#fish lists

[narelleart]

Best Parosphromenus spp. (”Licorice Gouramis”)

All species of Parosphromenus, to my knowledge, come from habitats that are under threat. Most species are designated Endangered or Critically Endangered by the IUCN Red List. Any fish from this genus should be maintained in a species tank and breeding should be attempted if we are going to continue to maintain them in the hobby, and perhaps through hobby preservation, prevent the loss of these species from the world. Check out the Parosphromenus Project for more information on preservation efforts. (Though I should note that I have reservations about the efficacy of projects aimed to “preserve species through the hobby.” See a post here where I discuss this some.)

These are gorgeous little fishes I’ve loved since I first got into the fish keeping hobby, but I’ve yet to have the opportunity to keep any. They are rare in the trade, for good reason, and I have yet to be in a situation where I had a tank ready and felt comfortable with acquiring some. As I look forward to setting up a fish room, the time has come that I will absolutely be seriously shopping for some ethically sourced Parosphromenus (likely hobby-bred). No matter how high my interest is in a species, I will not keep it if I cannot source it without acquiring a wild-caught specimen of an imperiled species being sold indiscriminately to the hobby at large.

Below is a ranked list of Parosphromenus to help me prioritize species to keep, should I have the opportunity to pick and choose between species. Rankings are based purely on subjective opinion, prioritizing those whose aesthetics I prefer. These are all great fishes!

1. P. harveyi

Size: 4.0cm / 1.57in TL Habitat: Malaysian peat swamps IUCN Redlist Status: Endangered

2. P. deissneri

Size: 5.0cm / 1.97in TL Habitat: Indonesian tannic, vegetated streams IUCN Redlist Status: Endangered

3. P. bintan

Size: 3.5cm / 1.38in TL Habitat: Peat swamps of Bintan Island, Indonesia IUCN Redlist Status: Vulnerable

4. P. rubrimontis

Size: 3.5cm / 1.38in TL Habitat: Blackwater creeks to peat swamps of Perak, Malaysia IUCN Redlist Status: Endangered

5. P. filamentosus

Size: 4.5cm / 1.77in TL Habitat: River systems in Kalimantan Tengah, Central Borneo IUCN Redlist Status: Endangered

6. P. alfredi

Size: 2.6cm / 1.02in SL Habitat: Remnants of peat swamps in Western Malaysia IUCN Redlist Status: Critically Endangered

7. P. quindecim

Size: 2.9cm / 1.14in SL Habitat: Sungai Pawang and Sungai Liong basins of Kalimantan Barat, Western Borneo IUCN Redlist Status: Critically Endangered

8. P. gunawani

Size: 4.5cm / 1.77in TL Habitat: Peat swamp in Jambi, Sumatra IUCN Redlist Status: Critically Endangered

9. P. nagyi

Size: 4.0cm / 1.57in TL Habitat: Peat swamps and creeks in Western Malaysia IUCN Redlist Status: Vulnerable

10. P. phoenicurus

Size: 4.0cm / 1.57in TL Habitat: Blackwater swamp in the Sungai Kampar drainage, Sumatra IUCN Redlist Status: Critically Endangered

11. P. tweediei

Size: 4.0cm / 1.57in TL Habitat: Johor, Malaysia - Original habitat may have been peat swamps and streams, appears to now only be found in man-made roadside channels fed by blackwater springs IUCN Redlist Status: Endangered

12. P. sumatranus

Size: 3.5cm / 1.38in TL Habitat: Highly soft and acidic waters in Sumatra, Indonesia IUCN Redlist Status: Near Threatened

13. P. allani

Size: 4.0cm / 1.57in TL Habitat: Wetland and forest habitats of Sarawak, Borneo IUCN Redlist Status: Vulnerable

14. P. parvulus

Size: 3.5cm / 1.38in TL Habitat: Creeks bordering rainforests in Kalimantan Tengah, Central Borneo IUCN Redlist Status: Vulnerable

15. P. anjunganensis

Size: 3.5cm / 1.38in TL Habitat: Blackwater habitats in the Kapuas River system, Kalimantan Barat, Western Borneo IUCN Redlist Status: Endangered

16. P. opallios

Size: 3.5cm / 1.38in TL Habitat: Highly vegetated, shallow, and extremely soft and acidic waters in Kalimantan Tengah, Central Borneo IUCN Redlist Status: Endangered

17. P. ornaticauda

Size: 3.5 cm / 1.38in TL Habitat: Blackwater habitats in the Kapuas River system and Sungai Pawan basin, Kalimantan Barat, Western Borneo IUCN Redlist Status: Critically Endangered

18. P. pahuensis

Size: 4.0cm / 1.57in TL Habitat: Small blackwater forest streams; Tributaries of the Mahakam River in Kalimantan Timur, Eastern Borneo IUCN Redlist Status: Endangered

19. P. linkei

Size: 4.5cm / 1.77in TL Habitat: Wide distribution in highly destroyed parts of Kalimantan Tengah, Central Borneo IUCN Redlist Status: Endangered

20. P. paludicola

Size: 3.7cm / 1.46in TL Habitat: Widely distributed through both light blackwater and clearwater habitats in the northeastern Malay Peninsula and southern Thailand IUCN Redlist Status: Endangered

[Data from the Parosphromenus Project, Fishbase, SeriouslyFish, and the IUCN Red List. I will need to do further research using scholarly articles before keeping any of these. When sizes were in conflict between sources, the largest listed size was used. Note that in doing my reading for this post, it became clear that SeriouslyFish copied and pasted info about peat swamps to every page about a species of Parosphromenus - but they do not all occur in the conditions described. So I stopped including information from SF partway through writing this. When considering housing and breeding one of these fishes, I would recommend sourcing information about their care elsewhere - ideally from primary scientific literature, as I intend to.]