#but they seem to have access to rare asian fishes i dont see elsewhere

[narelleart]

I visited a nearby city and stopped in a fish store that had four "species" of Parosphromenus (one undescribed, under a trade name).

I couldn't just leave, so I took home the pair they had of the species highest on the ranking list I'd made previously which also happened to be a critically endangered species. (Parosphromenus gunawani, if they were identified correctly. I'll sort it out when I get a chance to get a better look at them.)

I wish I could have taken the others too - some species had larger groups, and I would have bought every individual they had of any species I bought. But I wasn't prepared for that, I'm limited on tank space in my current living situation and only had one cycled filter ready.

All Parosphromenus are imperiled, they are endemic to niche specialized habitats that are under anthropogenic threat. They have no business in the aquarium trade, and certainly not in brick and mortar shops like this. Another customer was trying to get them to sell him moderately sized catfishes for his one gallon "tank". Anyone could walk in and buy these, with no intention of spawning them, no idea what they are.

I mentioned to the shop owner that they were imperiled and he clearly had no qualms about that, but was more so bothered that I brought it up.

The other Parosphromenus they had were:

P. nagyi

P. ornaticauda

P. sp. "Sentang"

#i cant decide if i am going to stop buying from this shop because they were also selling an alligator gar #which made me furious too #but they seem to have access to rare asian fishes i dont see elsewhere #so im not sure #unethical shop posing as a beautiful nano aquascape geared shop #should probably not buy from them anymore idk #also because before i was further into the science i probably would have questioned this of someone in my position #i cannot just take the undescribed species from a trade import and describe it #because i could not reliably tie it to a collection locality #gotta go get my own from the wild if i want to describe them #catalog a type specimen #then they could be assessed for the iucn to determine their conservation status #so we would at least know if they were critically endangered #but that would not keep them out of the trade because almost no freshwater fishes have any actual regulation