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[quote=”Arno” post=4827]super photos – determined difficult and time-consuming work. Thank you David. :)[/quote]
Yes, Arno, but I really enjoy it so it does not feel too much like “work” 🙂 Thank you for your compliment.
Hi and welcome to the forum :). Here you will find most all the information you need to be successful with keeping and breeding paros. And, if you have specific questions, there are many, as you have seen, that will gladly share their experience and knowledge with you to help you along to success.
Yes, these nagyi came from Wetspot. The folks there do an exceptionally good job with customer service. Nice that you live near them and can visit in person! I live on the East Coast so must have them shipped.
In your other post you say you have A. anjunganensis – please tell us more about them – did you pick those up at Wetspot or another source, are the two you have a pair? If you are able to get some photos of your paros, you are always welcome to post them on this forum – it will help with ID and helping us in knowing what is actually available in the US trade. Sometimes WS don’t quite identify the paros they have completely accurately and it will help them out as well. Take a good look at all the information on care and breeding and, if you like, consider actively working to breed your paros. It would help fulfill the goals of the Parosphromenus Project for conserving these beautiful animals.
I don’t know how far you live from WS, but if it is convenient for your, perhaps you could go over and take a look at what paros they have in stock now – I think they list P. bintan. You could be our ‘paro scout’ for WS and let us know what you find out 😉 🙂
In any case, again welcome to the project and good luck with your paros and your studies!
David
Here is an update – the pair spawned a second time (see previous photos above), a few larvae hatched out of the ~20 eggs, and fewer still developed further and I am not sure they became free-swimming as they disappeared after just a few days. The issue: I did not lower the conductivity below 70µS and this resulted in an unsuccessful development of fry. Having seen these results first hand, I made sure to lower the conductivity to a few point below 50µS. A third spawning took place, but this time in leaves and I could not witness the effect of better water parameters on the developing eggs and larvae.
With better conductivity maintained, a fourth spawning has just taken place, this time back in the canister and I was able to take some good photos of the courtship displays and spawning sequence, so I thought I would share them here.
The healthy male feeding
[IMG]http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/912/LM4Ws7.jpg[/IMG]The harmonious and beautiful pair.
[IMG]http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/538/iPEILV.jpg[/IMG]The female (with male nudging her from below in preparation for eventual spawning).
[IMG]http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/537/WGzeqg.jpg[/IMG]The female comes into spawning condition as evidenced by her change in color.
[IMG]http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/673/NYen9N.jpg[/IMG]The male courts the female with the the usual horizontal displays from below.
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After the vigorous displays, the female became ready and the actual spawning commenced.
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The spawning complete, the female leaves the nest.
[IMG]http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/913/FTmISE.jpg[/IMG]After a few days, a much better hatch rate with the better conductivity. So it really does matter to get this parameter correct. Here the male tends the newly hatched larvae. Hopefully they will develop into free-swimming fry and live to grow.
https://youtu.be/yq87VxxMSywOh man, these pictures are super Words fail me, thank you. Although I always wanted offspring and grow, but something I get even more rarely seen
[quote=”Bernd Bussler” post=4917]…Although I always wanted offspring and grow, but something I get even more rarely seen[/quote]
Thank you, Bernd 🙂 and yes, that something for me is the real beauty of these animals – so graceful and colorful – qualities that appear throughout much of life on this truly beautiful and miraculous planet.[quote=”Jonette” post=4920]Beautiful fish, wonderful pictures! Congratulations with the babies. I hope they thrive. 🙂
Jonette[/quote]
Thank you, Jonette and welcome to the forum, hopefully you will have your first Paros soon 🙂
A video showing the development of P. nagyi larvae from the day of hatching out of the eggs until the day they all swam out of the nesting area – approximately 10-12 days. Conclusion: lowering the conductivity from ~70µS to below 50µS made a significant difference in the survival and development of the larvae. The female has laid ~15-20 eggs (clearly not 30 or more) each time – is this dependent upon age or diet and if any of these variables change will the number off eggs change? It remains to be seen. It looks as if 10 or more larvae were successfully raised to the free swimming stage and moved out into the growing space of ~30cm x 30cm x 20cm deep (thus my first confirmed successful spawning of a paro!) In the last segment of the video, the male is tending a reduced number of fry and by the afternoon, no more fry were observed in the nest area. I will check to see for the first signs of any surviving fry. I have good cultures of infusoria, microworms and artemia as foods. Water changes of 10-20% each week are done.
