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I totally agree with bartian and PatrickG regarding the ph-crash thing. For years I was worried because everybody told you this could happen. Its not a problem in our kind of tanks, and mixing any part into it of ordinary water is contradictionary to what we are trying to achieve.
It could sound like two male engaging in territorial showoff, – ‘agressive’ signaling to each other. I think often they then excatly does not stand head down, but stay side to side.
You may have a look at our – not at all finished page of P. phoenicurus – https://www.parosphromenus-project.org/en/p-phoenicurus.html here, – (you have to count your way down in the photoes) but photoes 8-10 and photo 18+19+21 I believe to be two males showing off to each other.Have a look and see if you think it is this kind of behaviour your fish are showing.
First of all, – P. parvulus is one of the species which is not represented in great numbers, and for this reason it is always good to try. As you say, its quite certain that you will be able to provide better for them than where they are now, or where they may accidentially end up.
Second, – yes, they are often described as one of the more difficult. I dont find that actually, – breeding may be more difficult.
I find that they respond really well, in particular with regards to breeding, with a very low ph – 4, – 4.5. This is a challenge, untill you learn it 🙂 It certainly was for me. Untill I discovered this ‘Eichen extract’ (german word), which lowers the ph effectively.
Once there, I dont see any differences between parvulus and most other species. They seem to me to be ‘slower’ in development, it takes a much longer before they are fully grown as f.ex. linkei or nagyi. And I have not a lot of fry, but now and then a batch of 4-5 eggs develop.
If you want to try, take at least 6 or even more, – its not unlikely – as often with wildcaught fish, there may be some deaths, – but some are strong and will maybe thrive.
My parvulus are in 12 liters, and if you have a good deal of hornwood, or javamoss, – you can have 6 in there untill you know males from females, – they dont need a lot of space, 20 liter would probably be max size for 6. And provide good shelter, cave, leaves etc. And keep the water totally soft, and in a low ph, – then I am sure you will be able to keep parvulus as well as any other species. Its worth trying at least 🙂
I find the species extremely charming and interesting.With parvulus I have just found that the small males show this very almost iridescent seam of colour around the edges of the fins from a very early time. And the females seem to me to be a little longer 🙂 But parvulus also is the paro which in my experience takes the longest time to become mature.
You are right, – its most often the males that are shown in the photos, – but we will try and make this better.
There are a few photoes of females in the species sections (nagyi, linkei and filamentous)
There are two photoes of filamentosus female, so maybe that can help you ?Generally in young age it is really difficult to tell the difference between sexes. Both male and female with most species have the same neutral colouring of black and white stripes along the body. Only males have additional colour bands in the different fins, – again depending on the species. Once they are adult and coloured up, you are not in doubt, but before that it can be really difficult.
To me its a question of rather a long experience which sometimes makes me think I can determine whether its male or female by the shape of the body, but 🙂 .. not really 100 procent. Some species are easier than other, f.inst. I find that P.parvulus shows differences from quite early, whereas species such as P.nagyi and P.harveyi looks the same untill you start being able to see the colour band in the tail, – this you only see with the males.
The best way I think often is to provide good conditions for the fishes, add caves to the tank. This will make the fish colour up, and then you might be able to see what is what. However of course, more males in a tank, might make subdominant males look ‘female’ almost, but most often you will – depending on the species – be able to see a little bit of the colour marking in the tail fin.
A male without a female in the tank – will probably never really show deep colours. He might show some aggression colour, but this will be less ‘sparkling’. A male will react to a female by being interested and ‘tolerant’ 🙂 and charming 🙂I didnt want to write it before, because I didnt want anyone to laugh at me 🙂 .. but I was thinking anjunganensis as well …
The thing is, I think we cant really tell from these photoes yet, and the fish really are not showing enough for anyone to be certain.
You could say theres a bit anjunganensis over it, – but it could change still …🙂 I think we are all just guessing 🙂 … its still really hard to say much. However, I do think theres a bit of colour showing in the seem of the fins – on the big one in last image. You never know, it could be a male also …
Lets wait and see ..🙂 No, I know with regards to deissneri, – that you did not expect that. I just meant that that at least is easy to say, its not 🙂
Its also not linkei – those species are easy to determine 🙂But then it becomes rather difficult. I see really at the moment no real clues as to identification. But I am sure once in the tanks, it will soon become much more obvious if there are any males, and then they will colour up, and then you can start looking more for detalis and colours.
Even same species females could look a little bit different from each other, – some could seem more slender, and another more ‘thick’ – theres also individual differences.
It could also – quite likely – be young fish, and therefore not fully developed yet. And for sure males can ‘hide’ their sex and look totally blank, so there could still be a male in your four fish.I have had several times where it has been a real nuisance that they only had same sex fish in the shop, – normally I think its males. I had some at one point, I think I had 12 males and 1 female 🙂
But if you cant get any more fish, then its really a nuisance. Thats one of things that often is a problem with licorice gouramies in shops.I think its quite impossible to say anything really about the fish, – except deissneri its not 🙁
To me it looks as females, but if the fish are frightened that can of course be difficult to say. They look quite healthy and in good condition, thats important.
Hi there.
Thank you for your input, I think its always great to have feedback on what we are doing. What I think is that the current structure is one which we decided at the start of the homepage, – and of course we have it as a goal to evaluate this structure after a certain time. This we would likely do at one of the annual meetings of the steering group.
We have now had this structure for a good amount of time, and it seems natural for me that we would evaluate it some time soon. It makes also sense to look at how the structure actually has been used up to now, – some categories seems not to be very used, others makes really good sense.Your input, as well as others, if there are more, is very welcome.
The way I see it it would not make sense to ‘separate’ things out in the project and the fish. This homepage is The project – around the fish 🙂 ..
There are other forums, homepages where you would find species categories, – also parosphromenus categories as such, – but here I think it should not be separated. Its all about the Parosphromenus project bacicly.I must say, I also do think that having categories on the single species will not work, – most of the time the conditions, problems, behaviour etc really does not differ between the species, – the difference mostly is around identification. We would end up having ’empty’ categories here as well, I am sure.
. There are some photos in the “pictures” but for some reason most of them are in other places, which is extremely annoying. There is little movement around this forum, and I think it is mostly due to a bit chaotic fragmentation.
– I am not sure I understand what you mean by this ?
But I do think you have a point in perhaps looking at evaluating the current structure and see if what we started out with is serving the purpose we intended 🙂
