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SAEs extinct? No, can't be!
There has been some discussion about the possible extinction of Botia
sidthimunki in one of the newsgroups (I guess it was rec.aquaria.freshwater.
misc) because of a dam which has been built recently. In the last autumn
I heard rumors that SAEs are getting very rare in wild because of some dam,
and so I tried to ask this poster more info about this. He said that yes,
both sidthimunkis and SAEs are really extinct, but they both are now
bred in captivity by hormones.
Now I have done some more research and found out that:
- both SAEs and sidthimunkis come from more than one river, so one dam
can't wipe the populations out totally.
- both are probably now bred in captivity
- the wholesale price of the SAEs is the same as it has always been, and
the quality is the same, so there can't have been a big change - the
source can't have totally changed. If they were wild-caught earlier,
that is what most of them still are.
- sidthimunkis have been impossible to get during last few years. Now
they are again on the far-east export lists, but the price is high.
- the most recent DATZ (normally very reliable German magazine) had
and article about some Botias including sidthimunki, and it didn't
mention anything about possible extinction.
If any of you happen to have any knowledge on these two fishes, please
let me know. I want to know what is the truth about my very favourite
fish, Siamese algae eater (and I can't afford to go to Thailand and
find out!)
Liisa Sarakontu INTERNET: lsarakon at hila_hut.fi
Helsinki University of Technology WWW homepage http://www.hut.fi/~lsarakon/