NEWS106
10
Anabantoids
Parosphromenus
sp.„Ampah“,displayingmale.
Photo:Horst Linke
one of the
Parosphromenus
species
grows larger than 4-5 cm. They are
thus truedwarf fishes that should alsobe
kept incorrespondinglysmall aquaria.The
maintenanceof licoricegouramisdoes,ho-
wever, require a degree of effort, as these
fishes require live food for their long-term
diet. Freshly-hatched
Artemianauplii
have
proved ideal as a staple food, and canbe
supplementedwithGrindalWorms,Tubi-
fex,smallwater fleas (especially
Moina
),co-
pepods (including
Cyclops
),smallmosquito
larvae, etc, depending onwhat the pond
N
The licoricegouramis (
Parosphromenus
)belong to the labyrinthfishes.Until
the 1980s only three scientifically described specieswere known; nowa-
days,mainly thanks to thehardworkof the labyrinthfishassociations– the
IGL (InternationaleGemeinschaft für Labyrinthfische), theAAGB (Anaban-
toidAssociationof Great Britain), theAK Labyrinthfische imVDA, and the
EAC (EuropeanAnabantoidClub) - thenumber of scientificallydescribed
specieshas increased to20,andanumber of others arealreadyknown in
thehobbybutnot yet scientificallyexamined.
Anew licoricegourami
byWolfgangLöll
has to offer at any given time. In thewild
these dwarf fishes are adapted to life-ho-
stilewaters that are extremely poor inmi-
nerals andhavea lowpHvalue.Theydon’t
in fact require such water conditions for
maintenance,butundoubtedlydo forbree-
ding. When licorice gouramis aren’t in
spawning mood they look rather boring
anddon’t exhibit any interestingbehavior
either.On the other hand, specimens kept
in suitable water are constantly courting
andwill alsobreedyear-round. In suchcir-
cumstances themalesof almostall species
arebreathtakinglybeautiful.For this reason
Parosphromenus
shouldnormally be kept
withnear-naturalwaterparameters, that is
practicallydistilledwater (0-2 °dGH)atapH
of4.5–5.5. Interestingly thesedwarf forms
are significantly longer-lived than their lar-
ger cousins,andyoucanusually reckonon
