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The finder of this species, Horst Linke, describes the habitat rather exactly as follows (I translate his words into English):
“The species lives in Danau Rasau (lake Rasau), a lakeformed widening feeding the great Sungai Batang Hari near Ratanpanjang, about 76 km northeast of Kota Jambi extending till Tanjung and from there in the Sugai Batang Hari about 15 km further until the Danau Rasau at Rantanpanjang is reached (Province Jambi, Sumatra, Indonesia).
It is an extreme blackwater peat lake (…); the pH measured was 4.1, electric conductivity 30 Microsiemens/cm, and temperature (water) 29,3 degrees Celsius. (…) The species lives together with Betta coccina, Trichogaster leeri, Trichogaster trichopterus (only a few), Belontia hasselti and Sphaerichthys osphromenoides (SIM, CHIANG, LINKE & LINKE 2007)”.
The species was correctly identified only once by the original import of Horst himself (of which I received some animals later on and bred them without problems), again a second time by a new import by Linke, and then never again. The scientific name was given not before 2012. All commmercial imports since that first one claiming to be P. gunawani have not been securely identified. There is a commercial interest by exporters and importers of rare fish species to give them interesting “new” names for the sake of selling them in a difficult market. Only once I saw a photo of them that could have been gunawani; but all others were deinitely other forms from Jambi. There are many bintan-like forms in that part of the island. So, it is highly probable that most of the forms sold bearing that name are (mistakenly or frankly) wrongly named.
The quality of the water is the main problem if you try to hatch eggs without the father.
In nature, Paros live in running water. Additionally, the father makes a soft water-change-effect by his fins. This all is missing in a jar. There will be great problems of funghus and bacteria if you do not change the water. Mostly, this is not successful without picking out bad eggs in a daily turn und using funghicids and frequent (= daily) water changes.
A reply to deepin’ peat’s message:
There is a successfull method that has been developed by one of our first good breeders of Paros in Germany, Jakob Geck:
Put the free-swimming larvae in a round jar of about two liters with a round bottom. Add two or three small snails. Then, every day a few hours after feeding Artemia or other small food stir up the water with a stick by circling moves and wait. The debris will assemble in the middle of the round bottom of the jar. There you can easily remove it with an aeration hose without endangering the fry too much. The missing water is to be replaced by new water of the same qualities; it’s not more than half a liter. This is all. When the fry has reached an age where they need more space, they will be put in a bigger tank with a sponge filter.
Jakob Geck has raised many generations of many Paro-species by this simple combination of intensive, dense feeding and relatively moderate water change every day.
We have a similar problem all over the world. The best and smallest Artemia cysts are those from the Great Salt Lake in Francisco bay, but they are the most difficult to get because they have become really expensive by now and most aquarists are not willing to pay for it. There are many other offers of cheaper species resp. brands, but mostly the quality is much less convincing.
We have only one company (Sander) in Germany selling true San Francisco Artemia cysts for 89,00 Euros a can (ca. 450 grams). The problem is: Sander is a wholeseller, only pet shops can order there. Here you see his offer (in German):
It would sound silly if you live in the U.S. and order San Francisco Artemia cysts from a German wholeseller. There must be American companies selling them, too. But the price is probably very high also over there. Nevertheless, you are fully right, to pay for it. The quality is great, and if stored in the refrigerator the cysts stay alive for years.
Davy, have you seen the male eating the eggs? Or do you presume only the cause being the eating male? Mind, that it sometimes looks like eating, whereas it is only caring for the clutch.
Anyway, the clutch disappears again and again. I should recommend to you to take either the adult fish out or the cave with the eggs. The latter would make it necessary to put it in an extra vessel with exactly the same water (!) and to use funghicides and additionally pick out bad eggs every day several times. The better method is to take the adult fish out, Here, again it could become necessary for you to replace the caring father by own activities.
But the most important aim is to bring at least some eggs to development. Possibly, you have to look in the latest census who still has some P. phoenicurus besides yourself and try to get some additional individuals for exchanging them.
