Paros and vacations

[Joshua Morgan]

‘ello all! It occurred to me recently that vacations and other trips longer than a few days could be a serious problem for such live-food loving fishes as licorice gouramies…if gloves were provided, do you think that I could find a friend to maintain my grindal/micro worms and feed my Parosphromenus ‘sentang’ (and/or any other paros I acquire in the future) in my absence? If not, could they just drop in an eighth of a cube of frozen food once every day or two? (Obviously the latter is not ideal, but oh well…)

PS: My P. ‘sentang’ are currently at a PH of 5.8 and a conductivity of about 34 microsiemens. This is obviously working well for them, but I know the relatively high PH will not work for all paros (‘cough’ P. ornaticauda ‘cough’). How can I push the PH lower for any future, more challenging paros? I have used various means of adding tannins (currently I am using decaffineated black tea bags, which are cheap and seem to work well but add some conductivity and might not be viable for some more fickle paros) and add 2 ml of distilled white vinegar per 2 gallons (which might not be doing much).

[Bernd Bussler]

Well, I am often times a few days on the road, sometimes also 14 days.
If Paros are fed well, it is not a problem to leave them two or three weeks without food. But the water could be a problem. Too soft water would drop the Ph value over an extended period of time. It is better to mix the water with tap water before a longer trip, which keeps the pH value stable. This is, of course, not for young animals, which must be fed regularly.

I use peat and rain water, so any Ph value can be produced. Is cost-effective and simple

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