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Congratulations Bernd, you appear to be the only person who can reliability breed ornaticauda.
I don’t know what happened to the fish that came to the UK. Neither John Walsh or myself bought any of these. We have both struggled in the past to keep them for any length of time, and so decided they weren’t worth the risk. Perhaps if aquarium bred ones become more available, we will try again.They are a beautiful little fish, good luck with them.
Do you have any Parosphromenus at the moment?
I presume you are based in the north west if you visit Aqualife. Do you know John Walsh? He is a member of this project, and a member of Preston aquarists. I know he has given them a presentation on Parosphromenus , which went very wellRuss
Hi Paul.
Welcome to the project, and welcome to a new UK member.
Steve at Aqualife has imported P. ornaticauda for a couple of members of the project here in the UK before, he generally knows what he’s doing. As with most people, we had limited success with them.The fish in the pictures do look like extremely stressed P. ornaticauda though. They have a different body shape to most other species of Parosphromenus. Much more cylindrical, the same as their close relative, P.parvulus.
Russ
This is one of the types I use. The other is also made by Saxa, and is labelled pure sea salt.
Hope it helps.Hi all.
I would like to add my experiences.
I agree with Peter about the use of salt. However, I used pure sea or rock salt at the same dosage as Peter suggests.
I decided to give it a try because no spirohexol was available in the UK, and a friend suggested it’s use. I have used it successfully on P. Bintan and P. Phoenicurus as well as some black water Bettas.
It works very quickly. with no side effects. In fact, the Phoenicurus were displaying again within days.Hi all.
Having travelled to Hamburg for the last meeting, my vote would be to hold it there again for at least one more time.
It was obvious that Germany is the centre for Parosphromenus breeding and availability, and easy to get to from many other countries.
To answer Bills questions about returning to the UK with fish from the meeting, I can only tell you of John and myselfs experience.
As well as meeting and learning from far more experienced and knowledgeable paro keepers, we wanted to bring as many species as possible back to the UK. There are two ways for us to get to Hamburg. We could drive and get the ferry, or we could fly direct.
We initially looked at the ferry, as this would have enabled us to bring back as many fish as we liked, packaged correctly and with little chance of being stopped at customs. The cost however, was very high. £250+ for the return crossing, plus fuel and possibly overnight accommodation as well . With this cost plus the length of the drive, we ruled this out quickly.
There are only two airlines that will transport live fish into the UK from Germany, BA and lufthansa. Both of these only fly into Heathrow, a long drive again for us, butwe could have done it. However the cost to do this legally with relevant paperwork was more expensive than the entire cost of the ferry option. Again, not an option.
We decided to fly and risk bringing back the fish in our hold luggage and hope they wouldn’t get detected at customs. We packed the fish into a small insulated picnic box, and packed this into a small suitcase. Because of the strict rules about carrying liquids on aircraft now, we were extremely worried about them being detected and confiscated. After a very nervous flight and trip through customs, we did manage to get them through .
This would be one of the major problems with holding a meeting in the UK. If our German breeders wanted to bring in fish for distributing, then they would have to go through all of this. Then afterward, everyone taking fish back out of the UK would have to go through the same thing as well . As you can see, its not easy or cheap, and the risk of fish being detected and confiscated on flights is high.
II personally prefer to transport fish in the normal bags filled with oxygen whenever possible. If iti had been possible for me to deliver them personally, then they would have been packed like this in a large polystyrene box.
Because the fish were being sent via the postal system there are restrictions in both weight and size of the package. Also, the courier and postal system dont carry live fish.Therefore we needed to use the smallest and lightest size possible. Normal fish bags would have made the package too large and add the risk of the water being heard sloshing around when moved.
I hadn’t considered small plastic screw top containers, but they may be an option in the future.As I said, they are not my preferred way to transport fish. But they are an option if space and weight is a problem.
Sorry for my late post on this topic.
I managed to send a total of 26 Parosphromenus over to Bill in Ireland. These were from 5 different species, and included pairs and some juveniles.
Because of the restrictions in the size of packaging, we decided to use the breathable bags. These have been discussed before in another thread, and were greeted with mixed feelings. John Walsh and I used them when we brought our fish back from the Hamburg meeting without any problems. But they were only in them for around 15 hours.
I bagged the fish up by 10am on the Tuesday morning, and posted them around 11. They arrived in Belfast within the specified 24 hours. But were then held by the couriers for another 24 hours before being delivered. By the time Bill had received them, they had been bagged for over 50 hours.
As Bill has stated, they all arrived in good health. As you may imagine, we were both very pleased with this.
So, in our experience the breathable bags work, and I would probably use them again in the same situation.
Some of the fish were young from the fish I obtained in Hamburg. As Dorothee says, it’s good to see the ethos of the project is working, and may it continue to do so. As the sad news about P. Deissneri shows, we need to do all we can to help these little gems.
Hi all
As Bill has mentioned in a different thread, I am trying to get some of my fish over to him.
However, Parcel motel do not handle live animals. I can send them via royal mail, but they have to be labelled as live fish. So, if I package and label them correctly, parcel motel will not handle them.I am in contact with other fish sellers to find out how they do it.
Please bear with me Bill, I will get some fish over to you somehow. ☺
Russ
Good luck with the fish from the pet shop, it will be interesting to see what they are.
Even if you can never give them a definite identification, it doesn’t matter, just appreciate the beauty of these little gems.
However you would want to get our fish over to you is not a problem. Keep in contact through this forum, or send me a personal message and we can organise something. Once you start with paros, you will be hooked ☺☺
Hi Bill, and welcome to the project.
There seems to be a universal problem with fish being misidentified or mislabelled. But , I agree withHelene that these fish can be as interesting as correctly identified species.
There are a couple of members who live in the north of England , and we travelled to the international meeting in Hamburg and brought back some species we don’t have in the UK.
We have been successful in breeding some of these, and have plenty of young fish.
I don’t know if you travel back to Scotland or England, but im sure we can arrange to get some fish to you if you do. This would cut out the cost of shipping, which as you say is quite expensive.Please feel free to contact me through the project if you want any further information.
Russ
It has been written within this forum by people far more experienced at breeding Parosphromenus than myself, that the male should always be left to tend to the nest.
The eggs will not hatch without his care. The young fry also need his care to develop in the first few days. Once they turn dark they appear to be strong enough to fend for themselves. I start feeding with small food ( banana worms) as soon as I move the nest.In my experience, they darken and leave the nest within 3 to 5 days. I don’t know if this is dependant on what species, or other factors.
So Rafael, keep a close eye on their development , it may be quicker than you think.
Hi Rapael.
Congratulations on the tweediei spawning.
When we were at Bernds fish room, he demonstrated how he moves the nest. I don’t know if you saw this?
Basically he used a small plastic tub, maybe 5cm deep and larger than the cave itself. He sank this in the aquarium to fill it with water, lifted the cave carefully into it, and removed the whole thing still full of water to his rearing aquarium.
I have done this and found it very successful. When I see eggs in a nest,I set up a small (5lt) aquarium with lots of java moss, and some old oak leaves from the parents aquarium. When the fry have darkened and are moving around in the cave, I remove it and the fry as described above.
I find it easier to control the amount of food in this small aquarium, anything uneaten can be seen and removed easily.I have been successful by removing the parents as Helene suggests, but I personally prefer to remove the nest.
There doesn’t appear to be a right or wrong way, just personal preference.
Hope this helps, good luck.
Russ
