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Lowry Park Zoo Project

Hey Folks,		
				Here's an update on the Lowry Park Zoo's Native Florida Fish and Aquatic
Plant Exhibit. 
				I arrived late in the afternoon, Wednsday the 7th, with a load of aquatic
plants and a few fish to supplement what Robert and the zoo's staff had
already collected. To thier batch of plants, which included dwarf saggitaria ,
a similar sagg. species a bit larger than the dwarf, spadderdock (fully
emersed, perhaps immature), an extremely fragrant bacopa species (fleshy herb
like), and micranthemum, to which I added a forest of vallisnaria, a couple of
large and long clumps of cabomba, a nuphar sp. ( a red form, possibly
japonicum, though the entire stand, approx. 30 square yards, was completely
emersed, it is now showing a few floating leaves in the wild) a single clump
of eleocharis prolifera, and a beautiful green to pink form of ludwigia. Our
combined efforts have created a beautiful setting for the following Native
fishes. 
				The native fish load will consist of flag fish, bluespotted, dollar, and
bantam sunnies, sailfin mollies, bluefin killies, swamp darters, H. formosa
and I will supply them with elassoma, tadpole madtoms and f. chrysotus in the
near future.
More species may be added as we find them. A magnificant addition to this
display, not to mention the NFC's breeder program would be Bluenose Shiner
(Pteronotropis welaka), if anyone out there has or knows where we could obtain
them. Or for that matter, any of the small, colorful shiners native to
Florida.
				The tank, a 750 gal. acrylic, will cycle for a few days before they begin
slowly adding the fish. They have the facillity to add aged water from
exitsting large displays to help cut the cycling time down to a minimum.
				 The Zoo's other Florida native exhibits include a manatee pool, saltwater
large fish displays, saltwater reef fish, a brackish estuary display, and a
large freshwater fish display with bass, gar, bluegill and slidders and
softshell turtles and an array of herps displays of snakes, tortouses, and
anphuma and siren, soon to include the lessor siren we provided them last
month. This coopertative effort with the NFC completes Lowry Park Zoo's
displays with an exhibit of the small, little known native fishes we all have
come to know and love.
					A special thanks from the Native Fish Conservancy goes out to Teryl
Nolan, Scott Graves, Dave and the other staff members of the Lowry Park Zoo,
who's enthusiastic efforts and vision have helped us in NFC's ongoing
commitment to educate the public at large about our national heritage in
native fishes, freshwater habitats and thier conservation. 
					I will return in a few weeks to photogragh the tank, once it's had the
chance to settle in.

Daryl Roche
Exotic Removal Program, NFC