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Very interesting note on the breather bags – we’ve always had huge controversy about their use in the betta world. I’ve never seen my paros utilize their labyrinth organ, while bettas gulp air all the time. Good to know that the bags could be used interchangeably with this fish (although breather bags are more expensive right?)
Glad that the transaction work! That’s very exciting 🙂
Cheers
GianneHi all!
I am so incredibly happy! I still have yet to get fry to survive from my linkei, even though they have spawned and had several clutches since my original posting (I suspect one of the parents must be a fry eater 🙁 ). However…I found fry from my tweediei this morning!! This was so surprising since I’ve never seen a nest and these were received as fry from Lawrence in January! 🙂 They colored up as adults after the move and they are clearly active!!
I fed paramecium this morning since I did not have any freshly hatched brine shrimp available. There are also a lot of microorganisms with the Indian Almond Leaves I think. I’ll start up the hatchery after work 🙂
I was wondering how long I could leave the fry in with the parents. They are currently in a 22 litre aquarium with lots of Indian Almond Leaves and packed with java moss. Will the parents continue to spawn with young juveniles in the tank? Or will the juveniles eat successive generations?
I also only found fry in my tank with a single pair. My tank with a trio of tweediei have not had any fry show up yet. Is this normal for trios?
Thanks everyone for helping me along my paro journey. I really appreciate it!
Cheers
GianneI have great news! Lawrence was kind enough to give me another chance with the tweediei and I was able to get another small group of juveniles when I went home again last month (and somehow we missed each other once again hahaha – busy!) They have been eating and growing well since I brought them home. One clear male now, crossing my fingers for another.
My local group, California Betta Society, occasionally does group import buys from Asia. We coordinate with breeders in Asia to have all of our fish sent together to our transhipper at SFO and then we meet her in the parking lot and pick up the fish from her right after they get off the plane. It’s a pretty fun day hanging out with other hobbyists. I decided to order one pair of P. linkei from Hermanus so that I could gain experience with an easier Paro before the tweediei matured…
I received the pair last Sunday (May 15)….and I have fry today! (May 23)!! I’m so happy! They are really beautiful. I did get some pictures of the male tending his fry, but my big computer isn’t working so I can’t upload them. I think there are only 10 or so. I am amazed how large the fry are compared to Betta species!!
My plan is to just keep them together for now. I was reading through other posts and it seems that they will do multiple rounds of spawning in quick succession? I will introduce even more cover into the tank for the fry to hide in, too. I will be getting another pair of tanks soon to set up for licorice gouramies – I just had no idea they would spawn so fast! 😀 Thanks everyone for your encouragement!
Thanks all. Hopefully I will be able to visit Lawrence when I am visiting my family in a couple of weeks!
A couple of my fish friends consoled me after the incident, too…one was cleaning an extremely rare apisto tank, and the female got sucked into the tube and suffered a pretty horrible death. One of my killifish friends had a rare breeding group of a Rivulus species, and he forgot to cover the tank…they all jumped out in the 10 minutes he was in the bathroom. Another one of my friends in the Midwest lost power during a 3 day snow storm and most of his discus died. I know things happen, but it still hurts, especially when they are so rare and special! I’m lucky that I haven’t had any huge disasters…but then…the big earthquake is supposed to hit San Francisco one of these days O_o
I certainly learned my lesson. My fish usually get a mix of grindal worms, white worms, and brine shrimp naupliae that I culture myself, plus the black worms I occasionally get from the shop. I can’t keep things outside (my land lady does a lot of gardening), otherwise I would culture mosquito larvae and daphnia. Sometimes I get daphnia from my friend’s cultures when I visit though 🙂
I keep the black worms in a shallow dish of water and actually feed them with Vita-Chem for a week with daily water changes before I start feeding them to my fish. Ever since I started doing that, the black worms stay very healthy. In comparison to white worms and grindal worms, the black worms do much better getting my fish into final spawning condition for some reason. They are definitely only a very small part of the diet though, maybe 2x week. They are too fattening otherwise.
I will definitely not be doing deworming on them again! I should have realized that the risk of disease in such water conditions would be low. I will probably drop it altogether since I’ve never had problems with intestinal parasites anyways 🙁
Still feel sick :sick:
Hi All~
Thank you all very much for the informative comments! I was getting really excited to separate out the dominant pair into the new spawn tank – I had the temperature at 26C, the rain water stained with IAL/alder cones, the pH low….
I do an annual deworming of my entire fish room because I occasionally feed live black worms from the local store. I rinse and feed them every day and the worms look healthy, but I do an annual deworming as a preventative regardless. Fish that readily accept frozen/thawed food receive fenbendazole-soaked brine shrimp, and fish that refuse non-live food are treated with Prazi Pro at the recommended dosage. I have NEVER had problems with this regimen before.
I woke up to all my licorice gouramies either dead or floating. It was completely devastating. I scooped the ones that were floating but still breathing into the new tank – it looks like I might have 3 or 4 females pull through. The males made me cry. They are so incredibly colorful, even dead. Ironically, my pygmy sunfish I treated the exact same way are spawning again this morning. I had no idea that these little ones were that sensitive. I always thought PraziPro was super gentle, and some of my other friends also use it as a preventative de-wormer once a year or when they get new fish. Note in the future – never ever treat with PraziPro (or anything else – I would anticipate that they never get bacterial infections because of the near sterile water conditions?)
I’m going to see if I can get another male from Lawrence…I feel absolutely terrible. I’m glad some of the females were able to pull through.
Although they are not Paros, sex determination in Bettas is still quite a mystery. Many spawns are heavily skewed in one direction or the other (I myself have had spawns that are nearly 100% male or 100% female, and I’ve tried to isolate different variables like pH or temperature – haven’t found anything consistent yet!) It is thought that Bettas rely on environmental cues to determine sex, but the link has not been definitively proven.
Here is a research article that I found extremely interesting. I made an “abstract cartoon” and a summary breaking down the article. A link to the actual article is at the bottom of the page:
http://www.ingloriousbettas.com/sex-determination-in-bettas.html
This article was particularly interesting because females that had their ovaries surgically removed (dubbed “neomales”) were actually able to go on and father viable offspring, notably of both sexes! This argues against an XX/XY system of sex determination. Anecdotal evidence of females spontaneously switching to males are well known among Betta breeders (I in fact witnessed this first hand – a female that actually placed 2nd in her class at one show “switched” in transit to the next show, where s/he placed in a male class!)
I wonder if Paros have a similar sex determination system as Bettas, and if so, what can cause skewing towards one sex or the other. Peter, is it known what the approximate sex ratios typically are in the wild? I know this information would be very difficult to collect properly (ex: perhaps nesting males are more evenly distributed in discrete territories but females roam around in loose shoals, then there could be a collection bias in any one catch. This pattern of behavior is similar to nesting male bettas/roaming female bettas). Would be interesting to see if there are skewed sex ratios in the wild, and when they occur.
Cheers
Gianne
