Parosphromenus-Newsletter No. 111 
Bielefeld (Germany), October 1st, 2013
Dear friends, for different reasons there was no regular newsletter since July: illness, book-writing and holidays. And some of this is still valid presently. So, this newsletter will be shorter than formerly. And it will be issued in one language only, in English.
- New members of the Parosphromenus-project; request
Many new members have registered in the last months. All are very welcome. I am sorry that not all have been welcomed by personal mail but that was impossible because of the reasons mentioned above.
So I have to tell you here some important points and I ask you to respond to it:
– All of you who have registered during the last half of the year are requested to write a personal mail to me (mailto: peter.finke@parosphromenus-project.org) telling me the country and the town where they live. Why?
We need this because
(1) the growing list of members is split in ten geographical regions in America, Asia and Europe (we shall add Africa and Australia as soon as there are the first members from this continents!). We split them because we normally send our newsletter in three languages (English, French and German). Not all languages have to go in the whole world.
(2) We always try to help with mailing-addresses of Paro-friends near to the living place of somebody who asks. There are many questions of this kind (“Could you give me a contact-address near to my home?”). If we should do so, we must know the country and the town where you live.
(3) We have a growing number of people interested in these nice fish. And we try to keep our statistics up to date: Where do they live? How are things growing in Europe, in America, in Asia?
– Therefore I ask you to respond to my request in the next days and tell me your country and your town. Thank you for cooperating.
- The new census (Fall 2013)
Our new census begins today (October 1st) and runs till the last day of this month. This time, Benjamin Wilden will do all the work alone: synopsis, analysis and commentaries. We are very grateful to him. Therefore, please, take part and tell us your stock:
– name the species (if wild-caught or offspring: location; otherwise we take it to refer to traded animals)
– if traded as “deissneri” or a similar wrong name: indicate your doubts about the correct identification;
– number of breeding pairs, single adult males or females, young (roughly the number).
If you keep no Parosphromenus at present: tell us in short “negative report” (nil return).
This census has been very successful in more than nine years (done twice a year). Most species and unidentified variants have been sustained since then in the aquarium stock. Before when we had no accurate information most lined where extinct after two or three years.
Therefore: Please take part! Even with a small and very small stock we gain insights in the present state of affairs. Write to census@parosphromenus-project.org and you will find your name as participant I the final synopsis.
- The first comprehensive book on Paros worldwide has just been published
The only „book“ on exclusively devoted to Parosphromenus has just been published by German experts Peter Finke and Martin Hallmann at Aqualog-publishers, Rodgau (Germany) in Germany language. The title is
Prachtguramis
Juwelen des Urwalds in der Natur und im Aquarium
Licorice Gouramies: Juwels of the rainforest in nature and in the aquarium
The book has 200 pages and 202 photos. It is very uncertain whether there will ever be an English-language edition, for the realization of such a book with a great many photos on a small group of small rare fish is very expensive; the number of copies is necessarily small, too. We therefore recommend: Be quick and order one copy as soon as possible, even if you cannot read German. The pictures alone make it worthwhile. The price is 29,80 Euros. Look at www.parobuch.de for the details of payment and shipping costs.
- Some species in trade in Europe
In the last months and weeks several species of Parosphromenus were traded internationally (wild caught offspring of this year’s spawning season), namely tweediei, nagyi and ornaticauda. Fish have appeared in trade in the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany, maybe in other countries too.
Let me remind you at our own distribution service. Write an e-mail to distribution@parosphromenus-project.org if you are searching for a special species. Tell us the place where you live and we shall try to help you. Sometimes, I regret to say, this is difficult or impossible, but often we could give useful information and acted as a mediator.
Best wishes until our next newsletter will be published!
Your steering group (in charge: Peter Finke, Bielefeld/Germany)
We always welcome recommendations or proposal for improvements of our newsletter system. The versions in different languages were produced partly with the help of machine translation programs. Please excuse possible linguistic mistakes!