Species of Bangka

[Peter Finke]

There have been always rumours of a third Parosphromenus-species living on Bangka island besides bintan and deissneri. At present, there is a form traded in Kopenhagen/Denmark which is somewhat different than “normal” bintan. And the pet-shop owner says it is wild-caught from Bangka!
Is there anybody outside in the world of the friends of the licorice gouramis who could tell us more and more exact news?

[helene schoubye]

I will post my only image of this species that Peter is mentioning, – and I think maybe it is I who has described it as different from Bintan, –
If so, I must say, I am not sure, – my experience with Bintan is not so big, – so it might be a bad describtion.
My fish, which has been bought a little time ago, was called ‘Deissneri’ – wildcaught from Bangka. They are not Deissneri as I know them ..
In this picture they do look a lot like ones I have had before (sentang, sp.bintan) but I still think they have a more robust feeling about them, – less slim looking, – but I am very unsure..
So here’s the image, maybe it can be a help for more experienced people

[Christian Hinz]

Pulau Bangka is the largest island in the Riau Archipel with a north-south expansion of 200km and we only know from Parosphromenus bintan and Parosphromenus deissneri from the south of island from the area of Toboali.
Meanwhile we know several about other bintan like types from the Riau Archipel for instance Parosphromenus spec. “Dabo” or Parosphromenus spec. “Pulau Belitung” and therefore it is in all probability that there are more bintan like types from those area as well as from Pulau Bangka.
In addition it would be astonishing that the species Parosphromenus bintan with a very large distribution area (meantime we know about bintan like types from Sumatra, Riau Archipel, south and west Borneo and Westmalaysia) don’t develop local forms.

Christian Hinz (Berlin, Germany)

[TEAM BORNEO]

Hi,
I think that Parosphromenus bintan have little differences of the feature in the south area and at the center area.
The body side of Bintan in the center area is very red.

And, I found the third Parosphromenus in Bangka.
It’s the west of the Bangka island.
This is neither deissneri nor bintan.
Fin color is red, and there is no pattern.
It looks like anjunganensis a little.
And also body color is red.

However, the habitat was destroyed.
Someone, please look for this!
I have GPS point.
It is about 10km from Mentok!

[Peter Finke]

[quote=”Christian Hinz” post=49](…) it would be astonishing that the species Parosphromenus bintan with a very large distribution area (meantime we know about bintan like types from Sumatra, Riau Archipel, south and west Borneo and Westmalaysia) don’t develop local forms.[/quote]

Yes, that is certainly true. Or in other words: It is highly probable that such a widespread species has developed quite some variations in isolated regions of its home range.

But one can formulate another question: P. bintan was described as the first species of many similar species. At the time of it’s description we all were not convinced that there are so many similar species. Today, the picture has changed completely. Would the describer describe bintan the same way if he had to do (or to revise?) it nowadays? Would he freely ascribe such a widespread distribution to a single species? Meanwhile he is and we are convinced that Parosphromenus-species have generally or mostly a much more limited distribution. Therefore I think that the status of bintan must probably be questioned fundamentally. At least the hypothesis of its widespread ocurrence.

[Author]

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