looking for someone who will take my paros

[VAN BESIEN Hugues]

Hi,

I am looking for someone who have interest and good maintaining possibilities for taking my paro collection, because I am giving up for personal reasons. I can’t let them weeks alone, as they would be in the coming years.

2 pair P. linkei, one of them home-born

a group of P.parvulus “palangkaraya, one breeding pair with offsprings, among them at least another pair

2 pair of P. sp Bintan with offspring

P. ornaticauda, at least one pair and in the whole perhaps 5 adult fishes, all home-born

Offsprings were born in spring or summer and are now too young to be catched and transport, my tank are overgrowth and full of peat and it’s always difficult to catch the fishs, I must remove all the things in the tank till it’s empty. So, I can’t find and catch very little fishes.

It’s not in a hurry, I know it’s take time to find one responsable breeders, or an organised group of people which would share the collection.. No beginners.
I prefer someone who take them all, and eventually take care of them till displaying other people if he/she dont keep them all. I cannot organize this piece by piece.

I think januar/februar/mars 2013 or later will be the good time.

Fishes are to be taken in northern France, near Lille, or I can bring them in Germany, near Trier, where I am going several times in the year, or I can bring them somewhere in Belgium on the road between Mons/Bergen and Luxemburg

With kind regards,

Hugues

[Peter Finke]

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.

[Andy Love]

I’m so sorry to hear that you have to abandon your work with Paros.

I would really like to be part of this : we need some/most/all of these fish in the UK, where Paros seem as rare as hens’ teeth (or rocking horse … droppings if you prefer that analogy!).

I have committed myself to keeping Paros but sourcing them has been a problem. Also a problem is the fact that, so far as Paros are concerned, I am a beginner ; judging from what you wrote, Hugues, this puts me out of the running! However, I am not an inexperienced keeper of soft/acidic water fish and I am confident that I can supply the correct conditions for them. Actually I would be able to take some Paros now (if I could find them!) but I have designed the system that I would like to use as a permanent care/breeding setup and have been standing ready to build it as-and-when the promise of some fish came along. I would need several months to get that system together, so the timescale that you mention is happily just right!

Another problem is that I envisage keeping just two species to start with : from the list that you published, P. ornaticauda ; and P. bintan are on my list of species to look out for.

However, if it would be permitted that I receive these two species, my system (once built and running) would allow me to take temporary custody of all four species that you list. I would then be prepared to act as distributor for any UK Project members who wished to take the balance of the species and/or individuals. But, of course, I would have to be certain that they’d have UK homes to go to beforehand!

So:

a) Does the fact of my being a beginner really rule me out of contention completely? If not …
b) Are there Project Members in the UK who would like to co-operate and take some of the fish?

Of course I am aware that there will almost certainly be better-qualified Paros-keepers near to you on mainland Europe but I wanted to register my strong interest in response to your message, just in case …

All best

Andy

(Vale! is my username on tropicalfishforums.co.uk where I am a member of the moderating team)

[Paul Hards]

Andy (Vale) I am also a new starter to Paro’s, although I have kept and bred fish for 35+ years. I currently have 2 pairs of P filamentosa.

I have 10 P bintan coming on Tuesday, really looking forward to it.

I would be prepared to assist in keeping/distributing these fish too, but I doubt it will be possible to get them to the UK.

You should get in touch with Colin Dunlop of the Fish Hut (Scotland) he has Paro’s and will post them. You can find him on Facebook, or I can let you have his email address.

[Andy Love]

Hi Paul

(Did you get my reply, 5th Sep,to your e-mail, btw?)

After it had become apparent, to me anyway, that getting hold of Paros was going to be difficult, I started digging around with the assumption that Continental Europe was going to be the source.

Eventually I dug down to the Fish Health Inspectorate – a substratum of the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science … itself a division of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The upshot is that, so long as one has authorisation from the FHI, via an application form coded as AAH2, and so long as the animals are packed so to avoid health issues in transit, then one can bring them into the UK from the EU without even mandatorily presenting them at the border for inspection.

My plan was (or will be) to undertake a Eurostar trip to collect whatever specimens might make themselves available within reasonable distance/time. My ‘contact’ at the DHI, who had to slog through my explanations of what I was envisaging, didn’t seem to think that authorisation would be a particular difficulty.

Thanks everso for your Fish Hut link – I will surely investigate! I don’t ‘do’ Facebook (etc.) so I’d appreciate his e-mail address. It’d be good, though, to try to get hold of species that aren’t well-represented over here already?

Best

Andy

(Vale! has an exclamation mark – it’s Latin!)

