, – they will spawn again shortly after, – and there a much bigger chance of success then, also for the eggs to actually develop. And say you got the eggs to develop, and wanted to feed small fish 🙂 .. I will tell you the paro offspring is so small you have – in a bigger tank – no chance of feeding them. Or rather you cannot find them and they cannot find the food.
The food you need for these small ones is not artemia nauplia thats too big. You need some kind of infusoria, or vineager eels.
In a small tank its much easier to induce a milieu which support infusoria growth, and its easier to ‘target’ the small fish.
But you dont see them. I have just yesterday discovered that one of my parvulus pairs had offspring, – they are at least a couple of months old and I have not seen them before now. And trust me, I have been checking the tank with a flash light often enough. But you simply dont see them.

[helene schoubye]

I would like to add something.
You asked in the first post why the male is not staying with the cave all the time ?
I think that that really is because he is loosing ‘interest’ in the eggs because it is not a successfull spawning as I mentioned above. Its quite typical behaviour of the male to then not stay with the eggs.
The eggs which stick to the ceiling will make him stay underneath these totally uninterrupted, but as they are not as they ‘should’ be according to his instinct he is wandering off and not really certain what to do with the eggs .. untill they disappear and he will start another nest and another spawning 🙂

When the eggs are ‘normal’ and staying in the nest, most males are extremely stabile and wont leave the cave at all.

[Ted L. Dutcher]

From my research I would say that your TDS of 105 is too high. That would convert to approx 50+ uS

You can easily correct the tds by using RO water or distilled water, which will also drop your pH.

Congratulations on your first paros spawning!!!!

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