Updates from the PGRC
Busy Summer
I am influenced by the changing seasons, as my location in the Northeast US experiences all four distinct seasons. At times, the transitions between seasons can be subtle, while in other years, the arrival of a new season can be quite abrupt. Similarly, my personal and professional life also undergoes seasonal changes.
This connection to seasonal patterns aligns well with my passion for the Parosphromenus species, which are also highly seasonal.
At the start of this summer, I was nearing the completion of a 27-tank breeding rack, marking the fourth multi-tank recirculating system for Parosphromenus in my facility. However, due to a recent personnel shift at my day job, my responsibilities became more demanding, limiting the time I could dedicate to the Parosphromenus Center.
As we transition into the cooler nights of autumn and notice the occasional orange leaves outside, I too am experiencing a shift in the busy season of my life.
Despite not meeting all of my goals this summer, I believe I have made significant progress and have much to look forward to:
- I successfully shipped 50 fish to six new Parosphromenus keepers, helping to ensure the future of three species.
- The Parosphromenus Project's spring census results were released, and I was pleased to see several new reports from US keepers.
- My outdoor mosquito cultures have thrived, maintaining the broodstock in excellent condition for breeding.
- We successfully bred a new species, and I have confirmed at least two separate spawns of our recently acquired P. juelinae.
- The pairs of location-verified P. phoenicurus that arrived earlier this spring have begun breeding, and I now have several spawns from them growing.
Additionally, I was invited by the Boston Aquarium Society to speak at their meeting in September. I am eager to share insights on our critical conservation goals, which are driven by passionate hobbyists like you.
As the seasons change, I look forward to what lies ahead.
Quick thoughts on the ethics of keeping Parosphromenus in captivity:
It can be confusing to understand how taking a species out of its wild habitat could ever be imagined to be a desirable conservation action, but the situation with Parosphromenus is something of a special case. Many of the Parosphromenus species have extremely limited home ranges (eg. P. phoenicurus is known from only one small swamp in Sumatra), and these habitats have been subject to some of the most rapid and devastating habitat alteration efforts in human history! The lowland rainforests of southeast Asia are (unfortunately for the natives species that lived there) ideal for growing oil palms, and with the ever increasing human demand for cheap vegetable oils, vast swaths of once virgin, ancient rainforest have been cleared, and their associated peat swamp habitats drained, to make way for plantations of oil palms.
This means that, despite the high fecundity of fish like Parosphromenus, their wild habitats are disappearing, which has left many of the 23 described species (and an unknown number of yet-to-be-described species) on the brink of extinction. While over-collection is a well documented risk to many endangered species, this is less of a concern with Parosphromenus, due to their high abundance, and quick breeding, in areas that can still sustain them.
With that as background, one can better understand why maintaining a captive insurance population of these species is, on the one hand not particularly threatening to the animals still in the wild, and at the same time critical to ensuring the survival of species whose entire home ranges can, and often are, converted to farmland virtually overnight!
A New Best Practices Guide for Parosphromenus
We are pleased to announce that the Parosphromenus Project, in partnership with Chester Zoo, has developed a comprehensive best practice guide for the care of Parosphromenus.
The guide, which can be accessed here: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/Xf6bgxi4PBhvmK26/?mibextid=oFDknk, offers valuable and practical information on the proper care and breeding of Parosphromenus.
We highly recommend that anyone seeking guidance on the care and breeding of Parosphromenus refer to this informative resource!
P. phoenicurus, Round Two...
Parosphromenus juelinae, etc.
A big thanks to Blackwater Aquatics for sending me 10 gorgeous young P. juelinae!
These youngsters are acclimating well, and will hopefully be in breeding form within a few months.
I didn't get a chance to get pictures of them yet, but will update with picks as soon as I get some, and I'll post when I get offspring!
In other news, I have another 10 fish on the way from Borneo, thanks to fishbuff.com, who will be sending me some great looking P. quindicem in a few weeks.
Exciting times here at the PGRC.
Introducing the Parosphromenus Finder app!
In order to further our goal of expanding the Parosphromenus conservation hobby within the USA, in conjunction with the Parosphromenus Project's mission, we've created Parosphromenus Finder!
This free app will give Parosphromenus breeders in the US a forum for listing their available fish for adoption, sale, or trade.
Please check the link below, and let me know what you think!
Quindicem!
I'm pleased to announce that I've had a successful quindicem spawn!
Like most of the previous spawns here, I noticed it when I saw a baby fish swimming around at feeding time.
I can't tell how many fry hatched out, since I've only seen one fry at a time so far, and of course none of them wanted to get their picture taken, but I'll keep trying.
At the suggestion of a fellow paro hobbyist, I recorded my water quality parameters and will post them here:
- pH: 4.9
- Conductivity: 135 μS/cm
- Temp: 21.5c
My plan for this species, as with all the species I'm breeding, is to establish 5 breeding pairs, before making offspring available for adoption, so it'll still be a while before I can offer this species, but it's a start!
P. filamentosus added to the breeding project!
Thank you to Blackwater Aquatics, who sent a beautiful group of 10 unsexed filamentosus youngsters (collected near palangkaraya, Borneo), which will become the basis of a breeding group which will hopefully provide captive born filamentosus to US hobbyists!
First P. opallios offspring!
During last week's water change day, I noticed baby opallios in 3 of my 5 opallios pair tanks! This marks the first time I've bred this species since starting to work with them.
Fish available for adoption now!
I'm pleased to announce that we now have fish available for adoption!
In the blocks below I'll list the species, and numbers, of fish I have available. My preference is to send out breeding pairs, but right now all the available fish are juvenile, so adoptions would be of unsexed fish.
If you're interested in any fish listed, please visit the "join the effort" page, and contact me via the chat feature.
If you choose to adopt fish from us, you will be responsible for shipping costs (I use shipyouraquatics.com as the shipper), but there is no cost associated with the fish directly.
Newly imported pair of P. "bintain" Jambi
Borneo import arrived!
I'm happy to report that all 40 fish I ordered from fishbuff.com arrived safe and healthy!!
A big shout-out to my transhipper Joel Fernandez who did an amazing job getting my fish to me in such good condition.
I got five pairs each of P. linkei, and opallios (collected from the Arut River canals in East Kotawaringin regency, Pangkalanbun City - Central Kalimantan/ Borneo), five pairs of P. phoenicurus (collected near Kota Kerincikiri, Sumatra), and five pairs of an unidentified "bintan complex" species (collected in Jambi, Sumatra).
These fish will join the P. quindicem, and P. cf. linkei "palankayra" that I'm also working with, to become the backbone of the conservation and distribution efforts that I've been working toward.
I look forward to breeding these fish, and having offspring available to distribute soon!
~Brian
The main rack of breeding tanks
Waiting on the new arrivals
My fish shipment from Indonesia has been delayed, but I should get a shipping date sometime this week.
In the meantime I've been working on getting new tanks set up, replacing one 20 gallon tank that broke, upgrading my rainwater collection system, collecting oak leaves, and renewing my live food cultures.
There's still plenty to do, but I should be prepared to receive the new fish when they arrive!
~Brian
A new beginning
I just ordered five pairs each of P. linkei, P. opallios, and P. phoenicurus.
These fish will help me restart my colony, and hopefully form the base of a new effort to make these beautiful fish available to conservation hobbyists in the US.
I'll post an update when they've arrived!
~Brian
