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I quess its probably not the case with this excample, but I know that in some other species – like red cherry shrimps (not a fish:)) – but there you always used to have a problem with finding males, – and some people said it was because the males were much less attractive than the females, so in the shop they wouldnt be able to sell for the same amount of money, – so they were simply taken out before coming to the shop.
I also heard the same thing about a fish species, which unfortunately I cant remember which one was – but where it was a known problem, that what appeared in shops was alway only one sex (the most attractive one) – because for ordinary aquarium keeper perhaps looks is more important than breeding.
But I must say, I doubt in this case that someone (like at the location of capture) would actively take away the less colourful and attactive fish (in this case the females) and keep them away from appearing in the shop .. but who can say ?I know of these rumours too. They were told for several times when an exciting species was new and expensive. Probably – the rumour said – the exporter or the breeder sells only one sex in order to prevent others to spoil his good business. This was told for instance with Dario-species and with Botia-species, but there was never a proof. I think it was nonsense, camouflaging the fact that one was unable at first to breed that new species. Certainly no export company takes measures to single out the sexes with Parosphromenus; they can be pretty sure that most licorice gouramis will be dead in the tanks of unexperienced aquarists in a few months time. This is quite in time before the new spawning and catching season begins, and they can sell all fish again.
One of the motives of the Parosphromenus-project is to change this mentality of mere “keeping” that fish. The most interesting thing with licorice is their behaviour and the most interesting behaviour is shown during courtship and breeding. We must learn to breed them, not only to keep them.
But I admit: for that purpose you need both sexes. The people who buyed that spec. Sentang-fish out of that tank I showed had no opportunity to breed them. They received only males. And why? I don’t know, but I suppose that the catch was like this. And why? I don’t know, but I suppose some kind of environmental change (perhaps by a chemical input, or merely a rise in temperatures following the cutting of high trees around), and the developing fry and growing young developed (nearly) into males only.
Or what other cause could reasonably be thought of?At some point I had these fish – shown in the picture – they were id’ed as p.sintang / sintangensis ? –
I remember I had to buy many fish because most of them were males as well.They were actually then one of the species which did not prove so difficult to breed, – but here again most were males.
I kept them as in my other tanks, at that time though I was not very good at keeping the ph low, so it was around 7-7.5
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