> I still think we should attempt to maintain our stocks of aquarium-bred =
> Rainbowfishes even if they did only come from 3 or 4 fish. Perhaps they =
If all you have is 3 or 4 fish then that's all you can work with. Saving
90% of a genome is better than none of it!
> survival at least but hopefully not as much a pest.BTW has there been =
> any real environmental problems documented due to the Loach yet =
> (except the fact that it is there and it didn't use to be) as it was my =
> recollection from the ACT Conference that they hadn't been shown to have =
> done any damage yet.
I remember asking Mark Lintermans the same question a few years ago and
he said there may be some impact on Galaxias olidus around the ACT.
Since I don't have any of my Australian literature with me I can't give
any further info on that one. I know a large concern was that they may
predate on the eggs of species which lay on the substrate. Some places
get some pretty high densities at times (of loaches). I believe though,
that from the few world wide reports no major impacts have been noted.
However, one also needs to check the source of that broad generalisation
because sometimes these studies are flawed in various ways and wouldn't
detect some of the potential impacts. Also, studies tend not to look
beyone impacts to fish. What about the inverts?
Tootles
Peter Unmack