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Hello,
I received one young pair of P. pahuensis four weeks ago from a member of the Paroproject. They swim in a 45l aquarium and I think it is the right size for this active species. Now I saw first fry hiding under the surface in floating plants. I hope the parents will not eat all of them…
I love this species, they are more avtive than P. bintan and they show a more complex mating behavior with a lot of pair swimming. (I like bintan too, of course 🙂 )
Greetings
PatrickNo answer, OK perhaps it is not clear what I want to ask. I try it again 😉
Are factors like pH, temperature, age of the parents…known that influences the sex of the fry? At what point of the Paro life is the decission done if the fish is a male or a female? Are we able to influence the sex ratio of the fry?
Greetings
PatrickHello Martin,
My experiences are (RO-water plus peat and leaves, wood. pH 4.5-5, cond. 20-30):
Without micronutrients: Javamoss is uneffected, Javafern and Anubias shows nekrosis; Vallisneria stops growing, Salvinia, Limnobium and Lemna shows yellowish dwarf leaves, green algae starts growing. After adding tap water – no effect. After adding micronutrients – plants are growing well, algae died very fast.
I dont think I can add micronutrients with leaves, because the leaves do not decompose over years! in my aquariums.
Water changes: I do not want to avoid water changes in general, I want to avoid big water changes. I prefere to change water once or twice a week, but only 5-10%.
Martin, you say you tell us your peronal opinion, I would say it is not only an opinion. We all have (and need) our own personal way to handle our aquariums, because our visions of “the blackwater aquarium” are different and they depend on our personal taste and experience. My method works in my aquarium, perhaps not in yours or Peters. So it is very hard or perhaps impossible to create rules in aquaristics. But we can inspire each other and therefore this is a very good discussion.
greetings
PatrickThanks for your detailed answer Peter.
I agree with you, that an aquarium with blackwater fish is not comparable with high tech aquariums, because we dont use strong light, CO2 and hard neutral water. “Our systems are running slower”. I agree with you too, that its better not to use fertilizers with nitrate and phosphate.
But in some points I do not agree with you. Let me explain.
We can not copy natural systems in the aquarium. We have always (in relation) a very high input of food in the aquarium. So we have eutrophic water. We must take the nutrients away. We can do that with waterchange and harvesting of biomass. So our aquarium IS comparable with agriculture or farming.
On the other hand we use RO-water or rainwater without minerals. 2-5 % of the minerals remain in RO-water. The content of macronutrients (Mg, Ca…) is enough (because plants do not need a lot of them). But micronutrients are even in very low concentrations in tap water, in RO-water the content is near zero. To enhence the plant growth we have to add Fe, Mn, Zn…!
Harvesting plants can help us to reduce water changes. The better the plants grow, less water must be changed. And water changes always change water values (humic and fulvic acids, DOC, pH, hardiness). In my opinion the more stable system is the system that do not need big water changes.
Hello Peter perhaps my question is stupid, but can you please explain why fertilizers harm blackwater fish?
Hi Sylvia and Hugues,
Hugues, do you mean Asellus aquaticus (waterlouse, Wasserassel)? This species occurs in every pond. Sylvia, you can easily catch it under leaves and stones in shallow water.
greetings,
Patrick[quote=”Peter Finke” post=682]
But I should give you a further information: Martin Hallmann and I have written the first book ever on Parosphromenus. It will be rather comprehensive (dealing not only with the aquaristic problems in detail, but also with nature and the destruction of the habitats first, all species and many theoretical and practical questions). My parts are ready since long, Martin’s will be in March. But: It’s in German.
Up to now we have only a contract with a German publisher (the same who is editing “Amazonas”). But it would be fine if there could be found a perspective for an English translation and a publisher for that. The publisher of the German edition will surely appreciate suggestions.[/quote]Great news, Peter. I think many Parofriends are waiting for such an work.
I bought “Lavastreu” (Winterstreu) from the company “Hamann” at “Hornbach-market”. The substrate is brown Lava and Basalt (Eifel?) 1:1. Granulation is 1-5mm (max 10mm). It is not very sharp-edged. The prize is very low (36Cent/kg). The substrate does not effect pH or hardiness (tested in a glass of osmosis – water) and looks nice and natural.
Hello,
Today fishes are kept under stable, warm conditions. In early days of aquaristics nearly all species where kept in colder water than today, especially in winter. During the cold period, the fishes had the chance to recover themselves. This was right and important for subtropical fishes – but is it healthy for tropical fishes? I dont know.
I keep my Paros at 22-23°C and they spawn permanently.
I dont know if 22-23°C are the temperature-optimum of that species, but it works.Greetings
Thank you all for help! Bernd I will put some tap water into the aquarium. Daily a little more. Can you tell my how high the conducticity can/should be? Is it dangerous if the pH rises over 7?
(Danke für eure Hilfe. Bernd, ich werde täglich etwas Leitungswasser zugeben. Wie hoch darf die Leitfähigkeit und der pH Wert ansteigen? Sind pH Werte über 7 gefährlich?)
My two males devided the aquarium in two parts. They display at the border and sometimes they have short fights. The female and the F1 female can swim in the hole aquarium but the female often swims beside and only mates with one (the smaller male). This male is more agressive than the other male. Perhaps the F1 female is too young for mating (6 months) but nearly grown up. It seems to my that Paros have a steady pair bond (feste Paarbindung), is it possible?
09/19 mating (conductivity 30uS, pH 5, temperature 22-23 degrees)
09/27 cave with larvae (under water) was put in an fullglass aquarium(cleaned with alcohol 70% and washed with tap water) with 4l water from the Paro-tank, added heater and air pump
09/29 larvae were swimming free, cave put out and added java moss and salvinia
09/30-10/03 feeding with paramecium from another aquarium and with infusoria from protogen granulate
04/10 first feeding with artemia in the evening (I saw the larvae eating, orange stomachs)
05/10 water change (2l with water from the Paro-tank) 3xartemia
06/10 feeding with artemia in the morning – in the evening most of the larvae were dead, Conductivity 32 uS, pH 6, temperature 23 degrees, water change 2l with water from RO
07/10 feeding with artemia, water change 1l with RO water, 5 larvae alive, 2 dead, at the moment the survivors are very calm but they are eatingNitrite was not tested (no test), but the water is clear
I dont know what went wrong…
perhaps I should try to use a net box for guppys (Laichkasten) with java moss in the aquarium of the parents…?While I was at work, most of the Larvae died yesterday. I dont know why – water quality was OK and they had eaten Artemia.
Dear Paro-friends,
Matthias wanted to know our experiences with aquarium ground (sand, gravel, peat…). He uses peat, but he is not satisfied with it, because it is impossible to soak something up from the ground without the peat. I answered him that Sand is good to clean but very bright. So called shrimp gravel is dark but very expensive. I made my best experiences with Clay-Sand (1:10, 5cm) covered with 1cm colored gravel. Per example dead Artemia can easily soaked up with a tube and if this ground is perfoliated with roots and mixed up from snails, the water quality can be excellent.
