Parosphromenus-Newsletter No. 108 
Bielefeld (Germany), March 10th, 2013
Dear friends, today a number of current messages or inquiries dominate our newsletter. Other issues will be resumed in a later newsletter. Most important are the points 2 (“New Spring census is imminent”) and 3 (“We are urgently looking for a new leader for Distribution”). If someone feels addressed, may he / she sign up. In addition, we report in item 4 that the international conference we had planned for Hamburg (Germany) this autumn is postponed to a later date because of some strong reasons.
1. New members to the project
New members continue to strengthen our Parosphromenus project:
– Andrea Brandi from Italy
– Stefaan from Romania (?)
– Jeremy from Pong?
– Emmanuel from?
– Lennart Fried Ritz from Braunschweig (D) – Horst Gerwens (D)
Welcome!
2. The new census (Spring 2013) is imminent next month
Every six months, it’s time again: We collect the latest figures of our aquarium fish stocks.
There are people who say: This is too frequently done. Once a year would be sufficient. But if one looks at the changes that happen between two surveys, we come to a different conclusion. Usually they are not as flashy on the whole, but hidden in the details. If one follows the stock of a single species he or she comes quickly to the conclusion that the six-month interval is not entirely unreasonable. Most species are in fact not available in large numbers, but in small stocks. They remain present in the aquarium, but in a very changing composition of sub-stocks. Since each of these surveys from preparation to evaluation and publication needs nearly the time of three months, unfortunately, some numbers are already out of date when the new census appears. This is difficult to be avoided generally. But it would be an even greater problem if we would just do one census every year only.
One thing worries us a bit: the frequent change of godfathers. While there are some species where the godfatherships are stable for many years already, it is obviously striking that quite a few change rather quickly. We therefore appeal to all godfathers to take their task seriously and try to maintain it for a time (at least two to three years) as long as possible. This means that each godfather should in any case strive to breed those species or forms for which he is responsible. Of course, all this happens voluntarily, but it is only effective if as many godfathers as possible feel obliged to really maintain and breed their species as long as possible.
In April it’s time of the spring census again. All of you should participate, including short notification of zero stocks. On the homepage, we will remind you in due time.
3. Very important: We are urgently looking for new coordinator for distribution
The breeders have produced many offspring, but nevertheless a lot of friends look out for these fish in vain. To compensate for this problem, we have appointed a coordinator for distribution. The task in recent years was performed by Michael Beuscher (Mainz / Germany) with engagement and success. We thank him very much. Unfortunately, he has to abandon the function now due to illness.
So far distribution worked rather well in Germany, less well in other countries. This is because breeding Licorice Gouramies has in these countries not yet attained the status which would be required. We cannot change that rapidly. The shipment of Paros is hardly a problem, but the shipping across borders still is because of uncontrolled time loss. Nevertheless, the coordinator has a list of addresses from different countries, which may help. By this he can often help a seeker to find his fish or a breeder his aquarists.
We are looking urgently for a successor to Michael. He must meet three conditions:
– He must like to communicate and mediate between breeders and prospective buyers
– He must shortly install the e-mail address for distribution in addition to his own to his computer – It would be good if he would live in Germany or Europe where most negotiations take place
If you are interested, we urge you to call in as soon as possible. Do not worry: In most cases, the requests are distributed well in time, it will not be too much work. But the whole thing plays a key role in our project: The Coordinator for distribution knows all addresses of breeders and can significantly help that someone gets the fish he seeks and that the breeders find their buyers.
Please, write to peter.finke@parosphromenus-project.org with email address and phone. The new coordinator can optionally become member of the Steering Group if he wishes.
4. Our planned meeting in Hamburg in September 2013 shall be postponed
We have announced that at the end of September 2013, the first international meeting of the Parosphromenus project in will take place in Hamburg / Germany. But this must now be shifted to a later date but for several reasons. We name the most important points:
– We had not enough information on the participation of friends from different countries in order to organize the meeting efficiently (e.g. room, conference languages, translations etc.)
– A serious conflict of the scheduled time has become clear only lately, since a planned trip of several members to South East Asia to the Paro habitats in Indonesia must begin at this weekend
– The Steering Group would like to first conduct a survey of members, which program level is desired for such a meeting the most
– In this survey, we will also ask for planning reasons who would be interested to attend such a meeting (so that we can better assess the necessary infrastructure).
– There are also some people who argue that a first meeting of the Parosphromenus project should not be held in Germany, because elsewhere there is much a greater need for it.
We have therefore decided to postpone the meeting to a later date in 2014. Possible, this new date
Univ.-Prof. em. Dr. Dr. h.c. Peter Finke
will be earlier than fall; it will be announced as soon as possible.
Until the next newsletter, warm regards from your steering group. Responsible: Peter Finke (Bielefeld / Germany).
(We are always open to suggestions for improving the newsletter. Language versions were created with the help of machine translation. Please, apologize therefore possible linguistic errors).