>Also, as I have now purchased (1/2 share) in a CDROM writer, I can permanently archive data when the volume becomes sufficient and make copies available at nominal cost (about $12/copy)... [Bruce ... after Chrismas I will start to SERIOUSLY look at putti
ng Fishes of Sahul onto CDROM....I promise!).
Sounds great to me. I wouldn't mind having all the Sahul on CDROM.
Then I could possibly afford all those back issues that came out
before I joined ANGFA. Probably wouldn't hurt to get the Bulletins on
CDROM also.
>I suspect Andrew Boyd and I can come to some arrangement on collating the existing data on collections if you banana benders are happy to release a copy to us.
If we could tie a few collections back to the data it may not be too
late to put the coding onto some of the fish out their. We probably
wouldn't want to go too far back, but some collections like the two
M. pygmea collections should be fairly clear yet even after a number
of years.
>Now if we can just get serious about a species maintenance program and tie the two together.....
Ya need to slowly put all the pieces together to make a whole program.
This should be another tool to help manage such a program. So far in
RSG we have only gotten a census but together. I'm about to send out
another census form to the members and hopefully begin getting members
willing to work together to adopt and maintain a species or two each.
I'm hoping for small groups, at least two people and preferably 4, to
take ownership in a species. They would trade stocks to maintain the
diversity and hopefully pass eggs and fish outside the group to
increase the overall populations. The group maintaining the species
would also hopefully commit to taking care of the adopted species for
many years to come.
If I can't get enough interest in that yet, at least the census
reports lets us know the status of the fish out there. What we have,
what we lost, and what's in only one or two persons hands. With this
in hand at least we know which fish we have to be very careful with.
Cary Hostrawser
Minnesota Aquarium Society
http://www.mn-aquarium.org/
Rainbowfish Study Group of North America
http://home.earthlink.net/~sbuckel/index.html