Re: wild-caught fish -Reply

[swaldron@slip.net (Steven J. Waldron)]

>Someone want to volunteer to receive email lists of who has what?  Seems to me
>to be a good place to start.  Should we start with Apistogramma, or get bold
>and go for the whole enchilada of that we have Arbitrarily tagged as "Dwarf
>Cichlids?
>
>If someone has a list of all currently valid species of any Genus containing
>dwarves (boy, am I asking for it!!!), except Apistogrammoides, I think I can
>handle that one, send it my way.  I'll paste it into a file in my word
>processor and see where it takes me.  In a few weeks we should have a pretty
>good list.  From there we can pick some of the less commonly collected
>species, and drawing from the examples of other groups efforts, develop a
>program.  I realize this may not be as fast as a live conference, but it is
>faster than snailmail, and at least it is a start.
>
>Bob Dixon
>
Bob,
I commend your interest. To let you know and not to reinvent the wheel I
believe there is a captive maintenance organization (Aquatic Conservation
something or other) that has outlined methods for establishing such a
program. I have a copy of some of this literature around somewhere and will
post more specific information later. A few points for now:

Goals: Since we have already determined wholesale apisto extinction is not
imminent, we should try to come up with criteria of which fish to consider.
Not all apisto species are really of interest for a species maintenance
program (e.g. A. cacatuoides "double red") and are assured a place in the
commercial end of the hobby. With regards to species selection, here's what
I think we should limit ourselves to: (a) species/morphs that have
potential to be threatened by limited distributions (e.g. Apisto.
njisseni?) (b) species that rarely appear in the trade due to collecting
logistics (e.g. Apisto. viejita) (c) Morphs with verifiable, first-hand,
accurate collecting locale data. (d) Any fish in the regani group.
The last one was a joke, but meant to emphasize a point: the bright
colorful apistos are probably assured a place in our tanks, but what about
those a little dim in scale color, but equally interesting aquarium
subjects? There will always be a place in my fish room for A. caetei- if I
can ever find some....

I think we should include West africans as well. As a number of people are
keeping these and if the Pelviacachromis, Nanochromis etc. situation is
anything like what I've heard for killies, many of these morphs could very
well be endangered. Also, it would be nice to set standards for taeniatus
morphs. The recent bandewouri-wouri confusion (o.k. maybe my own personal
confusion) testifies to the possibility that some shaky names for these
morphs are floating around. A taeniatus morph standard would be a great
reference for all Pelvicachromis enthusiasts. My dos pesos...
- - Steve W.