Yes, often at least. The species in which the sexes are most early to be distinguished is filamentosus followed by the true deissneri because of the colours in the unpaired fins. The extension of the caudal filament may begin to be visible with 1,5 cm, but sometimes the prolongation happens later. This is individually different. There are individuals who are fast and others who are late.
P. linkei is the least certain in this respect although its males filaments could become extremely long. They grow longer and longer (in some individuals and stocks) when the individuals are 2 cm or much more. The colours of the fins are in the sexes different, too, but not as obvious as in the other two.
Thank you for that literature. But: Yuk Fung Jaime Leong writes on Daphnia carinata and Moina australiensis. I don’t know both species. We in Europe use mostly other species of Daphnia (mainly D. pulex and some other genera, as Bosmina spec., and Moina, preferably Moina macrocopa. I know that there are some differences in ecological requirements between some species of Daphnia (and certainly Bosmina) and probably between different species of Moina. But I do not know what it amounts to in culturing them.
I did not read that longish paper; perhaps it will deal with that questions. Which species did you use, especially which species of Moina?
I don’t know of any complications or habitual deficiencies of Paros which were raised separately without parents natural care for a brood is not as much developed than with many cichlids. It’s rather an archaic kind of a care, restricted to the very first 10 days from laying the eggs till the darkening of the larvae, as Bernd said.
There are a few people in Germany only who managed to get a clutch develop without the caring father; one is our pioneer breeder Günther Kopic. But he describes the method as rather tricky and difficult, since you have to substitute the missing male by hand-care yourself, in picking out each individual egg that is liable to infest others with funghi. He did this for several days three or four times a day, and even this was impossible without the use of funghicides. The father’s care is the most effective one can imagine; but when the larvae get dark, it ends or is at least no longer necessary.
By the way, I have several times raised about fifty young Paros for about 8 weeks in 12-liter-tanks with their parents present. But it depends on the individual fish; often Paros are very tolerant against their small young, but – I regret to say – often they are not.
It is most important so realize that the present situation is not any more the orginal situation that was the case for a long time. Many Paro habitats in the peninsular Malaysia have more or less changed during the last twenty years of deforestation. From or aquarium experience we know that many soecies can be kept and even sometimes propagated in more or less clear water, but we don’t know anything about the effect of this on their life and life span. The only species which is known to be occuring in clear waters ist paludicola, and by its colouration it is obvious that this should be the case for a long time already.
All the other species mentioned occurred in former times and even two decades ago in blackwater only. The present situation cannot be taken as indicating them to be no blackwater fish. It only indicates that the whole blackwater biodiversity is doomed to extinction because the blackwater habitats are domoed to ectinction. And it indicates that some react faster than others. Luckily, alfredi and ribrimonties react more slowly obviously, but this is no indication that their typical habitat is clear water.
Dear Massimo, full support and affirmation.
As far as breeding is concerned, we have a clear tendency towards your suggestions. But: It is necessary that at least some breeders try to breed special species/forms from time to time in greater numbers. Otherwise we could not satisfy the wish of beginners to receive these fish.
A specially successful form of breeding is practised by or friend Bernhard Lukiewski (Berlin). He has focussed his breeding-system on a few fish only, among them only one species of Parosphromenus (P. quindecim). He could offer fish of any age at any time. There has been no aspects of degeneration, although all is done from a single pair about 15 years ago. in other cases breeding has been proved to become extremely difficult from the third or fourth generation onwards. But I suppose this has been due to mistakes (less water changing, food problems, negligance) which the breeders were responsible for, too.
In general, your ideas match mine grosso modo. I wish you full success in Italy.
Dear Massimo, I am admiring your firm and conscious critical thinking, and I wish you and your friends the very best. This – concentrating on the roots of the hobby and opposing its being dominated by values of the market – is essentially what I think is the path towards the future.
Your rules for the tanks are – may I say – a bit rigid; I am in favour of them but they are hardly to be realized fully with Paros. I do not know any specialist for these fish who is able to do without Artemia, although it would be fine if one could dispense oft it. But this is not central to your main point. Most certainly, Paros are a wonderful group to learn a maximum independancy for the hobby from the market.
