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!
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.]
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