Videos of males being territorial

[Mike Hu]

Hi guys and gals,

I thought I’d share this videos of my males squaring up against each other. I’m pretty sure that they are a Bintan variant however I think they may be Sentang. Confirmation would be appreciated if anyone knows for sure.

BTW apologies for the shaky cam and I know there are better videos out there.

[Peter Finke]

Mike: Congratulations, that is a very nice video of displaying males. They show aggressive colours, especially as sometimes a female is to be seen.
Do you have more of these videos? We would be glad to see them here.
By the way: I think, your diagnosis is right. The fish seem to be P. spec. Sentang from Sumatra.
Did you buy them in a shop? Do you keep still other species of licorice gouramis?

[Mike Hu]

Hi Peter,

Thank you for confirming my thoughts.

I did indeed get these from my local fish shop. I don’t know if you recall my previous video of paros being kept in an unsuitable environment at the LFS. Well I believe I rescued them and they have done very well since.

Interesting that you mention more videos. I don’t mean to tease however I will be posting…further developments 🙂 in the near future.

[Peter Finke]

Hi Mike, it would be very nice if you could describe such local shops in your country, or just the one you vivited. Mind that many paople from all over the world visit our site, and the pet-shops look very different in different countries. What fish are they selling mainly? In what situation did you find the licorice gouramis? Why was it a situation to “rescue” them? Is there a lot of nonsense-plastic material be sold in that shops? What about the plants: Are that real plants or plastic? What about the water they use? What about the food they use? How often did you see licorice gouramis?
And so on. Many people would be interested to read such a short report. And you should say which country itis.
And another question: Do you have local friends who keep or breed fish? Which they prefer? How many aquaria do they care for? How big or small are they? Are they highly technizied or not? And so on.
You should always mind: This forum is not for Asia alone. We would like to instigate the keeping and breeding of licorice gouramis and the intensive talk about their problems in Asia; the internal communication in the home-lands of these fish on land-change, on the logging of rainforests, on the destruction of biodiversity should be intensified. But many people from other countries and continents read this too. There is a great number of aquarists who never kept Parosphromenus fish themselves, but are keen to read about them, about their home, their problems, about the situation in Asia.
Best wishes!

[Bill Little]

Bravo Peter – some excellent ideas for Mike and others to follow up on. I’m sure fish stores vary greatly from country to country. It’s a great idea for members to describe what shopping for fish is like in their country or even region. Years ago I spent time in Japan and a year up country in Thailand. There were great differences between fish shops in those countries and vastly different from shops in the U.S. at that time. Indeed, today in the U.S. there are significant differences in different locations in this country. I look forward to Mike’s comments as well as others that might wish to contribute to the dialogue. One more thing, I will echo the request by our webmaster previously. It would be very helpful for ALL members to complete their profile on the site. That gives others of us that are following comments by a writer of where they are located around this wide world. By providing a city and country (not an actual address) we can post to the map – giving all of us a picture of where we all live. I look forward to opening up this discussion among our members.

[Mike Hu]

Hi guys,

I’m happy you would like to know more about my experience.

First of all I must tell you that I live in the UK.

I got my paros from a typical fish shop and they do all sorts of tropical, cold water and marine species as well as plants from Holland.

I think they use treated tap water at ph 7.2 but it is quite hard in my area. GH around 11 and Kh around 6 when I measured it.

However my shop sells pure RO which I use and with peat and JBL’s peat treatment I get water at Gh 3 and no Kh. Ph is below 5 and my test kit won’t measure lower.

The reason I say I rescued the fish is that although my shop is good, it does not provide a good environment for paros. Please see my previous topic for my meaning.

https://www.parosphromenus-project.org/en/forum/3-Species/753-My-terrible-video-of-Licorice-Gourami-at-my-LFS.html

I use live food bought from the fish shop and will range from brine shrimp,daphinia, blood worms to glass worms. I also cultivate baby brine shrimp at home. Sometimes I have seen my fish take bites of dry food.

So the situation in the Uk is probably quite similar to elsewhere in Europe and you can buy all sorts of equipment and be as technical as you like. My friends keep fish but not especially difficult species but they have had experience in breeding bristlenosed plecs, and guppies. I have also bred swordtails and cories myself and I am also breeding cherry shrimp.

Please see my next topic for further developments on my paros.

Cheers,

Mike

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