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My new P. quindecim

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Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 34 total)
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  • #5545
    Stefanie Rick
    Participant

    Besides the P. pahuensis, I am also happy to now have a pair of P. quindecim. And thus I will show some photos of them, too ……….. Again – the quality needs improvement – I will do my very best!!

    #5548
    Bill Little
    Participant

    Stefanie — a beautiful looking pair. Hope you will have fry in the not too distant future.

    #5550
    Maciej
    Participant

    These paros are high on my wishlist ;D.

    #5551
    helene schoubye
    Keymaster

    All the fish we have of this species go back to one single import about twelve years ago by giant-wholesaler Glaser (Rodgau/Germany). It’s one of the few Paros which where not found and imported privately but commercially, but in small numbers only. On the stock lists nowadays they are missing everywhere. Tell me one which is different: There is none.

    But now we have great numbers of them, mostly in Germany only, however. To repeat it: They all are offspring of that single import. Therefore, the possibility to get across this species in the trade is minimal. But someone who travels to Berlin, Hamburg or Weinheim (to name only the best places) has no problem to get them. Shipping across the boarders is not really safe, because it may take one day, it may take a week also. It’s no problem with two or even three days, but you cannot be sure. The species is one of the biggest Paros; it’s shipping should be short.

    In Berlin lives our best specialist of this species. He has hundreds of them in all sizes, at every time. But there are enough at other places, too. The Weinheim-breeders ship them, of course, but the experience with shipping across the borders is poor, (see above).
    Peter Finke

    #5552
    Lennart Friedritz
    Participant

    Beautiful fish (and fotos 😉 )!!!

    #5844
    Stefanie Rick
    Participant

    Good evening to all of you!

    For health reasons I’ve visited the forum only sporadically in the last months, without even logging in.

    But today I would like to share the first photo of my very first fry with you:

    Yes, it’s not sharp – yes, it’s no good photo. But it’s my first Paro fry at all!!!!

    I saw not only one, at least two in one place – but they’re hiding as soon as they see a movement outside the tank. Very shy.
    Sadly I only saw them because I was desperately looking for the adult female. I haven’t seen her for days, only the male. There’s still hope, because he is quite aggressive and she is always hiding in the dense plant cover. But I usually see her now and then ………….. Keep your fingers crossed.

    #5845
    Bill Little
    Participant

    Congratulations — what does Helene say… when you see one there is probably two and when you see two there are more perhaps many more (we can hope) :cheer: We hope you are feeling better; we missed your frequent and regular posts. You have a beautiful baby and we hope there are many more.

    #5847
    helene schoubye
    Keymaster

    Congratulations Stefanie, – thats so good news. I cannot get tired of finding these tiny fry 🙂 – always makes me happy.
    And yes, normally when one survives theres a good chance more have survived the dangers of the first days or weeks. Actually, Bill, its what Peter always says 🙂 … I learned it from him 🙂
    I hope the females is fine, and you are right, sometimes the male can be rather hard on the female and she could be hiding. Lets hope that.

    #5848
    john walsh
    Participant

    Stunningly beautiful fish Helene.

    #5849
    Stefanie Rick
    Participant

    Thank you for your kind responses!

    I couldn’t believe that the female might have died – all fish looking so healthy, young fry in the tank – why should she have died? But, nevertheless – I haven’t seen her for days.
    Today I became suspicious ………….. and I carefully watched the adjacent tank with the four “unknown ladies”. What I suspected is true – the quindecim-female has happily joined the ladies club. Funny, how easily distinguishable she is from the other females ………. compared to them she is definitely colourful ………..

    Now I need your advice:

    It is absolutely impossible to catch her alone out of this tank. It is a 25 l-tank, totally overgrown – no chance to find one hiding paro.
    What do you think – should I simply put the male quindecim in this tank, too? If he has a female of his own species – is there a risk he might pair with one of the other girls of unknown species?
    It would be much easier to simply catch him out of his tank, it’s a small one, 16 l and not so overgrown. I could leave the fry to grow up undisturbed.

    Or should I rather empty the bigger tank, try to catch all 5 females and to separate the quindecim female – and make a big cleaning up of the tank? This would be a much bigger effort, and I can only hope to get all the females ………

    But if it is risky to join the male with the four “beautiful strangers”, I will refrain from doing it.

