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I have a heavily plantet 120-liter, with paros, ruby-tetra, ottos and corys. The corys lays eggs from time to time, and this evening they were hatching.
One of the linkei females was ready, and snatched the wigglers as they came out of the egg.
I am somewhat annoyed by this discussions how to “keep” the Paros. There are hundreds if not more than a thousand very different and beautiful ornamental fish, many of them readily available in the pet trade, that are not threatened at all. Many of them are constantly bred by private or commercial breeders, others are caught annually in great numbers in the wild without harming the stocks at all.
I think it completely wrong to use organisms, plants or anmals, which are threatened to extinction in all species mainly by the logging of the rainforests for ornamental purposes in community tanks only. Licorice gouramis are. That the offspring of some of them is caught each year for commercial purposes is acceptable as long as it harvestes a number only which does not add to the threat of the populations. So we can try to breed them, enlarge the stock in our aquaria and try to become independent from the consumer mentality of the hobby. Therefore, heavily threatened organisms are nothing suited for tanks the only purpose of which is simply “keeping” them, for this means to consume them. I am not against the usual consumer mentality of 95% of the normal aquarists as long as it is to be satisfied from the huge stock of non-threatened fish. But I plea that all friends of the licorice gouramis should first sincerely try to breed and enlarge their stock in tanks suited for that purpose. If they know how to do that and have enough young, they may “keep” some of them in large tanks or even community tanks. This may be the case with the friend who wrote the last posting (although this community with corys, ottos and ruby tetras is certainly not a fully adequate environment for fish from Asian blackwater habitats …).
At any rate I hope so.
The waterparameters are right fore the papos, and I have a pair in a separate tank I’m trying to bread. :unsure: (Have sucsessfully bred sp. sentang)…
I didn’t whrite this to provoke anybody, just to show how smart the paros are… 🙁
How is your water then?
Since paros live in extremely acidic water they are adapted to living in such an environment. This means they got some features, in exchange for which they lost some other. One of those lost features is the ability of thriving in hard and/or basic water.Good to hear you are breeding them too. P. linkei appears to breed relatively easy.
ph 5,7
gh 1
Got lots of leafs at the bottom, and the water is yellow. Turf under the sand.The water tend to be soft and acidic in Norway…
I seriously have to say i regret posting this, and I don’t know if you ever hear from me again. Have some paros bought as Deissneri I would like to have the correct id for, but I don’t know if I got the guts to post here again…
I am very sorry to hear that, – and hope of course that you will indeed stay on.
It is to me a complicated question and although I do understand and share the thoughts written above by Peter, I do not see things completely the same way. Understanding the situation regarding Parosphromenus and the threathened status is of course very important, – and I am sure all who have got a deeper interest in these fish are aware of this.
I am sure that is how you came to find your way to this homepage in the first place. 🙂And we all try to breed for sure. But we still have fish that are either surplus, or bought in shops with all same sex or something, – and f.inst. in Denmark sometimes in the shops we even get Parosphromenus which are breed in captivity and sold. This is a fact.
And I think that we need to also discuss how to best keep these fish. For me is it also a matter of loving these tiny fishes. I will breed them if possible, but I will also ‘keep’ those that I have then bred in the best possible setup.
Perhaps you could think of other companions than coryes 🙂 I agree to that, but I am sure you might have been aware of that too. Sometimes things are just not possible in the ideal way.
For myself I have learned over the years, that one way I thought was right, now seems less right, – I find actually that my paros thrive in conditions that I have previously not thought would be good, – such as f.example a little bit of current seems to do them good, as well as small companion fish.Of course we should keep focus on the important things, but I personally also hope that we can continue to learn from different questions and discussions and be open to this.
Hi Sissimore
Thank you for sharing your observation I am sure that you are not alone in keeping and enjoying your Paros in mixed communities. I think that what you have observed is very interesting and has merit on this website and that you should be encouraged to continue keeping them in what ever way gives you pleasure.
Regards
Kevin
Thank you Helene and Kevin… I will stay on, just to keep learning, but probably not post again…
I don’t understant why it is so wrong to keep them with corys. The paros follow them as they plow through the substrate, and snatch goodies the corys find. The paros live in caves a little over the ground, and the corys don’t interrupt them. It seems to be a god harmony… :unsure:
Corys are my main love, so if this is so bad, I would have to lose the paros. But I don’t know of anybody who would care for them the way you demand…
A forum is a means for exchanging information and opinion. In my case it was an opinion. I did not intend to offend anybody. But if I did that with Sissimore without intention, I beg him pardon. Maybe, I read the word of “keeping fish” too literally in his case. I should be happy seeing him write here again.
But we should follow the principle of expressing our opinion clearly. I have a critical opinion in respect to aquaristics: a wonderful hobby, an excellent opportunity to watch and learn, but at the same time a great business with ambivalent aspects, too. That refers mainly to the role of the hobby industry, but partly to common mentalities, too. If you investigate empirically into the motives and practices of the aquarists (and I did some years ago at the university), the overwhelming majority of them are buyers and consumers of products without much knowledge about the backgrounds. They keep fish for fun.
I am not against that, but I am somewhat relieved that – with some exceptions – heavily threatened fish are not to be purchased in the pet shops. Here, in our Parosphromenus-project, we follow much more special aims and all who log-in here are certainly aware of the problems. At least I am fully aware of that, but I am grateful that we can express very different thoughts on our subject matters and discuss it. The medium is not very conveniant for differentiated argumentaion. All must be expressed rather shortly, with a few words only. This generates misunderstandings, but it opens the way for discussion. And that’s good, isn’t it?
Sissimor – glad to hear that.
With coryes, – somehow I just thought that it was a very different type of tank they would need, it just seemed a strange companion to me :).. but I am also not saying that you must not, or cannot.
Arent there very different needs, in terms of watermovement, space, sandy bottoms and what about food, – can they compete with each other and so on ? And I guess I also thought coryes have quite a different temperament from paros ?
Normally I use to keep species from different continents, or habitats apart – just because thats my personal preference. In nature you find paros living in same biotope with a number of other fish, so of course they can also thrive with that.Your water seems right for linkei. Someone I know even bred them in similar pH.
Corys normally don’t eat fish fry, so perhaps they even make good company for paros, as long as the water parameters are kept in mind.
Thought I’d just add that adding to this forum sharing with a community of passionate and knowledgeable people is very rewarding. Even if there are disagreements, the benefit of the information here outweighs any discomfort resulting from disagreements. If you are interested, you will learn more than you realise if you keep an open mind.
I like to post on the progress of my paros and I like to read about the paros kept by other. Like Helene said, it’s simply love for these fish. Whether kept in my aquarium, your aquarium or left surviving in their natural habitat.
Please don’t feel that your opinion is less valid that others, and it’ll be a great shame if your paros were “lost” to the rest of us.
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