Paros in large aquariums

[Patrick Guhmann]

Hello,

do you think it is possible to keep Paros in large tanks? I think about setting up my 720l aquarium again, half filled with water as a kind of riparium/paludarium. So I have enough space to create different zones like: riverine vegetation hanging in the water, shallow water with grass, a bluff made of big roots and stone cairns, a field with Cryptocoryne, free sandy space and big plants growing over the waterline. I hope a big group (10 or more) of paros will show more of their natural behaviour in such an aquarium. But I am sceptic, if they will find enough to feed…

best wishes
Patrick

[Marcin Chyla]

Hello, 720 L for Paros…:) nice.. But, do You put any other fish in that tank , or olny Paros? It will be very difficult to find them in that space.. Few years ago I have only 5 Nannostomus marginatus in 620 L for 4 months. It was very interesting to watch them – they occupy only little space in aqua and they behavior looked very natural. I keep my paros in 1 m long aqua and I give food in only one place in aqua – Paros swimming to that place every time and that’s solve problem with too much space. How many microworms You must to give Your Paros in 720 L – I don’t know but if You try to get used Your Paros to eat in one place – it may works , but it will be difficult.Greetings!

[Peter Finke]

I should like to say my opinion on that; it’s quite rigorous.
Of course, you can “keep” licorice gouramis in a 500- or even a thousand liters tank; their home rivers are much bigger. But you should not, I think:
1. The home-range of a pair is not larger than 10 to 50 liters. And the home range of a group of four or five pairs is not larger than an average structured aquarium of about 100 or 150 liters.
2. To maintain a blackwater tank with a stable milieu is much easier if it is small than if it is that big. It’s a task for a professional museum.
3. Simply “keeping” these fish in a decorative tank is in my view doing the wrong thing with rare, heavily endangered species. They are not “pet fish” like others always at hand in the shops. Trying to keep them in such a way that they could breed successfully, must have priority.
4. Think of the fact that most Parosphromenus offered in pet shops are wild catches. When you have bred the fish yourself, you might think of displaying a small group of them in a bigger tank and look what happens.
5. I do not think that if you do this you will observe substantially “more” in you big tank than you would in a small. On the contrary: you will surely observe less.
6. Without doubt, you can observe some interesting antagonistic and pairing (etc.) behaviour if working with small groups instead of pairs, and therefore tanks bigger than 20 liters up to 150 liters. But raising the young will be very difficult indeed. However, there some specialists (K. Koomans!) have been successful with this in small numbers.
I do not repeat the general problems of feeding.

[Patrick Guhmann]

Thanks for your help!

Peter, I agree with your arguments. I suspected that uprising will be difficult in such an large tank. Thats the reason why I asked and not acted! So I will put my fry and perhaps one male in a 80cm aquarium. The young fishes are not many and they are little, so I must not react quick. But at the moment I have problems with my second Paro male (25 l aquarium). The alpha male was/is breeding permanently. He is smaller than the other, but a lot more agressive. Now the second male becomes agressive too and he wants to be the alpha male. The fishes had a lot of fights during the last week, and lost some scales. If the fights become harder, I will put one of the males in an 60cm aquarium togeher with Poecilocharax weitzmani, but only to safe his life and not for a long time. Because P. weitzmani occupies caves too and I dont want to mix different species with the same ecological niche in one aquarium.

But in general, I think its possible to create stable water parameters in large(r), planted tanks. But I have only experience with soft water in a middle size aquarium that contents 200 l with a group of D. maculatus (clear water cichlids). The pH is stable at 5 and conductivity 20-25uS. Water changes every week 50 l.

Thanks for your answers!
Greetings, Patrick

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