[Peter Finke]

It is just as Paul says: The main problem is getting such fish via parcel shipped to the UK. Temperature is the main problem. Paros can survive four or five days without problems in tiny plastic bottles hiding below a leaf because they don’t swim very much. But the temperature should not fall below 15 degrees Celsius. And we really don’t know how long the parcel will take to reach it’s final destiny. More than a week and things get critical. But maybe there is a solution, even for Hugues’ fish? Tell it here!
Generally speaking: There was no problem in Britain as Paro’s are concerned as long as Allan Brown was active as one of the best breeders of these fish ever. Every year he bred many species and variants with great success and brought all of them to the continent. But about three years ago he quit all his fishkeeping, and now Britain is a “distressed area” in this respect. It’s a pity!
In Germany, the many pupils of Dr. Walther Foersch have established a wide net of breeding Paro’s; nearly all species and quite a few variants are available. Our distribution network works quite well, but now winter is approaching; this will hamper the exchange of these fish over long distances.
But let me remind you of an important date: next autumn, 2013 (!), 28./29th September, we will organize in Hamburg the first international meeting of the Parosphromenus-Project (with lectures by M. Hallmann, H. Linke and others, simultaneously translated). Maybe, some American or Asian visitors will come, too; I shall ask Olivier Perrin from Paris to talk to us and so on. And there will be at least ten species available in greater numbers (among them two forms of nagyi, of linkei, filamentosus, quindecim, spec. Langgam, harvey, possibly parvulus, ornaticauda, and others). We would be very glad if some visitors from Britain would come and take many of these fish back home for their friends. We could and should organize this well in advance, beginning now.
So, I hope, Hugues will find a way for his fine collection, maybe in Britain, but that is up to him and the opportunities that we need for such a travel. The other thing is the long-term schedule: please note that date and place that I mentioned. There will be more information on it in newsletters to come.
### I just see the last posting of Andy’s now, it obviously was written simultaneously with me writing my message. Andy: a very good idea! We have some breeders with many species. If you come around I can organize the contacts and you could catch (nearly) as many fish as you want. If this i sthe right way, then write to me personally using: peter.finke@t-online.de

[Paul Hards]

Hi Andy,

I didn’t get your email, but following your post I checked in my spam folder and found it, thank you for replying and apologies for not seeing it. I will reply tonight and include Colin’s email address for you.

It seems like you have done an awful lot of hard work so far to try and work out how to get Paro’s to the UK. I am positive you will get some Paro’s if you get in touch with Colin, but it would also be good to get some from further afield.

I am also in the process of trying to get some German friends to agree to bring some fish to the UK in March 2013, Peter Finke has agreed to help try and source some fish if I can make some arrangements with my friends.

Regards

Paul

[Paul Hards]

Generally speaking: There was no problem in Britain as Paro’s are concerned as long as Allan Brown was active as one of the best breeders of these fish ever. Every year he bred many species and variants with great success and brought all of them to the continent. But about three years ago he quit all his fishkeeping, and now Britain is a “distressed area” in this respect. It’s a pity!

Its such a shame that myself and Andy (and no doubt others) have missed Allan and his Paro’s, it sounds like he really was someone I would love to meet and hear about his experiences with Paro’s and learn some of the “tricks of the trade” that obviously made him so successful, there is no doubt that an awful lot of hard work went into his endeavours.

But let me remind you of an important date: next autumn, 2013 (!), 28./29th September, we will organize in Hamburg the first international meeting of the Parosphromenus-Project (with lectures by M. Hallmann, H. Linke and others, simultaneously translated). Maybe, some American or Asian visitors will come, too; I shall ask Olivier Perrin from Paris to talk to us and so on. And there will be at least ten species available in greater numbers (among them two forms of nagyi, of linkei, filamentosus, quindecim, spec. Langgam, harvey, possibly parvulus, ornaticauda, and others). We would be very glad if some visitors from Britain would come and take many of these fish back home for their friends.

That is quite some time away but is something I would really like to attend if funds and work commitments permit, particularly if some other UK people would accompany me.

Regards

Paul

[VAN BESIEN Hugues]

Hi!

I prefer not to make postshipping because I had very bad experience with that from France and in my town, where only the national post is here, no UPS and so on, but I can go to Lille or to Calais, at the Eurostar station, to give the fishes. It will be very expensive for you for a few fishes and it is perhaps better to organize that from for Germany for a big lot of fishes and many people.
You must also take account – not to harm you -of the british paranoia with living beings imports. I don’t know if they let you bring them back with the train, and you will have to pass controls like in an airport. This frontier is the worst I know in Europe since the east-wall is down. Perhaps have other people experience with that. The ornaticauda have found a good aquarist in France.
Stay in touch about that.

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