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I hope you forgive me some more bad pictures ……… I have to take photographs while I feed the fish, to have them near to the front pane instead of keeping in the darker background. So there are a lot of reflecting artemia and glass worms … I’m sorry for that.
But I would like to show you the colours he is beginning to show or which in my opinion seem to deepen.
Here first another picture that shows the pattern in the tail fin, a bit softer this time:
You have to look real close, I hope you see what I see: The dark rounded pattern at the base of the tail fin is a deep chestnut red. So are the dorsal and the anal fin, they both have a dark, almost black outer border with a white seam. The pelvic fins start to show an emerald green.
The unpaired fins have a real strong crystalline gloss, like glass. Here it is rather obvious:
I know that the pictures are unsufficient – but I believe to see very much red colouration, and hope I can transfer this impression.
Thank you, Helene.
Yes, I also have the impression that the females irritate each other. They now and then show something I would call “catfight”, you can see it on the first picture – trying to impress each other, showing off, then from time to time chasing each other.
I am slightly irritated that the male doesn’t really colour up. To me it seems quite long til he shows his colours …….. in my nagyi you could clearly distinguish the sexes after one or two days.
[quote=”helene” post=1783];) Without a doubt a male ![/quote]
I think if this is a male, it’s the only one I have. The others to me are doubtlessly females. It’s not easy to make good photos because of the position of the tank and the relative shyness of the fish.
Here you see the second bigger fish and a small companion , in the back the one I think to be a male.
The two in the foreground which I mean to be females have more rounded dorsal fins, the supposed male has a more pointed dorsal fin. And the caudals of the females are transparent and without any pattern.
Since yesterday the third, smallest female constantly shows something I take for a courtship colouration (sorry for the quality):
Is this a further indication for the presence of a male – or do females show courtship colouration even if males are absent?
[quote=”Peter Finke” post=1780]The simplest way seems to me to use pure rain water. Again I repeat that all people whom I know that they are working on this base have no problems with breeding our fish. Among them are the best Paro-breeders I know. Some even maintain that pure rain water is better than anything else. [/quote]
Do you mean they really use only rain water – without adding any acids (except perhaps peat fibres or something like that). That they take the pH as it is? (Even if it is, as in my case, about 6,0 – never more)?
[quote=”Peter Finke” post=1773]
– I have a place with the right water prepared with the right low mineral content and the right low pH. The first should lie between 10 and 80 Microsiemens/cm; mostly it is around 30-50. The second should be between 4 and 6. Since I use a demineralization-device I take the water from there (since it is nearly pure H2O), mix very few tap water in (“a cup”), give some drops (!) of my oak-essence or phosphorus-acid, constantly controlling the pH, and that’s it.[/quote]
Hello, Peter,
do you use self-made oak-essence? Would you give us your recepy? Or do you use a commercial brand? If the latter is right – which brand do you use, and have you measured the conductance after adding the oak-essence?
I bought Amtra Eichenextrakt (it was recommended in the IGl-Forum by experienced paro-breeders) and found that it increases the conductance more or less significantly. Since I discovered this I am not so happy using it ……….. I use rain water with a conductance of around 40 µS/cm and a pH level of 6,0, and I made good experiences with lowering the pH level to about 5,0 by hanging a satchet with pine bark into the water, for a week, before I use the water for a water change.Hi, Bartian,
how are your Black Worms doing now? Can you still recommend the method?
I ordered three small portions and will try with one how the fish like them – the remaining 2 portions I will use to maybe start a culture. If you are pleased with the meothod I will try it, too.
[quote=”Peter Finke” post=1752][quote=”Stefanie” post=1751] But what should I be patient for, then? If they’re definitely all females …………[/quote]
Who said “definitely”? Nobody. It’s a hypothesis. [/quote]
Hm. I don’t want to quarrel about it, but I said
I received a very disillusioning mail from Martin Hallmann today – he is convinced that I only have females ………..
and then you said
I think Martin is right as I said already
For me that’s quite clearly spoken …….. no hypothesis. Or is there a hidden meaning in the word “convinced”, which I do not know??
Now you say:
don’t exclude females at all. We cannot be sure from your desriptions and pictures. This at least is what I said. It’s a possibility that has to be taken serious. And you have not seen it like this before; you thought of males only.
I never thought of males only. That’s simply not true.
