NEWS106
14
Maleof the“true”
Parosphromenusdeissneri
in
full color. Photo:Horst Linke
Whenexcited,malesof
P.filamentosus
turndark incolor (lowerphoto),whileP.sp.“Ampah”don’t.
Photo:MartinHallmann
2012AquariumGlaser importedanumberof
licoricegouramis inwhich themales had a
lanceolate caudal fin.Unfortunately licorice
gouramis canonlybe identified for certain
whenthemale is incourtshipcoloration.But
therewasmuch tosuggest that thenew im-
portsmightbe the legendary
Parosphrome-
nusdeissneri.
Theword spreadand theParo
specialistswereeagertoseethe fishes.But it
wasn’t very longbeforeanumber ofmales
were in full color,andnow it couldbe seen
that theyweren’tP.deissneriatall,butaspe-
cies very close to
P. filamentosus
.At around
thesametimetheeagerly-awaitedcollecting
locality information finally arrived from the
exporter.Accordingtohimthefishesorigina-
ted from south-east Kalimantan (Borneo),
where they can be found from Ampah to
Muarateweh. The new
Parosphromenus
is
now provisionally named after the first of
these locations:
Parosphromenus
sp. "Ampah"
Despite the very short time that these fis-
hes have been swimming in our aquaria,
they have already beenbred successfully.
As in practically all licorice gouramis, the
sexes canbe told apart fairly easily, as the
caudal fin isalways completelycolorless in
females.
It isstilltotallyunclearwhether
P.
sp."Ampah"
isa localvariantof
P.filamentosus
oradistinct
Lexicon
Paros
Parosphromenusmeans“(phylogeneti-
cally)closetoOsphromenus”;Osphro-
nemus isanother labyrinthfishgenus.
deissneri:named inhonorofthecollec-
tor,“F.H.Deissner,officiervangezond-
heidder3eklasse”.
filamentosusmeans“withthreads”(re-
ferringtothecaudal fin).
rubrimontismeans“oftheredmoun-
tain”,afterthetype locality,BukitMerah.
tweediei:named inhonorofMichael
WillmerForbesTweedie (1907-1993).
species.Paros don’tmake suchdistinctions
easy. But – from an aquarium hobby
viewpoint– thequestion isacademicandof
secondary importance,as inboth cases, re-
gardless of whether the fishes represent a
particular populationor a separate species,
theyshouldbebred true to type.
Now, if we manage to breed such fishes
true for successive generations then the
knowledge thusobtainedwillhelp towards
a better understanding of the natural hi-
storyof licoricegouramis.And that is,after
all,what theaquariumhobby isall about –
obtaining information and increasingour
knowledge!
