Parosphromenus filamentosus in Poland?

[Peter Finke]

Martin, you are right: Waiting is the best you can do at present.
Your fish are definitely from the group that resemble the species and varieties around harvey and bintan. Probably we shall never know where they are exactly from and what they exactly are. But this is totally unimportant, too. Important is that they are healthy, that males and females recognize one another and that they can produce healthy young. And that we can call them (probably) P. cf. bintan.
Most Paros that are cared for in the aquaria of the world are frum trade. And most of them are never identified without doubts. The reason is that the trade has no informations about the true origin of these animals. They are wild-caught, that’s the only sure information. But the exporters in south-east Asia don’t give locations because they don’t want to destroy their own commercial base. They have a number of catchers looking for nice fish, but Paros will play the smallest role in this business. They even throw a meagre harvest from one plave together with a meagre harvest from another, because they don’t realize the risks.
All the Paros to be bought presently in Europe are of very limited sources, mostly from Sumatra, and from some other places. The so-called spec. Sentang represent about 50% of all. The there are some spec. Sungai Bertam, and very few others. I am not sure whether the so-called “blue line” are still in that trade, but even in 2006 – 2008 when this form was at it’s trade-peak, we observed different fish being traded under this name.
This obscure trade-habits are the main reason why we prefer fish with a clear location. But that means the fish must be self-caught or caught by very reliable people.
Nevertheless, the fish traded are not less beautiful or less healthy. As I indicated it could even be that there is a bigger diversity as the traders believe themselves. So, be happy with your somewhat strange and – to a certain extent – unclear fish and try to breed them and to raise the young. That’s what is necessary and urgent and interesting now.

[Marcin Chyla]

Hello, thank You Peter. You are right, this all identyfication issue is getting more and more important to me and it shouldn’t be. More important is to develop my way to get healthy, fry of paros and stabilize my population. I will inform all of You of my progress and I hope it will not be boring :):) Best regards!

[Author]

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