I thought of maybe having one single male (and even with that I was never sure, that’s why I showed the photos and asked for opinions), and I was always sure to have at least to females.[quote=”Peter Finke” post=1750][quote=”Peter Finke” post=1746](…) A faint reddish tone in the unpaired fins could occur even with females of some species in typical situations. (…)[/quote]
I think Martin is right as I said already (see above quotation).[/quote]
[quote=”Peter Finke” post=1746] You must be more patient, and then we must have good photos which is difficult, I know.[/quote]
But what should I be patient for, then? If they’re definitely all females …………
[quote=”helene” post=1744]Thanks for the hints, – sometimes I get ahead of myself here, – actually the pages of p. gunawani and p. phoenicurus is ‘in working’, – I just thought I would set in the photoes, – but we are working on the details still.[/quote]
Oh, I know that it’s not completed yet – I absolutely didn’t mean to criticize you. I am only a user – and I notice things only from a user’s view. And sometimes this is helpful for the doers. That’s why I told you.
Thank you, Peter and Helene, for your comments on my phantastic reflections on (im)possible species belongings. At least you both don’t seem to totally preclude the possibility of having one male …….. I received a very disillusioning mail from Martin Hallmann today – he is convinced that I only have females ………..
I still think that the one individual I showed here stands out from the others in colouration and behaviour. But I also have in mind, that in my P. nagyi it didn’t take so long til a determination of the sexes was possible. And I have in mind that in nature there may be female individuals which show male attributes (from birds I know cock-feathered females).
So all I can do is what you already told me – be patient. And hope that Martin is not right ………. though this seems to be of very little chance …… 🙁I again take the risk to make a fool of myself – but is there a chance that this might be P. phoenicurus?
If you look at the phoenicurus’ species portrait, in the gallery on the bottom of the page, there are younger males in the background of some of the pictures (at least I think so…) which haven’t developed full colouration and remind me of the looming colour pattern of my possible male. And the depicted female also seems to be similar to mine…….. I think there aren’t so many species with this red colour in the unpaired fins.
@Helene: Something catched my eye: the species name “phoenicurus” in the title ought to be written in small letters, and the link list to the other species is not visible on the right side of the page. In species “gunawani” it’s the same. Hope it’s ok to tell you here in this thread, even though it’s off topic.[quote=”helene” post=1738]I know the feeling of being just a little bit impatient and studying those new paros for hours to wait for them to ‘show their real colours’ or flash a little bit … [/quote]
You must have observed me …… 😉
But as you say – it’s very exciting to slowly watch them reveal themselves as ….???
I read from your post that you agree with at least the one shown above being a male? I admit that this is the most important thing to me – to have both sexes of the fish! Form or species – whatever comes out will delight me. But to have only males (or, much worse, only females – without knowing the species) would make me very unhappy.
Here’s another photo – not a good one, but you can see the colours of the dorsal and anal fin. The plain chestnut red is still there but the seam of the fins becomes very dark with a whitish edging.
I don’t mean to annoy you ……….. but I want to show some new pictures of my paros …
I still believe the bigger one I showed you to be a male, in my eyes he very slightly colours up. One of the smaller ones I’m sure to be a female, and they’re together most of the time.
Supposed female in the foreground:
Supposed male’s following her, look at the colouration of his dorsal fin:
[quote=”Sverting” post=1723]From what I’ve read in this forum and the site itself I came to think, that the most important is the 0 KH. The varying pH of several succesful spawnings may point: KH should equal 0, an GH should be as low as it goes. But I doubt that having the GH even up to 8 ( I want it to be around 3-5) is bad. [/quote]
I doubt that you succeed in having a kH of 0 when having a gH of around 8 …….. And with a higher kH it gets more difficult to have a low pH
The amount of fish you can safely and comfortably put into the tank depends almost solely on the skill to create hideotus, broken lines of sight etc.
That sounds as if there was no limitation of the quantity of fishes in a tank – as long as there are enough plants and obstructed view…… But somewhere there is a limit – and I reach it much earlier than you, obviously …………. Still no definition of right or wrong …..
Hengeli lives alongside Betta coccina, (0-10dh). Pangio semicincta was found alongside Chocolate gouramies, which live with Parosphromenus in Kalimantan Barat.
You asked
So what do you make of it?
but does another opinion really have any influence on your decision? You appear to be already convinced of your plan ….
First: Too many fish for my taste …………. (I have a 112-liter-tank, too. I keep 4 Pseudosphromenus dayi, 3 Dario dario and 12 Boraras brigittae in this (really amply planted) tank …… thought about adding a pair of Trichogaster chuna, and decided to refrain from it ….. because I think the tank is full enough …)
Second: All your planned fish species aside from Parosphromenus like harder water …. 3° total hardness at minimum. Maybe you can keep paros there – but will they feel comfortable? (Even if you don’t want to breed them – for me that’s a question of equal importance…)
