Steve wrote: >Maintaining quality bloodlines/identifications is crucial to the long term >sustainability of a strain in the hobby. It's doubtful that aquarium apisto >stocks will ever be required to re-populate lost wild populations. However, >given the unstable nature of the political climate in many south american >countries and the flar flung collecting locales of some species, you never >know when the latest import will be the last. Species conservation for at >least the hobby sake is a worthwhile goal, is there any organization >willing to take the lead in supporting such effort? >- Steve Waldron Steve--What organizations come to mind? The first one that comes to my mind is the Apistogramma Study Group, yet they are poorly represented on this list. The communication medium necessary to keep track of who wants to raise what species and who has what species is reduced to snailmail (U.S. Postal). Meetings once a year won't make this happen either if hobbyist participation is required. ______________________________________________________