> My point exactly, it would be nessesary to bring in more "fresh" stock
>periodicaly. Bringing them in from OZ/PNG would of course be the best
>thing of all, but I thought that would be tough, especialy from PNG. Am
>I wrong about that, or is the door ajar these days (ie. Roy's trip)?
Australia has opened considerably, but some of the fish are so remote
its almost impossible to collect i.e. M. pygmaea
As to what comes out of PNG & Irian Jaya, that's even more remote, and
with legal issues coming into play. Many fish have only been collected
once and all our stock has came from that original small group. Still
some of these fish have stayed in fantastic shape by people who cared
to up keep the species. Others haven't fared so well and we may never
get another short at them.
Many species have been successfully maintained over the long term. The
point is to work to keep them in the wild form and not into a manmade
form. With enough people working together, sufficient numbers can be
kept and long term viability can be achieved. We've just continued to
genetically bottle necked the species we keep, because too few people
kept them or worked together.
I recently read an article from Associated Press about The UN's
program with endangered and threaten animals. It stated that at
present 34% of the known species of fish are threatened with
extinction, from deforestation, human expansion, and the resulting
habitat degradation. How long do you think we'll even have the option
of going back to the wild for new stock?
Cary Hostrawser
My Rainbowfish Home Page
http://pw2.netcom.com/~caryho/home.html
Rainbowfish Study Group Web Page
http://home.stlnet.com/~gwlange/rainbowfish.index.html