Rambling thoughts on SMP

[Frauley/Elson <fraulels@minet.ca>]

the crew of the Bounty that mutinied was not the
> genetic 'best of breed' either, since many were shanghaied from pubs,
> gaols, and other similar places. 

Hey! We're in trouble. I've got tankfuls of harem-keeping, brawling
apistos shanghaied from gutters and ditches living in my basement. :-}
To drop my (Canadian - 6 cents US) dime, I think the key to species
maintenance is to think about geological time. We're each just hiccoughs
in the big picture lifetime of these species. That, to me, is their
wonder.
So, whatever we do will be imperfect. If we decide to do it, we do it as
best we can, and learn from the process. We've barely begun to look at
these questions. DNA's a recent find, and what happens in the wild is
quite the question. 
TFH recently ran a killie article on Aphyosemion geryi. Part of it
talked about one local population, and showed photos of a 1979 and a
late 90s wild collection from the same body of water. It's worth a look.
If all we succeed in doing is to have some species going in the hobby,
so be it. If SMP efforts pay off in the case of a destroyed or restored
habitat, even better. 
I've been working on a species of killie which I've registered with the
AKA species maintenance cte. It may be common in its habitat, it may
not. It's rare in the hobby. I've distributed the fish as well as I
could, and I've been able to send specimens for DNA testing in a study
on aphyosemion. It's not much, it's not nothing.
I think it's a good initiative. It's easy for me to say, as I'm not back
into maintaining any apistos long term, after being largely wiped out by
an icestorm. When I am, I'll check it out.
In the meantime, interesting thread.
- -Gary