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The larvae hatch after about 24 to 36 hours. All the time the male should care for the eggs and the larvae. Young larvae look like longish whitish eggs. But in two further days they become pigmented and blackish. Still they do not swim. About four to six further days they start to dash around within the cave without any clear direction. The male nevertheless catches them and returns them to the “nest” (which is often nonexistent, sometime it consists of a few bubbles only). After three to five further days the swimming becomes more directional and the male is fully unable to prevent it; the young dash out of the cave. Then they will not be carried back. They hide mostly on the ground between old leaves or peat fibres. Then, but two days later at the latest, they must be fed Rotatoria or Paramecia or some even smallest Artemia naupliae already (the California type). You will see them very rarely. Only two weeks later the first will appear higher up or even at the water surface hiding between leaves of Java moss or swimming plants.
When they begin to leave the cave the male (and the female) should be removed from the breeding tank, especially when it is a tank without much cover. Sometimes, they do not molest their young, but often they do.
What’s that mesh to be seen in your cave? A piece of filter material? You don’t need that in that place; you should remove it. It impedes the father in his proper care.[quote=”Jacob” post=1078]I’ll definitely get linkei soon, they’re available from wetspot. I was thinking of getting 4, and then keeping one male and one female since it seems anything other than just the parents really lowers the chance of fry survival. The tank is 10 gallons, maybe 6 cm as adults justifies that, and maybe the large brood size also justifies it.[/quote]
That’s definitey true. But I nevertheless think it’s better to take a tank of half the size. Your will not be able to feed the fish, especially the young, properly in a tank too big.The substrate is laterite and peat covered in sand, in some areas I think the sand covering the peat and laterite is probably too deep. If I don’t disturb it and the cryptocorynes become well established, hopefully there won’t be any complications from anaerobic conditions. From what I’ve read plants might like those conditions but if the substrate is disturbed it can poison the fish. It’s only under two inches of inert sand in the deepest areas but it’s fine sand so must be very densely packed.
It will be rather difficult to breed Parosphromenus in such a nicely planted tank. Yes, many Cryptos often occur in peaty biotopes with similar water conditions, but your aquarium is a tank! Mind the totally different structure of an aquarium compared with the natural conditions! The plants in nature are constantly delivered nutrients by the flowing fresh water und working “nutritional springs” in the huge soil-body of the waters. You cannot replace this by feeding them artificial fertilizers in a near to a destilled water-milieu of still-water. The thick layer of sand is of no use. You cannot rebuild the biotope of a flowing rainwater in a tank with still waters totally differently structured. Try it, but I remain skeptical. It’s good that you want to try to breed them. Mainly the American friends are fully concetrated on “keeping” these fish in a nice surrounding. They should try to breed them. Otherwise we will never have success with the aims of our sustainment project.
I thought linkei were clearwater because of the similarity in size, ease of care and lighter color which it shares with paludicola. For some reason it looks almost like trichopsis coloration on a parosphromenus body.
Thinking is not enough, knowing is better. P. linkei was discovered by Linke and Neugebauer 1990 in Kalimantan Tengah in the same area where they found P. opallios, at that time named P. spec. from Sukamara in the direction of the village Pudukuali. This clearly indicates that linkei is a blackwater fish. The colouring of paludicola is totally different. It’s the pastel-type without nearly any bright spots in the fins. This is different in linkei. M. Hallmann call’s it the “star-sky-type” (just as pahuensis). This is a clear indication of a blackwater fish.
There is little variance among the offspring of certain parents in paludicola, but in the other respects you are fully right, Jacob. Of course you will have no chance to choose fish from a special locality, and what you get with this really widerspread species paludicola – provided you will not buy it from a private breeder but from trade – is open to fate. The most colourful variants are Terengganu, Kota Bharu or Paka, certainly not Wakaf Tapei. Wakaf Tapei is most interesting for the breeding colour of the female: it’s getting darker, even blackish, not lighter as all others including all the species of western Malaysia. Jörg Vierke therefore wanted to seperate it as a new species; I was able to stop him in the first run, but the issue remains unclear. Maybe he is right nevertheless. But I don’t like this splitter-mentality. At any rate: Wakaf Tapei is interesting, but not in respect of colour or the longishness of the male’s fins. Both is rather dull and short compared with Kota Bharu or Terengganu. There, the males have mostly very long filaments indeed.
Yes, I think that paludicola is widely underrated because the sparkling stripes and borders of the unpaired fins we know of many Parosphromenus are missing. It’s an odd species compared with the other Parosphromenus, sometimes more resembling a Pseudosphromenus, but very interesting in behaviour and in some variants with nice pastel colouring. I like them but I know some friends (f.i. Martin Hallmann) who don’t.
