Devil's Hole Pupfish

[Watcher74]

Less than 400 in the world! And apparently has been around that many for thousands of years.

http://www.death-valley.us/article107.html

http://www.death-valley.us/article1093.html

In one of those articles it mentioned:

"It is hoped that techniques can be developed that will allow artificial propagation of the Devil's Hole pupfish in aquaria providing one more safeguard for this endangered species."

If they manage that I'll set up a 75 gallon tank for Pupfish alone.

I wonder how much they'd cost...

 

[TheMightyQueenPixie]

Pretty little fish...

 

[125gJoe]

Less than 400 in the world! And apparently has been around that many for thousands of years.... ...
I wonder how much they'd cost...

The "mudminnow" on top would cost much less...

They look very similar - at least to me they do...

Link: http://borntoexplore.org/aquarium/mummichog.htm

 

[Watcher74]

Well it's not about looks, Joe.

It's about the fact that these little critters can have a self-sustaining colony lasting for tens of thousands of years due to all the genetic variety in such a tiny number of fish.

With just a starting colony of around 10 of these fish, you can make an entire self-sustaining group of them. No worrying about the harms of inbreeding.

And the story that they carry.

That's what makes these guys so special.

 

[Mako]

I remember seeing a Discovery channel show on these one day. They're hyper little jokers. I have a pupfish at the house, but it's a common one called "sheepshead minnow". Not common to catch, they're fast and don't occur in huge numbers like mudminnow (Fundulus heteroclitus or F. lineatus) but they are neat little animals once you have one or two. Oddly, even the native SC sheepshead minnow can handle, supposedly, 3X or 4X the salt concentration of the ocean, and pretty high temps.

Here's a good image (not my pic)
www.angelfire.com/ ny5/mikk/fish/shm.jpg