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Two German Parosphromenus-enthusiasts and specialists are determined to fly to Malaysia and perhaps Indonesia next year. Among their aims, they are clearly determined to bring some of the shrimps back home that live in the Paro-habitats.
The shrimp C. parvidentata that has been mentioned by 7 Zwerge has been detected by member of the steering comittee Benjamin Wilden as being tolerant of typical Paro water and nevertheless produces offspring in this milieu. He experimented with quite a few species, but not systematically and with intention of completeness, and found parvidentata the only species suited for the purposes of the Paro aquarium.
It is hard to get hold of it because it is small and not colourful and popular as many other species. It is unclear indeed what the notes on its preferences to be found in the literature (which tell us much higher values of pH and water hardness) are based upon; it is not at all clear that they are sound and based on reliable proof. But meanwhile it is proved by several successfull experiments that the species is suited – at least in sufficient an aspect – to our needs.
Let us hope that next year we learn more in this respect.
You should reflect two things:
– Paros do nearly never occur in ponds but in streaming water only
– There are many descriptions of the fish communities at Paro-sites, but I never read of any catfish.There maybe a third point:
– Where do you get possible species?Think of the fact, that Paros in nature live to a major extent of the juvenile forms of the shrimps occuring in their habitats. But these species are missing in our pet shops. Why? Because normal aquarists would not buy them because of the water conditions. The same with possible catfish species.
Why are you so fixed to catfish? You cannot breed Paros in Community tanks. The adult go very good with Boraras, but not the very young. In the first weeks they hide mainly in the layer of leaves on the ground. Catfish preferring that would be counterproductive. Free swimming catfish are, to my knowledge, bound to other water conditions.
Bill, that’s very interesting indeed and you should have a try. But it sounds time-consuming. Have you an idea how many days such a shipment would take? If the fish are healthy, properly packed and the air temperatures around 18
7 to 22 degrees Celsius, it could work well for 3 or 4 days certainly.If friends in other Eurpean countries are reading this: Reply to the question of Bill`s, please. Is there a similar system in your country, what are the costs and what is to be done if one wants to use it?
[quote=”Gianne00″ post=5615]Hello (…) I’m sorry (…) but my P. linkei have been spawning every 2 weeks but no fry, probably due to predation, since I can see the fry develop to hanging but no free-swimming fry.[/quote]
Be patient. That’s quite normal. Young Paros don’t swim freely around just after leaving the cave. They hide (for instance in leaves at the bottom) and eat microorganisms (which are there if it’s an older set up). If you feed the adults with freshly hatched brine shrimp the young will get their share. You will probably see young fishes free swimming in four or six or eight weeks time. Not earlier. It’s always like this.
Bill, you mention photos of JJphotos.dk that seem to show P. deissneri; at least they were named like this.
I just tried to find that photo, but without success. But that portfolio is huge, and the pictures are of many authors, not by the owner of the site himself. The main point that I want to make is the follwing, however: The true P. deissneri is – in the male sex, but we generally distinguish the Paro species by the males in courtship colours – easily to be recognized, and normally in this species there is no reason for errors (see the pictures of male deissneri at our homepage).The very special form of the tail fin including a black filament and the very special colouring of the unpaired fins by separated short streaks instead of a continuous coloured band is highly specific. There are few websites only that are aware of this and illustrate fish named deissneri by photos of real deissneri. I should be interested to see that picture of which you say that it seems rightly to show that species. I doubt that. If it did it must be really specific and could be named without any doubt.
