You are right, Adrian. I am a little more pessimistic about the future,
though - IMHO there will never be widespread interest, if any at all, by
government/conservation bodies in aquarists as the "archivists" of
endangered species. It seems more convenient for some of them to keep us
as "whipping boys" for the feral fish/plant species that now infest many
inland waterways in Australia.
>It is now six years since the endangered blue-eye, Scaturiginichthys
vermeilipinnis was discovered in Qld, Australia as Peter Unmack would know
first hand. Despite the money allocated and spent by both Federal and State
Governments, nothing has changed. In fact they have disappeared from two of
the springs. If some unusual weather change or other factor had happened in
the last few years to effect their habitat this species could have become
extinct. There are no specimens in captivity apart from a handful in
amateurs aquarists aquariums.
>
>The endangered desert goby from the nearby Elizabeth Springs is also
declining according to realiable sources. Again, this is despite the
efforts and monies allocated to this species. None of these species are in
_Controlled_ captivity either and only a small handful are in the hands of
amateur aquarists.
This raises the problem - which aquarists are to be trusted with this heavy
responsibility? It is a constant whinge of newcomers to native fishkeeping
that access to fish species is too restricted. In certain cases this is
justified - there have been those select few who have hoarded some species,
no names, but when they have had a disease problem then those species have
disappeared from captivity in that particular state (I can only speak of
Australia, here, my view of the situation in the rest of the world relies
purely on anecdote, but I assume it is much the same) for a while, which has
caused some bitterness in the past. BUT (shouting writing intentional)
there have been cases where it has gone the other way, where aquarists have
opened up their tanks to all with an interest, the result being threatened
species adorning community tanks with no intention of ever being bred.
The hoarders, all going well, have done us all a favour in keeping the
species alive. That being said and done, it would be nice to see even some
Coward Springs Desert Gobies here in the ACT ;) .
Regards, Andrew Boyd
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Andrew Boyd andrew at pcug.org.au http://www.pcug.org.au/~andrew
"For now have I entered the Heart of Darkeness, when all hands turn
against me, and seek to take my life."
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