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Good evening to all of you!
A few days ago I erroneously posted a link to the stock list of a fish dealer in Czechia in another thread. They offered “Parosphromenus deissneri”, imported from “Asia”.
As this is the dealer my local fish store gets it’s fish from, I took the risk to order 4 of those “deissneri” at random. As my local fish dealer had to order a minimum lot of 10, I was sure to have a small sample to choose “my” fish from. Today I fetched the fish at my local store – but had no choice, because they ordered only those 4 I wanted. The Czech dealer had obviously delivered what he thought to be two pairs – two smaller and two bigger paros, striped in the usual way, no more features to see.I tried to make some photos while I accustomed them to the water in their new tank.
I am a beginner – it is still very difficult for me to distinguish similar species, but with individuals which show only their “fright colours” it’s impossible for me to determine anything.
But something attracted my attention: The body shape and silhouette of at least one of the smaller ones to me seems so different from the others that I am not sure whether it’s the same species at all. It is much slenderer and more elongated than the others, and the dorsal fin seems rather short, high and rounded to me.
After having said so much, I’ll show you a few pictures. Sorry for the quality, but they were taken from very shy fish in a round glas …….First one of the “normal” looking paros:
And here is the one which seems something different to me:
In the background:On the right:
Here they are together in their new tank:
What do you think?
I think its quite impossible to say anything really about the fish, – except deissneri its not 🙁
To me it looks as females, but if the fish are frightened that can of course be difficult to say. They look quite healthy and in good condition, thats important.
Thank you, Helene.
I didn’t expect to get “deissneri” – don’t get me wrong. It absolutely didn’t matter to me which form or species I would get – I have only one single form of P. nagyi until now. I am pleased with any species I get!Yes, I also thought that at least the bigger ones look like females, with their stout bodies and full bellies. But I am not sure with the smaller ones – they are more slim and elongated.
Yes, their condition is good, they don’t look famished or weak.
But healthy or not – it would not be of much use to have only females without knowing the species ……….
So, if you don’t think that their differences in body shape are sexual dimorphism – do you think they are the same species, then? For me they don’t even have the same dorsal fin shape …….
Even same species females could look a little bit different from each other, – some could seem more slender, and another more ‘thick’ – theres also individual differences.
It could also – quite likely – be young fish, and therefore not fully developed yet. And for sure males can ‘hide’ their sex and look totally blank, so there could still be a male in your four fish.I have had several times where it has been a real nuisance that they only had same sex fish in the shop, – normally I think its males. I had some at one point, I think I had 12 males and 1 female 🙂
But if you cant get any more fish, then its really a nuisance. Thats one of things that often is a problem with licorice gouramies in shops.🙂 No, I know with regards to deissneri, – that you did not expect that. I just meant that that at least is easy to say, its not 🙂
Its also not linkei – those species are easy to determine 🙂But then it becomes rather difficult. I see really at the moment no real clues as to identification. But I am sure once in the tanks, it will soon become much more obvious if there are any males, and then they will colour up, and then you can start looking more for detalis and colours.
It’s exciting – not knowing what comes out in the end.
I’ll wait and see. And report news, if there are.
From my first observations in their new tank I can say that they move around two by two – always a bigger one with a smaller one. Sometimes all four join together, but you never see the two smaller or the two bigger fish move around pairwise.
Interesting.
Head shape of the first fish appears very round to me, like in the linkei I have. The filaments start growing at rather small size, which your fish seem to have surpassed already.The slender one looks like a normal young, well fed paro.
My experience with bintan forms is males always have some colour in the fins, even when being shipped. The blue bands disappear, but a brownish band always stays visible. As such, I believe these are either no bintan-like variant or all females.
🙂 I think we are all just guessing 🙂 … its still really hard to say much. However, I do think theres a bit of colour showing in the seem of the fins – on the big one in last image. You never know, it could be a male also …
Lets wait and see ..Maybe I now make a fool of myself – but I take the risk: the dorsal and anal fin of the bigger one(s) on the pictures above in my view show a subtle chestnut colouration with a delicate white seam. Which makes me think of P. anjunganensis…
Hope you don’t laugh at me ………. :unsure:
I didnt want to write it before, because I didnt want anyone to laugh at me 🙂 .. but I was thinking anjunganensis as well …
The thing is, I think we cant really tell from these photoes yet, and the fish really are not showing enough for anyone to be certain.
You could say theres a bit anjunganensis over it, – but it could change still …[quote=”helene” post=1677]I didnt want to write it before, because I didnt want anyone to laugh at me 🙂 .. but I was thinking anjunganensis as well …
[/quote]It’s good to know I’m not alone!!
I think their colouration will become more intense in the next days, maybe then we’ll see clearer. But currently I’m really glad that my suggestion doesn’t seem to be completely absurd.
My Sentangs quite often show a similar colour. I also first thought it could be anjunganensis, but when they started displaying all got way more clear. Courtship colouration is the best determining factor.
Hi, Bartian,
I think you might be right – at least in it most likely not being P. anjunganensis.
As I understand and one can see on pictures, anjunganensis has completely plain coloured fins with only a whitish or blueish seam.
I think, at least one of my fish is developing a pattern in it’s fins, even the tail fin shows very delicate markings:I am sure of at least two of my fish being males – one of the bigger (see picture) and one of the smaller ones. I believe the other bigger one to be female, but am not completely sure. It shows no pattern in the tail fin and answers approaches of the males with keeping it’s fins tight and slowly moving away, head down.
The two fish I believe to be males have already inspected the clay tubes several times.
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