There is an interesting discussion in this forum running on how to interest more people in America for blackwater aquaria in general and licorice gouramis specially. One problem seems to be the availability of the fish. (There are other problems, I know, but this is one).
In Germany (that – for licorice-addicts – seems to be something like “heaven on earth” from an American point of view; well, an exaggeration) we have decided to establish a distribution-service for newcomers to the Paros-scene. For sometimes we have more young fish than we can handle, and there are people searching and not finding them. One of our best breeders, Bernd Bussler, member of the Parosphpromenus-project too, who is involved in that service, has just said the following thing in a mail to me: “We could send a complete bunch of offspring of a special species (some months old) to America, of course for an adequate amount of cash. Mailing those fish in summer via the fastest methods is no problem; other fish are much more delicate with this. It only must be well-organized: the parcel must be fetched and cared for immediately after having arrived.”
Would that help? Or would it not? To say it clearly: We cannot start this service at once; it’s an idea for perhaps next summer. But it’s to be taken as seriously meant. Before, people could prepare for the necessities: the supply of the right water and the supply of the right food. What do you think of it? And what do you think of organizing a similar service yourself in the United States?