You will be very satisfied with linkei. Again there are local forms that differ. There are forms with a more silvery body and fins and those with a more brownish or even reddish tinge. They can become rather large, more than 6 cm, the long filament of the male’s caudal included. The most striking difference is that some varieties have lots of small red dots around those black side spots, others have not. (Don’t bother about that side spot: some individuals have one, most two, a few three and some even none). Again, in Germany we breed many of these forms in good numbers, but if you buy from trade all you get is “linkei“. Well, that’s enough, it’s a wonderful fish, sparkling in display and rather easy to prapagate (compared to some other licorice). It’s not a clearwater fish. It is found in blackwater as most of the others (except paludicola).
Try linkei if you get it. You will not regret it.I confirm what Bill has written to your question, Jacob. And may add some further remarks. Try to ask
askkeyfish@comcast.net and
anubiasdesign@yahoo.com
That are US-companies that have imported Parosphromenus in the past.
In Europe (especially Germany) we have lots of P. paludicola (from different localities) which is a species rather easy to propagate and not as pretentious as many other species of this genus. If you will visit our first international meeting of the Project at the end of September 2013 in Hamburg you can have many of them.
But let me add that P. paludicola is not quite as spectacular coloured than many others. The fish from different localities look rather different and some are even a bit dull. There are other species in this genus that are much more eyecatching, and some are nevertheless rather easy to propagate.
I especially recommend for you three species in this respect: linkei, filamentosus and quindecim. All of them are bred by several good breeders and we have great numbers of them in Germany. Come to Hamburg and you will get them.
But they have been imported to the US before, too. Try the above mentioned addresses or the other friends in our project.Fine photos. The last one must have been shot during a spawning sequence when the male was “out” for a short time and only the female left. In very rare cases after the disappearence (death, removal) of the male the female has been observed to care for the eggs and young (Linke with linkei, Finke with paludicola). But I think that the present picture was shot at the occasion of a short “away-from-home”-moment oft the male only at the end of a regular spawning; the female is accepted for a short time only as inhabitant and carer for the eggs.
By the way: the correct name of the locality is Pekan Nenasi (not “Nemasi”).Hello „Vale!“, your questions are rather difficult to answer, indeed, for they demand really knowledge and not experience only. Most aquarists however, even the specialists for such fish as Parosphromenus, do not distinguish correctly between the two; they take their experience for knowledge. And I do not know of any serious investigation into that problem. Whether growth in groups of young aquarium fish is influenced by hormones or metabolites is – to my knowledge – not seriously clarified by research, and I can only answer from experience, too.
There is certainly proof that young Parosphromenus normally grow at a different speed, but mostly this is not attributed to hormones or metabolites but to individual differences. Just as in the case of other animals and plants we have individual differences in growing speed in aquarium fish, too. Certainly, there maybe additional causes to be found with fish growing together in the same tank (and the array of tanks that you describe could be taken for one tank, too). But I think it is sufficient to take the “normal” individual differences between organisms that grow faster and others that grow less fast as explanation. Those who grow less fast could nevertheless have the advantage of being better equipped for certain environmental situations. (Of course, there is one exception clearly to be distinguished from this, namely growth in crowded situations. Here obviously inhibiting factors are working that are most likely to attributed to metabolism).
We have no indications of an allelopathy of different species with Parosphromenus. But the base of this experience is small indeed, for mostly the efficient breeding of these species affords keeping in different small tanks. Parosphromenus are no fish for the community tank, especially with breeding in mind. But there is no indication whatsoever of adults of different species inhibiting each other if given enough space and the right water conditions. In fact, I know systems quite similar to that which you intend to construct which function rather successful a long time – if, that is the precondition of course – the fundamental ecologic requirements are correctly given. The genus is in this respect more homogeneous than most other genera, Betta included.
Therefore I suggest that you go on with your intentions. I do not think that you will be disappointed. But – to repeat it – that’s no answer to your biochemical questions. The background to my reply is not knowledge in a strict sense, it’s experience only.
Nico, please tell us the species to which this belongs, the age of the eggs resp. larvae and the water values.
Film canisters (a pity: they are no longer easy to get!) are very suitable caves for many small fish, especially Parosphromenus. They normally swim; that does not matter at all. The fish look for caves, they find the canister and like it.
Nico’s pictures show P. parvulus “Tangkiling”. That is a location in the Palangkaraya-area. The original fish were caught by Olivier Perrin (Paris), as specialist of this species. Tangkiling-parvulus are quite nice because the males have rather broad whitish borders at the dorsal and anal fin. My parvulus are from Babugus, and the borders are less conspicuous. In any case parvulus is a remarkable species with it’s wild displaying dance and that head-up-posture. Most Parosphromenus display head-down.