Go on! If we can, we shall try to help you! Peter
Catching Paros is an exhausting thing:
1. They live not in the free water, but in the riparian grasses.
2. Use very strong sieves and catching instruments only; everything else is useless.
3. You must work in the vegetation; this is heavy work.
4. They do not live near the surface but in greater depth than 20 inches.
5. You have to change waters very often; store enough water for that purpose.
6. The best time in the year is two or three months after the breeding season.
7. This means: November is not the best period; high waters are generally bad.
8. Restrict your search to blackwater habitats only; use measurement kits for water parameters.
9. You must obey the laws.Many people have told that in the wild they never saw a Paro. This does not necessarily mean that there were none. It means that those people expected to catch them like Rasboras or Trichogaster. One has to know something about their behaviour in order to be successful.
Dear Massimo, you are very welcome with the Parosphromenus-Project! Until now, there are not many Italian members; please write to our webmaster that she should send you their names and addresses.
I am very much in favour of your suggestion to prefer private ways of exchanging fish and ideas and exclude the commercial level as much as possible; we really don’t need it (at least to far an extent) as far as Paros are concerned. This matches with my conviction that the commercial exploitation of the aquarium hobby bears many negative aspects; the P-P is a path towards a critical debate that we need on it.
An important point of our project is to preserve privately caught fish with secure locations (= definite location-forms of non-mixed species) by breeding and private distribution. Unfortunately, sometimes such forms are nevertheless lost and commercially traded fish replace them. But the project has a long-term breath and starts anew when an expedition has been successfully brought some forms home again.
We are proud to say that at least some species/forms could be saved until now by this policy, e.g. quindecim, pahuensis, spec. Ampah and spec. Lundu (= soec. Sungai Stunggang). Unfortunatly, the true deissneri is (nearly) lost; there is one pair left only, regularly spawning but no young are produced. We hope that we are soon able to go to Bangka for some new pairs, for that species has never been traded at all. And it is urgent, since the pollution of the habitats on Bangka is heavy and disastruous.
You cannot expect that plants that come from a normal aquarium water with pH around 7.0 will do at once fine in a blackwater aquarium with pH much lower. Lagarosiphon and Elodea and many (not to say: most) others normal aquarium pants are totally wrong in that kind of waters. Those named are dapted to hard waters and will soon die in waters wthout any measurable calcium and a pH of 6 or lower.
Ceratopteris is very good indeed and tolerates those waters if adapted over a certain period of time; then it is the best plant for small Paro-tanks. Limnobium is much less suitable.
The owner tells me that the origin of the fish is Sumatra. This is highly probably since the trade has had its major base there over the last five to seven years. The relatively biggest relics of the former widespread and rich populations of different Paros are to be found on Sumatra today. Therefore the catchers try it there. From Western Malaysia and Borneo come very few fish in the last years. The habitats are destroyed; it’s not atrractive from a commercial point of view any longer. It’s up to us to breed the living relics.
If Sumatra is right, then rubrimontis is most probably ecxluded. Anyway, spec. Mimbon 98 (I bred them some years ago and owned the last male offspring we know about) was a variant of alfredi and not of rubrimontis. And both species are native in small habitats in Western Malaysia. They have never been found on Sumatra (but see below).
I asked Horst (Linke) what his opinion is. He thinks it is phoenicurus and sent me a picture taken of a specimens short after beeing caught, in the plastic bag. It is similar indeed, but not identical from morphological reasons. So, nevertheless I think his presumption is wrong, either. Some other markers are missing.
Martin (Hallmann) thinks it is somewhat intermediate between bintan and phoenicurus, both forms native on Sumatra. I think, he is right. The fish might come from a habitat which is not yet known to us enthusiasts but to some commercial catchers only. It’s probably not rubrimontis but a similar hitherto unknown form. Just as phoenicurus from Sumatra is very similar to tweediei from Western Malaysia. In former times there was no sea gap in between; the habitats were connected by the landbridge of old “Sundaland”.
But: All these conjetures rest on some rather bad photos. We need big, sharp photos of males in full display colours. I know how difficult it is to get them, o yes! But until then we should keep silent with questions and answers.