Generally I encourage you as Helene and Russ did to try the fish offered by that shop but obviously named wrongly. Despite of the name, all species and hitherto undescribed additional forms are beautiful fish; in some cases we could name them rightly but not in all. In fact, most of the Paros offered by the trade are no-name Paros because they were caught on Sumatra where some places are left that promise the professional catches a good harvest. Rarely, the trade offers fish from Western Malaysia or Kalimantan (Borneo), never from Sarawak or Bangka. And most of those fish from Sumatra are not scientifically described up to now; so, there is no “right” name presently. P. spec. Sentang or P. spec. “blue line” are the most frequently sold Paros in the zoo trade, but they bear provisional names only. And often even these fish are not identical; the fish offered bearing these provisional names have sometimes been collected at different sites, for the catchers and the exporters have no interest and experience in the fine differences of local variants. Nevertheless: they are beautiful fish. And its entirely unimportant whether they are “true species” or what sort of variant to an already named species “only”. There is a certian risk of different variants having been mixed up, but the risk of different species having been mixed like this is very small indeed.
The explanation given by Helene is the most probable one: The fish are still too young and the female is not ready for laying eggs. If they do not display and the male has no interest in the female by not showing his courtship dance, they are not adult.
The factors you mention – tank, water, food – are quite OK. The new tank is not too wide or too high. Perhaps you will get some mosquito larvae in time, best food for getting the females ripe. I guess that in your old tank you used the same water, so I shall not bother with other parameters which you did not control.
But why did you change the tank at all? There was no necessity for doing so. Helene did not suggest that you should do that. She said rightly “if you were to take one male out”: but there was no reason for doing this. The tank was big enough for a surplus male to hide if necessary. But you did not write of courtship, only of interest of the female for the less dominant male. So I should replace the pair to its former situation and see if the dominant male shows the darker colours again. If it does, this may be induced by the second male more than by the female.
Then you have to wait. Before one of the males selects a cave and tries to get the female in, your fish are too young. Before there is any serious courtship, even spawning in a cave and the male guarding eggs and larvae, there is no need to split the trio. Even then ther maybe no need to do so, because the sub-male has enough room to hide.Sometimes it’s really difficult to get the female ripe for egg-laying. Therefore be patient and wait. And let the animals choose their partners themselves.
You must think like this: The aquarium water is always worse than the flowing blackwater of the wet rainforest. The best conditions for our Paros would be slowly streaming fresh waters. But in the normal tank this is not possible. The more often you change water and the more you change big quantities the better. But normal aquarists are lazy. They change every four days or every week a certain part of the old water. The more you combat your laziness and change more often more water the better.
Fortunately, most of our Paros are able to stand the medium standard changing conditions, but that does not mean this to be good; it’s more or less acceptable only. The problem is that of a structure quite different from nature: the aquarium. Water change is an imperfect means to imitate the constant flow of best waters without germs. The more you fight your laziness and change more frequent and bigger quantities, the better. If you succeed staying lazy and change little, you can be lucky with certain species, but you will probably not with other. At any rate you play with the adaptability of organisms that are far less adaptable than most of other aquarium inhabitants.In a normal aquarium tank filtration by growing plants is possible, in a blackwater tank the idea is nonsense. The best “filtration” is frequent water change. Small “filters” bring movement into the still water, they cannot “clean” the water. Especially for beginners they are useful for consolidation of the mind, nearly nothing else. I would always say people should use a small sponge filter, but the decisive thing is frequent water change.
I have bred all Paro species in small 10 liter-tanks without any filter and water movement, but frequent water change, twice a week is good. And floating Ceratopteris is good for consuming the small amounts of N that build up in the water from the little feeding of the fish.Supplementing the other mailings:
There is not only this one test kit. Unfortunately, these tests are not supported by the aquarium companies; for them such tests are too complicated and not necessary because most usual aquarium fishes live in highly infested aquarium waters quite well. But it’s different with blackwater organisms as Paros are.
A very good test kit which I have used often with veery informative results is the “Cult-Dip-Combi” by the famous German Merck corporation (10 culture media dip-slides for the colony count of bacteria, yeasts and moulds, the can be stored quite long a time at temperatures between +15 to +25 degrees Celsius (protected from light). The product number is 1.00778.0001.
