Hi Shane.
I would like to welcome you to this forum, – I am very happy to see you here, and glad to here that you have caught an interest in our small paro species.
I have had the interest and been committed to this project for many years now, – and is also a member of the Steering Group as well as webmaster.
I have seven species at home, – but in Denmark theres very far between people who share this interest, – so it is sometimes difficult, both to aquire and to also give on offspring etc. But then I have of course been lucky that Denmark is not too far from Germany, and Hamburg, where Bernd Bussler lives, – he is a fantastic source for our fish.
Your purchase of p. bintan is one of the more usual reports from trade. There are often p. bintan or more likely p.bintan like species – which is with or without location, – and most often we cannot really trust that the information given is accurate. Often the fish is difficult to determine precisely later on, but in many cases the fish can be beautiful and really worth while.
Often also, these uncertain purchases is the only source of requiring fish which people has, as only very few shops have them. If you know the owner there, you may talk to him about looking more closely at the import lists, – there might be species there which are more easily determined, such as anjunganensis, linkei and others. Its a great advantage to know the owner and to have someone be ‘on your side’ 🙂
Now, – you ask a question, is this forum really active ?
To this I will answer you – honestly, no, – not really. I will add …. most unfortunate.
I do not precisely know why.
Sometimes there has been much more activity, and mostly I also experience, that if someone asks a question, there will be answers, – but many seems to not really look in here regularly.
The Parosphromenus Project has grown quite a bit over the last years, and we do have many members, and we do get new members regularly. We also can say that some of our activities, such as private travels, new findings, contacts to institutions etc, – these things do develop.
But the forum part, – the active communication by people, and the real network creating seems to at least at the moment be at a ‘low’ point. I personally, at this present time, is really thinking a lot about how to change this, – but I dont have any good answers.
I do think that many members – unfortunately – finds facebookgroups to be more easy and fast to find answers, – and that facebook is more easy accessable than a regular forum.
Facebookgroups unfortunately does not accumulate knowledge in the same way as a forum, which is why we have hesitated to create one linked to this site.
🙂 … as you may understand, this question of yours has hit something which is on my mind a lot, and I wish I could say that we are a very active forum 🙂 … I cant.
Instead I would welcome you and say, – lets make it a more active forum 😉 … just ask if you have questions, and there will certainly be answers.
Also I can say, you can search in our forum, and you will that there has been many interesting debates over time.