Collect such film canisters if you can still get hold of them. The Paros love them, even the bigger species (not the biggest: qunidecim and real deissneri).“Rainforest Rescue”asks for help of all who are concerned about what they call “the palm oil mafia”:
Dear friends of the rainforest,
one thousand people on the Indonesian island of Borneo have lost their forest. It was illegally cleared by the corporate group IOI that supplies Nestlé, Unilever and Neste Oil with palm oil. All three companies publicly pride themselves for their so-called “sustainability”.
Our partner Nordin, head of the organization Save Our Borneo (SOB), has collected plenty of watertight evidence against the criminals. He is preparing to file a case and the local government is backing him.
However, to prevent more damage elsewhere, the palm oil Mafia’s profit stream has to be cut off. This is where Nordin needs our support.
Please call on Nestlé, Unilever and Neste Oil to cancel their business relationship with IOI.Many thanks and best regards
Christiane Zander
Rainforest Rescue (Rettet den Regenwald e.V.)Dear Omaha and dear Martin, wie can take this in one reply.
Glaser is the leading wholeseller of aquarium fish in whole Europe and One of the biggest in the world. Nearly all Parosphromenus that appear in shops in Europe are distributed by Glaser. I know the relevant people personally. Koelle is delivered by Glaser, too.
The second picture, Martin, does not show a female but a male. Females have Never such small iridiscent bands around their unpaired fins. This picture really looks like Sentang again. But I am not sure. It maybe an aff. bintan of a different location on Sumatra.
Probably the seller will not reply, they cannot say other things than Glaser. And wie know the latest sources of Glaser-fish. It’s Sumatra and nothing else. Only the exact place can vary.
If you want to receive really different species, you Must come to Germany and visit a Good breeder or a meeting of the EAC or IGL. Next year at our first international meeting of the Paro-Project in Hamburg there will be at least eight or ten species present for distribution.
Another possibility is to name a German address and a breeder will send the fish there. After that they Must be fetched there. I would be delighted to help you.Martin, it is difficult to say from one picture only. It shows the fish neither in normal nor in displaying colouration, but in frightened colouration (vertical bars!). But for 60% it’s not spec. Sentang but something between rubrimontis and opallios or a different bintan-form.
Where did your friend got it from? Private breeder or commercial trade? For trade, rubrimontis and opallios are very unlikely, but a different bintan-like form from Sumatra very possibly indeed. Could you get some more photos?Omahas’s fish are typical “classic” spec. Blue line. They were the most traded Paros between 2005 and 2008, and there are still many sold in the shops in Europe, called “deissneri” or “spec. bintan”. There is even a location for them on Sumatra, the Sungai Tuncal. It’s a very productive region; every years many thousands of them have been caught and exported to the world, often bearing a wrong name.
Presently, the amonut of the catches have been reduced what whatever reasons. But they are still caught. But the naming is sometimes changed for the hope of better maney. They are classical spec. blue line.
If they are identical with bintan, nobody knows. What the relation to harveyi is, nobody knows either. We probably have to wait some years for genetical clarity. But they are wonderful, colourful fish. At any rate, try to breed them! Presently, we have not so many of them in our network.Martin, your fish are definitely spec. Sentang It has not more blue but less than many others. So, rise your young, and then try another species additionally!
I just returned from eastern Poland (Biebrza and Bialowicza), it was great!Martin, you are fully right in comparing Calcium and Natrium. Our fish are not accustomed to Ca, not at all. But they stand (or even need) a certain amount of Na. Think of fighting oodinium by Na, an old method. There are better methods today, but if you are uncertain about the real pest or illness, giving a rather high concentration of Na will often help the fish to survive and get healthy again. This would never happen with Ca. That mineral must be avoided at any rate. It’s one of the main reasons why our tap waters are badly suited for keeping or breeding black water fish. At least if not treated by the well-known methods that remove the Ca.
Yes, P. nagyi is no quite as easy as filamentosus or linkei, but not more difficult than the bintan-variants.
But mind: The real experts don’t rely on the “natural method” and look for young that survive in their parent’s home. Instead they take a small special tank for spawning and caring the eggs and larvae by the father-fish, and then remove the larvae when they are short from leaving the cave. Mostly, you can produce many young only this way. It is rare that you have pairs that don’t touch their young at all. I once had a linkei pair and a filamentosus-pair that were very caring for them. In both cases I finally could “harvest” more than fifty resp. sixty young from a well-planted 12-liter-tank in which thay had grown aside their parents.