    #5853
    helene schoubye
    Keymaster

    I am glad you found your female but I am quite surprised that she managed to jump to another tank :)… I do know that some say paroes can do that, but I have never experienced it.

    About the situation now – well, I dont know about the risk if the male will be attracted to some of the other females, somehow I doubt it, BUT … if he is attracted to the right female, and they again spawn then you have a problem, because none of the fry will probably survive with 4 ‘hostile’ females around. Plus, if the quindecims decides to spawn, the four females might want to jump to the next tank as well, because then life might not become so nice for them. Quindecim female in my experience can be rather bullying to fish that arent in ‘the family’ 🙂

    As it is now, you could leave it as it is. The male will let the fry grow up in peace, and he will get a rest for some time. And then you have some time to prepare a clever way for catching the female.
    The fry will not be good to move for a while anyway.

    #5857
    Stefanie Rick
    Participant

    Helene – thank you for your advice. I will leave the female with the other girls for a while. The lonely male seems to be very comfortable without her. I will rearrange the bigger tank in the near future and will then try to catch the little runaway.

    I have never experienced one of my paros even trying to jump, too. I think the fact that my quindecim female jumped into the adjacent tank is really exceptional.
    As I told you, I have been ill for a longer time. The tanks have been rather unattended for about 6 weeks or more. My husband just fed the fish and filled in water where it had evaporated.

    (Short note: the water values stayed still fine in these untended tanks, pH 5,5, conductivity 45 µS)

    As soon as I was able to care for the tanks again, I cleaned the panes, made greater water changes and – above all – removed the lush plant cover. Ceratopteris, Riccia and Lomariopsis sprawled all over the surface.
    Now the quindecim female loves to hide just in this thick plant covers. I think I frightened her by removing big parts of it. Maybe I even lifted her with a handful of plants and she slipped off into the other tank.

    Today I succeeded in taking some baby photos:

    #5858
    Bill Little
    Participant

    Stefanie – very nice photos of the fry. I have observed my Paros showing interest in other Paro species in neighboring tanks. I have a series of 5 gallon (18 liter) tanks on a shelf housing 4 species. I was feeding BBS last week when I was interrupted by a telephone call. I had feed shrimp only to the first tank. When I returned I found the fish in the second tank all lined up at the glass adjacent to tank number one. Noticing this I went to the other end of the row and fed in the last tank. Sure enough Paros in the adjoining immediately came to the glass also. This seems to suggest that they pay close attention to activity in neighboring aquariums. If your tanks are in close proximity to each other it might be interesting to see if a relationship would continue through the glass between your pair of quindecim. Often a female betta are placed in a cylinder within a tank with a male to encourage the breeding process while protecting her from harm. I guess this is not much different than two tanks sitting side by side.

    #5859
    Stefanie Rick
    Participant

    Hello, Bill – thanks for your post!

    I have also recognized a great interest of my paros in what happens in the neighbouring tank. They were staring at each other through the glass and were more interested in watching their neighbours than in “enjoying” their own home. So I disrupted this by sliding a paper sheet between the two tanks. I have done this with all my tanks – none of my fish can see their neighbours anymore. Prying eyes from curious neighbours – who wants this? 😉

    #5861
    helene schoubye
    Keymaster

    Thats the same experience here 🙂 … they are very interested in what happens in the other tank, sometimes not even noticing what comes down in their ‘own’ feeding hole, but rather wanting what they can see in the other tank.
    Sometimes I have males show off to each other as well.
    I have pieces of paper in between most tanks as well.

    Really good photoes of the fry – I will put some in the species section under quindecim. You know, these fry are not just born yesterday 🙂 .. they could be a couple of months old I reckon.

    And by the way, I think it is very likely that if you moved some plants the quindecim female could very well have been stuck in there and it is very lucky that she fell into the other tank. This is one very big risk with paro-tanks, – when you move something it is so hard to be real sure that theres not a paro hidden somewhere in what you think is just some dead leave or some plant stuff. They have a developed sense of ‘hiding’ this way, – when something moves in the tank they slowly moves with it – like underneath a piece of wood – they will drift up together with the piece you are moving underneath it in order not to be seen. Or they will stay inside a piece of wood even when lifted above water. I have lost more than one paro this way so I am always very very careful.

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