David, I am just completely blown away by your video, – its amazing. These small fish, – its so rare that you actually get enough time and light to see what they are really doing in there, in the cave.
Its so fasinating to see the parential ‘care’ which the male is showing, – and even seing the small fry like this is unusual. All I have ever managed to see are small black dots darting around, – here you see them actually like any small animal offspring, small and finding their way out into the ‘big’ world under the protection of a parent, – not just dark little spots moving too fast for the eye to catch.
Fantastic video.Helene – thanks for your comments and yes, it’s interesting to see how the male cares for the offspring – it’s the first I’ve ever observed, aided by the zoom lens of the camera and additional lighting. Unfortunately, I was not able to get any good still photographs due to the film canister being right up against the side wall of the aquarium and making it impossible to get a good photograph of the developing larvae – I could only get the less clear video, but it was enough to at least give some idea of the development and movement of the larvae. These are truly micro fishes and the help of camera photography makes them much more able to be appreciated for the beautiful and fascinating animals they are. I’ve moved the canister to a central location in the aquarium and perhaps I can get some good photos, should the pair choose to spawn in the canister again. For videos, I think a better video camera would be an improvement as well.
There has been another spawning of these Nagyi – this time on August 18th. I have been able to get good photos of the developing eggs and larvae over the past 6 days 🙂
Day of spawning – looks like ~30 eggs, so more than previous spawnings.
[IMG]http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/910/RlF26W.jpg[/IMG]Here the larvae at this morning – 132 hours just 5 and a half days later.
[IMG]http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/540/wLy93S.jpg[/IMG]This evening they were really becoming free swimming and some were leaving the spawning nest of the film canister – good, but – the female was observed patrolling around below the canister and picking off the fry as they swam out – not good. So, although I have a nice series of photos of the developing larvae every 12 hours to show for it, I’m not sure how many fry actually have survived/escaped the female. So next time I will have to remove the female or the fry while still in the canister, as described by some folks on the forum.
Some new developments. Because the female was observed eating newly free swimming fry, I decided to try to pull the film canister with a batch of just developed larvae and place in a separate container to rear in safety. Here is the canister with some fry, sitting on my table top.
[IMG]http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/913/Fcxyrm.jpg[/IMG]And here are some of the fry that I was able to observe in the small container, staying under some oak leaves (they are now eating nauplii, infusoria and vinegar eels).
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Today, I was very happy to see, for the first time, a young P. nagyi in the same aquarium as the parents – so, from the 4 spawns that have taken place in the tank, at least one fry has survived! (Although, part of its caudal fin is missing.. :unsure: ) It was feeding on newly hatched nauplii, but in these photos the white dots are not nauplii, but infusoria that occur naturally in among the leaves and moss, or are from the infusoria culture I add regularly to the tank.
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And here is a video showing the same fish feeding on nauplii.
https://youtu.be/0JRYkNH5_sMHere is something that surprised me today. I have been waiting for another batch of larvae to reach the free-swimming stage so I could pull the canister to rear the fry separately for safety. When I checked this afternoon, the fry were jumping around, but the pair has spawned again in the same canister, so now there are eggs and larvae together. 😆 Normally this pair would spawn after the previous batch of larvae had left the nest. Now they have spawned with the larvae still in there. Maybe lower temperatures (by about 5 degrees F.) has slowed the development of the larvae, but not the time it takes the female to become gravid with eggs after a spawn?
[IMG]http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/903/VjkZVg.jpg[/IMG]I may try to remove the female to a separate tank so the present free-swimming larvae will have a better chance to survive as well as the new batch of eggs as well.
Also, a few photos of one of the young that has survived in the spawning aquarium – feeding nicely on BBS and vinegar eels. I really like the golden trim on the fins. I have seen at least two in there, so ‘Finke’s Rule’ is proving to be correct!
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[IMG]http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/xq90/661/I5MhD0.jpg[/IMG]Dear “Ekona”, in Hamburg I suggested an internationally conceived book of the Parosphromenus-project, including the Asian tragedy of the ever growing quiet plantations of the palm-oil-industry instead of the loud rainforest with its boosting biodiversity, with subeditors in Asia, America and Europe, two main editors (Helene and me) and some authors distributed over the world.
And we need good photographers of the landscape and our fish; that means we need e.g. Michael Lo and we need you.
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