---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 13 Feb 1999 20:55:04 -0500
From: bockj <bockj at erols.com>
Reply-To: nanfa at aquaria.net
To: nanfa at aquaria.net
Subject: NANFA-- Re: nanfa V1 #165
I'm on the digest, and don't receive these messages individually. You guys
have definitely put out a lot of food for thought.
Regarding the propagation of endangered species in home aquariums:
This is a difficult situation with no easy answers. Captive breeding
presents problems. The first is introduction of disease. Who knows what
bugs your newly aquired captives might pick up from your home tanks. Even
though you may have them in species-only tanks, bacteria, viruses, and
whatnot might be lurking in the gravel or filter sponge, left over from the
tank's previous inhabitants. Who knows what they might do to your new
acquisitions? And even if they don't do anything to your new acquisitions,
they might lie dormant in these fish, and wreak havoc on some other species
in the wild.
Also, there's the problem of inbreeding. Basically, if you keep a
population together, and don't introduces any new fish, they get inbred.
And then there's the problem of outbreeding. If you try to prevent
inbreeding by bringing in captives from some distant location, you might be
impairing the genetic capacity of your original fish to survive in their
original habitat (if it's still there).
Still, if you receive fish from a place where there's no effort or thought
whatsoever to prevent their extinction, it makes sense to breed them,
because, as someone pointed out, there's no alternative to extinction.
I'd like to call for volunteers. You scientific types: can one of you (or
several of you) put together a document that non-academically trained
aquarists can follow if one of these threatened or extinct-in-the wild
species ever comes our way? (Has another club prepared such a document?)
Jay DeLong's article on Salmon breeding is a first step toward
accomplishing this, but we hobbyists need something more specific and
tailored to our situation.
While you're at it, you could probably take over NANFA's endangered species
breeding program, which has been crying for someone to take it over for a
long time.
Best Fishes,
Bob Bock
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
/ This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes Association
/ nanfa at aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word
/ subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to
/ nanfa-request at aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to
/ nanfa-digest-request at aquaria.net instead.
/ For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org