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Welcome Greg – yes the Paro Project is truly and international organization and of course you are welcome to join us. I am an American living in Florida and yes you are correct this organizations goals and objectives go well beyond just the keeping and breeding of the Parosphromenus species. The organization has a fundamental interest on global environmental issues, but we focus special emphasis on that area of the world where are little friend reside. Visit us often and perhaps you will find some Licorice gouramis in one of your tanks soon.
Your last paragraph got me thinking – longer term that is … We have a group here in Tampa that are saving their dollars to travel to the 2013 Aquarama in Singapore. I have heard and read about this tradeshow for a number of years. One individual here has attended perhaps 4 -5 of these sessions and the next time he will lead a guided tour if you will. It will be 15 days in all and in addition to the show they will visit a number of places including fish farms in Thailand ( I would love to return to Thailand once more). But I digress … perhaps we could consider the 2015 session in Singapore to coincide with the show (either just before or just after).In addition to seeing everything at the show it would give us an opportunity to perhaps make a side trip to see the “Paros” in their native environment. How’s that about thinking “Big” time. :cheer:
The positioning of the marker in my case was close enough. It was on the east coast of Florida rather than then the west, but it gave people the general idea. As to the map being centered on Europe that is fine as far as I am concerned. I will scroll to the left for USA and someone like David Wei Dai will scroll to the right to find Shanghai. Makes perfect sense to me.
try postal code 33760-1741 if you have a chance. That’s for the USA. I dont know if additional if there is an additional international code for each country. It will be interesting to see
I think the discussion on this topic is coming together as we communicate. Sylvia has closed the location even tighter than I was proposing initially. For me,I placed my star over the largest city in the area. Sylvia places her location almost to the point where I could come to her town and locate her home. I’m not sure we wish to define the locations that precisely. I think members could decide if they wished to have first name, first & last name or just their “handle” displayed on the map. With that I see no security issue of importance.
With all due respect to Sylvia I would tend to disagree with her on the names. I think it is beneficial to have name (or handle) along with city, state or region and country depicted on the map. For example, when Big Tom first posted information and photos of his beautiful aquarium I could tell he was a native english speaker, but from where? I knew all the American members and he was not one of them from what I could tell. The map linking the name or “handle” with a general geographic location would appear to be most helpful.
That would be a very interesting and helpful effort. However, it would take considerable effort to build the map and more difficult to maintain it on a current basis. It would be very helpful however if people would take just a minute and complete the first line of their profile. Just having City, region/state and country would give everyone an idea of where they reside. Providing that amount of information would not interfere with individual privacy.:)
Amazonas magazine has posted a sample issue on-line – http://www.amazonasmagazine.com/ . For those of you who regularly read this wonderful magazine in Europe it might be interesting to see what articles were translated and from which issues. I would be interested in some feedback on the comparisons.
Outstanding!! the Amazonas magazine announced they will begin publishing in English beginning this month. Many of us are looking forward to the first issue. From what I understand they are going to translate articles from the German issues into English. We will have to see how long it will take to see the “Paro” article in our magazine
On behalf of the North American members of the Parosphromenus Project I would like to extend seasons greeting and Happy New Year to all the members in Europe, Asia and the rest of the World! We look forward to the advancement of the goals of the Parosphromenus Project in the coming year as well as expanded communications among all our members throughout the world. Best wishes to all of you from all of us …
We here on the North American continent are feverishly working toward preparation for our Christmas holiday followed by the celebration of the New Year. I would like to extend the seasons greeting to the Paro Project members here in North America as well as wishing them a very Happy New Year. It is my hope that we can be more active in this project during the coming year. To this end, I will attempt to be in contact with those of you I have not communicated with previously to ask you to approach the local clubs you are associated with around the country and to ask who among your groups currently maintain any of the Licorice species and be willing to participate in a North American census whether or not they are willing to participate in the Parosphromenus Project itself. Those of you that are importers and are placing any of these species with clients who you know are not members of the Project or current members of the ALFA would greatly help if you were able to identify these individuals to be included in this census also. I wish you all a happy Holiday and a prosperous New Year.
The “Breathing Bags” allow the transfer of simple and complex gas molecules through the plastic wall of the bag — carbon dioxide and oxygen in particular. A true “breathing” bag can be utilized in place of a “barrier” bag as is used in plastic polyethylene bags. Carbon dioxide exits the bags at 4 times the rate oxygen enters the bags, thereby constantly purging the water of toxic carbon dioxide, and allowing oxygen to replace it in the water.
Breathing bags can be sealed using all of the current methods: rubber bands, twist ties, metal clips, etc. An even better way for fast efficient sealing is with a bar type heat sealer. The plastic used in the “Breathing Bags” readily seals with heat. Heat sealing can be done much more quickly than other methods and greatly increases the speed with which bags can be handled and sealed. The breathing bag material is manufacturered by Kordon. The bags are manufacturered in several sizes or in a roll. I don’t know if the material is available outside the USA. If you wish more information on the Styrofoam containers I will post that information later.I live in what we call the Tampa Bay area of Florida. It is the City of Tampa and the surrounding area and is home to the largest collection of fish farms in the USA. If you are watching the planes being loaded at our large local airport you will see huge numbers of boxes being loaded on the aircraft all marked “Contains Live Tropical Fish”. I have visited a number of the farms and watched the packing and shipping preparation procedures. It is a very interesting operation but is far from the type of operation we are discussing in shipping Licorice Gouramis.
However, I have a friend that maintains a small hatchery that breeds several varieties of Discus and Rams. He ships them all over the country and in some cases around the world very successfully. He utilizes what is called “Breathing Bags” which I will describe in more detail below. The bag material comes in a roll and he makes bags that are 10 x 15 cm. He places a single Discus in the bag with a small amount of water and a couple of drops of a liquid tranquilizer or sedative to calm the fish. He then seals the one remaining open side of the bag. The bag in then placed vertically in a small Styrofoam container. These containers are used to ship medicines for the most part. He can place as many as ten bags in this small container. Each bag is wrapped in paper and a cardboard spacer is placed between each bag. If the container is going to an area where it may be chilly, a heat pack in place in the top of the container separated from the bags of fish with another piece of cardboard. Paper is then stuffed in the top of the container to limit the amount of movement while in transit. The final step is to place the small styro container in a cardboard box which is manufacturered specifically to hold this container. The only thing remaining is to address the box and take it to the post office. He attempts to ship all fish either next day or two day, but some fish have taken as long as 7 days with the fish arriving is good condition. This post has become longer than anticipated so I will describe the “Breathing Bags” in an additional post.
