Parosphromenus UK breeders?

[Lee Sweeting]

Hi! I’ve recently set up a tank with a view to keeping/breeding paros. The set up of this tank has mainly been influenced by the Parosphromenus Project. I’ve really come to love the little guys.

My local LFS does stock paros, however they are kept in tap water, which is fairly hard in my area. Its such a shame, and i am reluctant to buy from them for this reason. Also they don’t have any idea what species they are, labelling them as Parosphromenus sp. With this in mind i am currently looking for a uk breeder, someone i would feel confident buying from, knowing that proper care has been given and that the species is identified.

Can anybody help?

I live in the UK, and am prepared to travel.

Thanks,

Lee.

[Peter Finke]

Lee, we should like to welcome you i n the Parosphromenus project, if you could log-in once. Then your address is in our data-list and we could inform you about fellow aquarists in the UK.

But let me say the following here: What you report is the normal situation nearly everywhere. If the fish that you see in your local shop appear to be healthy with open fins and no meagre body, then you can buy some without doubts. But don’t put them in Paro-suited water at once. Begin with that tap water again, and change it within two weeks to the right water in small steps. In two weeks time it should In any case, you should prepare one or two Artemia breeding bottles so that you can have fresh naupliae every few days.

That the shop indicates these fish as P. spec. is a good sign. It means that they are conscious about the fact that they are no “deissneri”, and that the exporter in south-east Asia is conscious about this as well. Normally, the most wild Paros sold in the international fish trade are nowadays from Sumatra and either the so-calles spec. blue-line or the so-calles spec. Sentang, very nice fish but not scientifically described hitherto. And normally the offered fish are not species-mixed.

Look to get males and females. Probably the male fish don’t display bright colours in the trade’s tanks (why should they, without quietness and caves in a bad milieu?), but any markings in the fins would indicate males. The dorsal fins are normally more pointed than those of the females, which must be clear and transparent.

I shall write to you a private mail after you have logged-in; before it is impossible.

[Lee Sweeting]

Thanks for your advice Peter, very much appreciated.

I did pay a visit to my local LFS earlier on today. They did mention where the fish were imported from, and that the species he had in stock were indeed deissneri. I have very limited experience with paros in general, as this is my first attempt at husbandry. However looking at pictures of this species i would hazard a guess that the species he had in stock were deissneri, i could be very wrong though.

The fish did however look healthy, with open fins, and were kept in a small backwater type tank with lots of leaf litter. However the water would have still be from the local tap supply, which as a stated is fairly hard.

As you have stated above i think the best way to move forward is to take your advice, and buy the fish form my LFS and acclimatise them appropriately.

Again Peter, thank you very much for the advice.

[helene schoubye]

🙂 If you ever travel to Copenhagen (not that far 🙂 ) … I have too many p. harveyi and would love to send some of these on a trip to UK. By boat would probably be possible.

I also have other species, such as p.nagyi ‘kuantan’ and p.nagyi ‘cherating’ …

Just saying 🙂 🙂 …

[Lee Sweeting]

If only i lived closer, Helene :-). Thank you very much for the sentiment though. Thats a very impressive collection, hopefully i will be as successful in the future 🙂

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