HUSBANDRY GUIDELINE – PROJECT

The Parosphromenus Project started already in 2019 a process together with the Aquarium Team at Chester Zoo, to make Husbandry Guidelines (Best practice)  for BIAZA (British and Irish Assosiation of Zoos and Aquariums) and EAZA (European Association of Zoos and Aquaria)

In order for different Zoos in Europe to be able to maintain and keep populations of Paros, it is essential that guidelines for best Husbandry Practise is created.

This is not just describtions of experiences, or guidelines, this is at best a collection of precise data and information, gathered over a period.

As a beginning, – a lot of written material has been given on from the Parosphromenus Project, – describtions of our known experience, as well as data connected with habitats – water conditions, levels of ph, and other things. Not habitat data in terms of distribution is nessesary.

But mainly we have provided basic experience and knowledge about keeping paros in tanks, – food, breeding behaviour, fry development etc.     

To gather all this information is a continuing proces, and we invited everyone to take part in it by offering their knowledge and specific experience.

This included everything we knew about the below listed issues.

The Guidelines was finalized by the the aquarium Team at Chester Zoo, Becky Goodwin and Joe Hutchins and many others have been involved in the process of gathering all information together and finally it was approved by EAZA in spring 2024, and is now available on their homepage. 

This is described more on our front-page here

You can find a link to it here 

• Enclosure
• substrate
• furnishing and maintenance
• environment (water quality and water chemistry)
• environmental enrichment
• lighting
• life support

Behaviour

• activity
• social behaviour/social structure
• life support systems

Breeding

• reproduction
• egg laying and development times
• development and care of young
• clutch sizes

Diet and feeding behaviour

• Basic diet
• fry
• large juveniles to adults
• special dietary requirements
• method of feeding or preparation of food items