This is really exemplary!
Hugues van Besien is a well-known expert of anabantoid fish and a good friend of the Parosphromenus-Project; in fact, he is the translator of our website into the French language.
What he does here should be a model for all who are forced somehow to give their collection of valuable fish away because they foresee a difficult time to come. I know of at least five similar cases in which no such attention was payed to that moment, and a valuable collection of licorice gouramis was distributed in all directions, mostly by giving the fish to an ordinary pet shop. I know of merely no such shop which is able or willing to provide the special tanks with special water and special food, much hiding and low lighting, and so these rare fish must stand adverse life conditions until some average aquarians buy them as a supplement for their community tank. That’s the reality. In other cases these fish were distributed at a meeting or fish-fair to interested aquarians personally, but nearly none of them was equipped mentally or by equipment to house or even propagate those fish adquately.
Therefore congratulation, Hugues, to your idea of writing this, well in advance, so that there is enough time to plan that transaction for a good end.
Hugues’ stock contains two species that are rare and difficult to get hold of even in the middle of Europe: P. parvulus and P. ornaticauda. Not many Paro-aquarists who are able to breed other species succeed with these two either.
So, let’s hope that things end well by finding one or two persons who are willing and equipped to keep and further breed this stock. I gladly will help by including the case into a newsletter (and I gladly will do the same in similar cases). It’s very good indeed that Hugues announces this months before the critical moment will come. We all should conceive of this as a model how to behave if a similar situation is foreseen in one’s own life.
The
PAROSPHROMENUS PROJECT
