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Still – no perfect pictures, but they are still shy, not easy to photograph – and I take nearly every chance to make photos, even if the glass is not clean or there’s artemia all around ……….
And, believe it or not – there’s also a little female:
Yes, that’s what I supposed. It’s not easy to be clarified – if most paro breeders keep their pairs in separate tanks with no rivals. It might possibly be observed when keeping two or more pairs in a bigger tank with room for small territories for each male.
Good Morning, Peter,
and thank you for your detailed answer.
Yes, I think you are right – your suspicion corresponds with my own impression that the female might have stolen some eggs…………As I said, the male is sitting in a “cave” near the ground formed by arching leaves. I am not able to look inside, not a single glimpse is possible, it’s totally in the back of the tank. I am sure they mated and spawned like they already did before.
The morning after I posted my observation I still saw the two tiny fry hanging under the ceiling of the cave. But suddenly the male appeared and swam into the cave. I watched him closely to see what he would do – and I am afraid what I saw looked like sweeping the cave by forcefully swaying his caudal. It took just half a minute, then he left the cave and returned into his own hiding place. The two “stolen” fry were gone …………
I find this quite interesting. I doubt that he recognized the fry as his own. To me it seems more like competitive behaviour: He discovered “someone else’s” fry in the surrounding of his own territory and got rid of it.
I know that such behaviour (a male killing the offspring of rivals) occurs in many different animal families – is it known from paros?Today I watched something peculiar …….. I saw the female quindecim visiting a hollow bamboo cane, open on both ends, and saw her inside the tube constantly nibbling on the ceiling. It looked like caring for eggs …………… so I tried to see something with a torch (flashlight, for American readers 😉 ).
That’s what I saw:
What’s peculiar is the fact that I have never seen the male inside this bamboo cane. I moved the pair to their actual tank a few weeks ago, and since then the male is sitting under an arching leaf in the back of the tank, that’s his new cave.
So how can there be two freshly hatched young (according to the yolk sac) in this abandoned tube – obviously cared for by the female????Just want to show some pictures of how colourful the quindecim female can become if she is in a certain mood:
There’s just one thing concerning the reliability of heat packs: I am not sure whether the failure in warming the parcel adequately might be due to wrong usage.
I experienced heat packs to be cold when unpacking a parcel, but after kneading and exposing them to air they began to give off heat.
It’s necessary to activate a heat pack by kneading it – and it’s unalterable to care for sufficient air supply while packed inside the parcel. It’s a physical reaction that produces warmth, it works through oxidation. If the heat pack is wrapped or enclosed too tightly it doesn’t work. It’s a balancing act between keeping the greatest heat away from direct contact to the plastic bags and still not wrapping the heat pack so tight that it is cut off from oxygen supply.
Looking for a method to safely use heat packs I found the advice to take an egg carton (those molded ones made from paper pulp, take the size made for ten eggs), tear off one mold, put the activated heat pack in, close it and place it upright in between the plastic bags. It is said to cause a stack effect, the heat pack gets enough air to work, and the egg carton guarantees a safe distance from the plastic bags.
I haven’t tried it, but it sounds plausible to me.[quote=”PatrickG” post=2736]
I never use transport companies again to deliver fish![/quote]Thank you, Patrick, for your post. That’s exactly what I thought ………….. If a transport of living fish again should be necessary, I will try a ridesharing offer. We have a ridesharing center for animals here in Germany: Private persons which regularly drive certain routes announce their travel times and offer a ride for parcels with living animals (some even for cats and dogs). That’s the same risk for the animals as being fetched by oneself. I have no experience with it yet, but to me it sounds worth a try.
[quote=”helene” post=2730]
I just yesterday could not resist the temptation of buying 4 betta coccina when I accidentially passed them in a shop. I went out shopping for clothes, but I came back with four b.coccina.
[/quote]How likeable!! 🙂
Oh, yes, coccina would also be hard for me to resist. And brownorum……….. But my first aim is to find a male for my lonely Betta persephone-female, whose male died when I was in hospital.
