Our Team
The Parosphromenus Project is a teamwork between many individuals all over the world, — of dedicated people who contribute in many ways, — as breeders, as researchers, as hobbyists, as scientists, as supporters. The Project would not excist without our many members and active people.
But to keep this together, coordinate, inspire and continually search for progress, a smaller group of dedicated people have been continually taking on responsibilities within the Project in our Steering Group, and we would like to introduce ourselves on this page.
The Parosphromenus Project November 2019
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Founder and ideological leader
Proff. Dr. Peter Finke, Germany
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Benjamin Wilden, Germany, Project Manager
My name is Benjamin, but I am known as Bennie in all fish-related matters. I am a Ph.D. student in animal ecology at Bielefeld University (Germany) and work on ancient lakes around the globe. Fishes were always my favorite animals. Therefore, I started fishkeeping as a hobby at age 11 and was a member of the Parosphromenus-Project from the very start. In the project I previously worked as address coordinator and census assessor. In 2014 I traveled to Malaysia, Singapore, and Sumatra to explore Parosphromenus habitats. As a Project Manager, I am responsible for the strategy and tactics of the Parosphromenus-Project.
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Helene Schoubye Johansen, Denmark, Project manager and webmaster
My aquatic interest started about 20 years ago, and after about 5 years or so I almost exclusively had Parosprhomenus. I was fasinated by their beauty and intriged by the level of skills needed, — and I was also slowly learning about their need for protection in nature, — in particular through Prof. Dr. Peter Finke, who reached out for all that showed an interest in Paros. I got to know Peter Finke very well, and over some years we worked very closely together to establish the homepage, as well as building the structure of the International meetings, the newsletters etc. Today I work together with Bennie in the day to day management, as Project manager. My responsibilty is everything concerning the homepage, facebook and twitter, as well as the newsletter and membership databases, — but it extends into many other activities and decisions, such as cooperations with Zoo’s and organisations.
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Wentian Shi, China/Germany, Naturalist, Field leader |
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Rafael Eggli, Basel, Switzerland, Responsibel for Census
I currently pursue a Master’s degree in Nanophysics at University of Basel. My interest in fishkeeping sparked in my childhood. Reading about the Parosphromenus-Project in the german journal DATZ had me fascinated by those beautiful yet highly endangered jewels of the rainforest. However, it took several years before my first encounter with living Parosphromenus linkei, the first species I kept and bred. As part of my graduation from highschool, I analysed the progress of the project, its purpose and chances of success and wrote a small study on my findings. It was an integral part of this effort to quantify the projects achievements by reviewing and analyzing historical data from the half yearly census. Joining the first international meeting in Hamburg in 2015, I met Peter Finke and was introduced to the main part of the steering group. After DATZ published my findings, I continued to analyse the census and was asked by Peter to join the steering group. Currently only keeping Parosphromenus parvulus, I am responsible for organizing and assembling the census in order to monitor the Parosphromenus-population kept by members of the Project around the world.
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Dorothee Jöllenbeck-Pfeffel, Germany, Translating
My Name is Dorothee, I live in the south of Germany, near Freiburg. I work as a teacher for painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture and art history at school. Even early in my life I had been fascinated by good worked aquarium tanks with healthy inhabitants, and for 10 years now I have my own tanks. When I started, it was impossible to get differentiated information about the required housing conditions of different fish and other freshwater species, for example we had then the first hype about tylomelania snails from Sulawesi. Often just “I take tap water”.Looking for correct water and temperature parameters for chocolate guramis, I found the homepage of the Parosphromenus Project. Here I found the differentiated and proven parameters for black water species I had looked for. Shortly after I was able to bring my first Parosphromenus linkei on the return trip from a North Sea vacation. The offspring of these are still swimming around in one of my aquariums.
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