Look for the internet page of Merck and enter the name of the test. It may well be that in the meantime they have developed newer test kits that I have not seen and used hitherto, and there may be other companies with similar products. Merck is a forerunner and foremost developer of high quality products in that field. The principle seems to stay always the same, however. And there are suppliers of the Merck-products in other countries as well.
It is certainly advisable to keep a Paro-tank not sterile but free from the huge amounts of germs that live in normal aquaria. Therefore it is advisable to remove all decaying materials as soon as possible, for instance inconveniant wood or older decaying leaves. Dry Terminalia catappa-leaves, for instnnce, are of high value, but after some weeks they become a source of the opposite processes and must be removed or substituted by new ones. The same holds for older alder cones.
Use such a test like those recommended with a normal aquarium. It might look splendid and clean and a nive underwater garden, but you will be frightened by seeing the thousands of germ nests on your testing unit!
I wonder, if anybody who writes in these forums have read the many informations on our fish advertised in the left of our frontpage.
Basic information is given there. Paros are – in spite of having a well-functioning labyrinth – nor surface fish. But normally they don’t use it for breathing. Therefore they normally live in greater depths and have no special relationship to the water surface. That means: Drosophila is not a suitable food for them.
God almighty, I never met somebody who started with P. parvulus and conceives to continue with P. ornaticauda. I definitely think this is the wrong attitude; you should not do this. Without any experience with fish by far more easier to keep and breed it is wrong to behave like a courageous sportsman. Come down and start with linkei or paludicola or filamentosus or even quindecim, then – if successful – move forward to tweediei or phoenicurus or harveyi, then try the next step with alfredi or even sumatranus. But you should not begin with parvulus. Only after having collected some decent practical experience you should try that. Paro-breeding is not a game, it’s not a mere demonstration of courage. It’s a serious thing with endangered species involved. You are not almighty as you name yourself.
Utricularia (not: Ultricularia) gibba is safe and fine; all bigger Utricularias are not. I have often used U. gibba in breeding tanks without any problem. I never would do so with its bigger relatives.
We are not almighty as your name suggests, Almighty Joshaeus. 7 Zwerge rightly reminds us of the great differences between a twenty liters tank with still waters and a constantly running stream in the dwindling primeval forests of south-east Asia. However, there is one thing that is used by the good breeders: Changing food, suddenly abundant. If you want to instigate a pair to breed, then you organize a big water change in combination with a change in feeding: suddenly there are microrganisms for future larvae and young abundantly around (if you provide them!) and good numbers of good food for the adults. This seems to trigger some reluctant pairs to breed.
And what is the background? It’s just the beginning of the wet season with lots of rain water and an explosion of infusoriae and other small food. By this you imitate something. But it’s limited to a still water tank of twenty liters. Nevertheless, you can do it and by this you apply your knowledge.Yankadi, all the species you mention are hitherto not being cultured well in a submersed, but only in an emersed mode (with the leaves growing outside of the water in heavily moist air); in a substrate composed from old beech- and oakleaves, as you say. You should tell us whether your way to care for them in plastic bags is emerse too, or submerse. I know nobody in the whole world who is capable to grow these species submersely in aquaria today. Every progress in this direction would be of great interest, but it is not very likely.
There is no var. “didencis”; the right name is var. diderici.It is known for quite a long time that the sex of fish individuals (or amphibians or reptiles) is not fixed within seconds by insemination (as in mammals or birds for instance) but by environmental factors as temperature, pH or the degree of humic substances during the first days or even weeks of their lives. The phenomenon has been widely been researched upon by specialists at universities in Germany and other countries and should be taken as well-known by science but not by hobbyists, however. I posted on this years ago in this forum. Often we have very one-sided results in the groups of offspring of Paros (f.i. 60 nagyi all males, 2 females) that are to be explained by one factor or the other. It could prove to be difficult, however, to name the decisive environmental factor in a concrete case, for mostly it is a combination of several factors.
What one should learn by this is that this is one of the important arguments for trying to imitate the natural environmental conditions for breedings as close as possible.