I am not quite sure if it might have been stress that killed him. It was my first try to keep paros and Betta together – they lived in a tank with the P. pahuensis pair, 30 liter, with rampantly growing floating plants on the surface. The males began to argue when I went to hospital, and I lost both males while both females stayed healthy and well. This leads me to rather keep Paros and Betta separately at the moment ………. though I may be wrong and interspecific/-generic stress was not even the reason.My birthday dating about 2 weeks back, I had enough time to look through this eagerly awaited present thoroughly and to even read most of it by now.
What shall I say? It exceeds all my expectations.
To be honest – when I first heard about the book, I didnt’t expect much news – having all the information on keeping and breeding and species/ forms here at this website and on the IGL-homepage and the corresponding forums. Most of this information comes from the authors of the book – Peter Finke and Martin Hallmann. So I expected a comprehension of all information already given.
I would never have expected to learn so much new!The book not only contains chapters on keeping, breeding, behaviour, species and forms, but discusses critical aspects of keeping paros, gives valuable information about habitats (and habitat destruction), critically comments environmental degradation (and our share of it!).
And, overall, it is nicely bound, good paper quality, wonderful photos!So if anyone thinks (like I thought) this book is maybe nice, but redundant – No! It is very nice, indeed – and it is essential to have it!
A huge thank-you to the authors!
Peter, because I am aware of the two important points you mention I suggested to only publish the breeders’ addresses in the inner circle of those who have access to or receive the results of the census.
By doing that, only persons who are so very interested in paros that they register here at the project will be able to get in direct contact to paro breeders.
I understand that these rare fish shall not be distributed in an irresponsible way. And I think the requirement of a membership at the project will sort out those fish keepers that choose their fish by fashion ……………[quote=”Teunis” post=2307]I think you have to be German, to detect any logic in the current distribution system.
it may be very well fit for the German tradition and culture, but it just seems unnecessarily complex and inefficient to me.in an open system where seekers and senders can find each other directly, I think its much easier to sell great numbers of young Paros. and find breeders across the borders.[/quote]
I am German – but I absolutely agree with what you say.
I also can’t see the necessity to have someone as go-between between breeder and buyer. It’s a honorary post someone has to manage besides his own business. And it definitely suffers from the lack of time of this person, that’s my experience. (I understand this – this shall absolutely not be a complaint about the current distributor. But it’s precisely why the whole system needs improvement!)
I on the one hand encourage the suggestion to have an open system here at the forum where breeders can offer their fish and interested persons can contact them directly or post a request themselves.
Another possibilty that would restrict the contacts to registered members only (which in my opinion might be useful), is the publication of the breeders’ (eMail)-addresses with the census. It’s not necessary to publish the complete postal address, only the town and the eMail-address. It would also be helpful to add information about the breeders’ willingness to ship their fish if it’s impossible for the buyer to pick them up himself. This would open the possibility to contact the breeder directly, without stressing a third person. And the exclusive access for members of the paro-project only would prevent the breeders from casual requests without a real deep interest in these special fish.
I really can’t see advantage in the interposition of someone who has to do all the work of looking for suitable breeders to your request – which could faster and more effectively be done by yourself.
As I said – you can watch them growing from day to day. This brings me to the question: How long do you leave them with their parents, when do you catch them and put them in a separate tank? How many young paros do you keep together in one tank, and what size is the tank?
The tank they now live in with their parents is a 16-liter tank.So – everything is in good order again 🙂
I succeeded in catching both females and putting them back into their home tanks.The mating I watched between the quindecim male and the female of uncertain species seems to be without consequences: He didn’t stay in the cave to guard a possible clutch, and I didn’t observe any further mating.
They are growing fast ……….
Different sizes – different age?
For me again it’s a prominent character in quindecim: The shining pearl-white of the broad eye rim. I know too few paro species from my own experience to decide whether it’s a feature unique in quindecim, but those I know (nagyi, pahuensis, unidentified females) definitely don’t show this feature, their eye rim is only partially white. If it’s unique in quindecim, then it makes a reliable determination of females and even fry of quindecim among other species possible.
In practice it made it very easy for me to separate the quindecim female from the other females, when it accidentally got into the wrong tank.
