RE: "Extinct" pupfish (longish)-even longer

[owner-killietalk at aka_org (by way of Barry Cooper <bjc3 at cornell_edu>)]

Dr. Bruce, Mr. Wright, et. al.

About 10 years when I started a series of visits to Ash Meadows I began a
discussion with the then range biologist, Doug Treloff, about what a fish
hobbyist could do to help in the effort to conserve the pupfish.  Being at a
distance it was difficult to get involved with the maintenance effort like
the current Desert Springs Action Committee does in assisting with the
elimination of exotics and removal of the salt cedar which "wicks up" a
temendous amount of water through transpiration and limits the size of the
aqueous habitat.  Doug felt that there was not enough known about the
husbandry of these fish so that intelligent design choices could be made in
constructing these artifical refugia.

Later, during Dave St. George's first stint as range biologist, the new
refugium at Point of Rocks Spring (several hundred yards from Devil's Hole)
was in operation for only a couple of seasons.  It was the first attempt to
try to design habitat other than the concrete tank approach.  If I recall,
the refuge had a cavern type design but was oriented to maximize algae
growth on the concrete walls.   The refuge is not only surrounded by a gate
but has a locked, chain-link, sliding gate over the artifical pool.  For the
first two years, reproduction of pups in the refuge was not too good and the
sex ratio was terribly skewed to males.  Water for the refuge came from an
upslope spring where part of the water is diverted from the spring to the
refuge.  Without the benefit of association with a large body of water like
at Devil's Hole, water in the refugium would cool significantly during the
colder winter weather and the refugium was covered with a translucent cover
during winter months to retain heat.  But the cover was removed in the
spring to enhance the growth of algae figuring the increased food source was
the trigger for reproduction.  What this ended up causing was a much
narrower window for which the water in the refugium stayed above a "magic"
82 F temperature.  Based on some observations on sex-temperature ratio
results I had seen with other killies I suggested to Dave that maybe keeping
the cover on the refugium longer (reducing nighttime cooling) might lengthen
the spawning season and correct the sex ratio problem.  Dave did that the
next year and the ratios began to even out.

Treloff had this information in mind when he suggested that the husbandry of
the other Death Valley killies be investigated so that there would be some
intelligent input into refugium design for the other 3 pupfish.  When you
think about some of these problems (size differential in refugium versus
natural habitat fish) in trying to save Cyp. diabolis you can see why
wildlife managers don't hold out much hope for hobbyist tank raised killies
to be placed back in the wild.  However, the approach to understanding the
variables that would allow the maintainence of a healthy population of fish
I think is still needed by these managers.  Here is where the hobbyist can
play a part.  You can also debate the merits of the academic researcher as
to whether or not they may care about species survival.  I would like to
know just how critical it is that wild stock is always needed for research
for every species or can aquarium raised stock be substituted for a good bit
of the research.  If one already knows that wild populations are much more
more genetically diverse than captive populations, how much more information
is needed for another species and are there not sampling algorithms that
allow one to estimate what that factor is from just a few wild fish?  Can
the hobbyist again relieve some of the pressures for research animals with
tank raised stock for research?

Dave Koran

-----Original Message-----
From: Bruce Stallsmith [mailto:fundulus at hotmail_com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2002 8:49 AM
To: KillieTalk at AKA_Org
Subject: RE: "Extinct" pupfish (longish)-even longer


Hello RJ, your description of an ideal conservation project below is
actually similar to what the US Fish & Wildlife Service is doing to maintain

several populations of Devils Hole Pupfish. They have more of these "arked"
pupfish than exist in the natural habitat. But, these fish have changed
phenotypically, and probably genotypically, after generations of living in
covered concrete ponds.

This fish is relatively lucky, its habitat is protected for the moment so
the wild population is stabilized at around 400. Of course, an alleged green

bigot like me thinks it's a good idea that the site is under close Federal
protection. The ugly truth is that if the site wasn't protected it would
have been destroyed over the last 25 years. Welcome to the real world (not
on Fox TV, either).

--Bruce Stallsmith
Huntsville, AL, US of A

PREVIOUS MESSAGE:
Date: Tue, 3 Dec 2002 02:20:29 -0500
From: "Tranquility Base" <TranquilityBase at NetZero_Net>
Subject: RE: "Extinct" pupfish (longish)-even longer

Hi Wright,

First of all I do not want to take away from any of the great conservation
efforts going on out  there. Nor do I mean to devalue any of the fine people
that care for fish that no longer exist in the wild. Nor am I impugning the
capabilities of any of the fish breeders on this list. And I would humbly
like to apologize for anything else I am about to say that might get someone
or even everyone up in arms. But I remain in favor of habitat preservation
where possible as well as larger scale, better funded conservation efforts,
than we can offer, to preserve species. Keeping fish "in the hobby" to
preserve a species, still seems to me to be a last ditch effort after
everything else has failed.

Lets think about what an ideal conservation program should look like. First
of all it should be set up at multiple sights. Each sight should have a
sufficient population to maintain genetic diversity. It should have water
preparation facilities capable of duplicating the appropriate water
conditions. It should have holding pools large enough for the fish to
maintain their natural behavior patterns and territories as applicable.
Filters, heaters, chillers, etc. need to be redundant systems with power
backups. Experienced staff needs to be on site or on call 24 X 7.

If the facility can not be appropriately located outdoors, synthetic
"natural" lighting needs to be arranged. The appropriate algae's
crustations, etc. from the fish's natural habitat need to be cultivated with
the same care.


_________________________________________________________________
Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online
http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963

---------------
See http://www.aka.org/AKA/subkillietalk.html to unsubscribe
Join the AKA at http://www.aka.org/AKA/Applic.htm


--- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts ---
multipart/alternative
   text/html
--- 


---------------
See http://www.aka.org/AKA/subkillietalk.html to unsubscribe
Join the AKA at http://www.aka.org/AKA/Applic.htm