ID: Parosphromenus sp.?

[illumbomb]

Hi All,

My elderly friend collected this species of Parosphromenus somewhere in West Malaysia, any positive ID (new species?)? Hopefully I can get a better photograph from him to post. Please ignore the horizontal line across the body, it should read "Courtesy of N. S." when enlarged.



Regards,
T S Wang

[Panda+]

hi

it's almost impossible to id on that pic.
but the fish has some resemblance with my paro spec. aff. bintan "Sentang" from Sumatra.
Do you know the origin of your fish?

[Panda+]

my pics aren't any better.
maybe this is helpful?



well... this is a pic of my spec. aff bintan Sentang.
notice the eggs at the roof of the cave

[Panda+]

ooops sorry... apparantly I didn't read your initial post. Not all of it at least.

From Western Malaysia you have these possibilities:

P. harveyi, Batu Arang, Selangor
P. rubrimontis, Bukit Merah, Perak
P. tweedie, Pontia, Johor
P. alfredi, Kota Tinggi, Johor

all of these are bintan like paros. Depends on the particular origin and coloration. A precise location and a better pic would be helpful.

[ZaZ]

Paros are notoriously difficult to ID except for few.
If it came from Peninsular Malaysia, we then got 6 possible candidates. From the above photo it's definitely not P nagyi (got short pelvic fin filament) nor P paludicola (totally different colouration). Probably not P tweediei cause the black and red are usually very prominent.
My bet, P harveyi 'cause that's the easiest to collect. P rubrimontis and P alfredi are very difficult to get unless you know where to look.

[illumbomb]

Thanks for the reply bros. My friend have all the different species of paros from West Malaysia and told me that these new paros looked different from the rest as they have mosaic pattern on the tail. Anyway, I will update you guys if he send me new and clearer photos.

[illumbomb]

My friend travelled along the Pahang river (both north and south side) last weekend to study if it was the division line between the distribution of P. naygi and P. paludicola. There he caught small specimen (about 2.5cm) which he thought looked very unique, with "heart shaped" large tail, short body and long dorsal fin extending across the full length of the body until very near to the tail. He requested for me to seek expert advices here on whether it is worthwhile pursuing further to establish if it is something new (i.e. travelling all the way back there to try to collect similar specimens) or is it likely to be just a mutated specimen?





Sorry for the poor quality images which was blown up from the photographs taken with my handphone.

[ZaZ]

Actually there are already unpublished data on the limit of the 2 mentioned paros species. The issue was discussed in some forums too. To date, the northern limit of P nagyi lies around Chukai (south Terengganu) - a population originated from that area is now being maintained in Germany!! P paludicola, on the other hand, can be found as far south as Paka (Terengganu) which is about 60 km from Chukai. In between these 2 places? No collection record as yet.
Your fish? If from Pahang, should be P nagyi but can't confirm with these photos. How many fishes are showing this kind of trait? If one, then it's a mutant!