Re: NANFA-L-- California Natives - They're All Threatened or

Bruce Stallsmith (fundulus-in-hotmail.com)
Tue, 23 Aug 2005 18:20:05 -0400

John, I suspect you're talking about Barrens Topminnows, Fundulus julisia.
Pat Rakes of Conservation Fisheries, Inc. in Knoxville did a widespread
survey for them several years ago, and as you know they've pretty much
disappeared from most of their original range. They may be down to two
springs, maybe three, all on private land. For a variety of reasons they
don't have federal protection, but the state of Tennessee extended some
level of protection to the species (I forget which off the top of my head).
If you found a new (or rediscovered, really) site that would be impressive.
Breeding this species is not a major challenge, the CFI people have produced
lots of them and I think there's still an exhibit-in-the Chattanooga
Aquarium with lots of them. Habitat protection is the name of the game, and
there are limited sticks to use on private landowners (like, almost none).
One of the ironies with this species is that a major threat to their springs
has been tree farmers raising saplings to be distributed through the
National Arbor Day Foundation; many of these farmers are kinda slack with
their soil conservation efforts, which of course destroys key habitat for
this fish.

I hope you find Barrens topminnows, and not their common distant cousin the
northern studfish, F. catenatus.

--Bruce Stallsmith
it's all about spring systems near the Tennessee
Huntsville, AL, US of A

>From: "J. C." <hillbillynursery-in-yahoo.com>
>Reply-To: nanfa-l-in-nanfa.org
>To: nanfa-l-in-nanfa.org
>Subject: Re: NANFA-L-- California Natives - They're All Threatened or
>Endangered
>Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2005 14:22:11 -0700 (PDT)
>
> Hi Jerry,
>
> I have been trying to catch/find a fish locally that
>is endangered. My reason is I want to raise them in
>aquaria for rerelease. According to my local wildlife
>people they are extinct in my county. But I think I
>caught one a few years back. If I can prove they are
>still here and show a high quality fish room the state
>will allow me to raise them in aquaria. I am not a
>native fish buff like alot of the people on this list.
>But I am a killifish nut and there are alot of native
>killifish that I would like to keep.
>
> I think I made one person upset with me because I am
>trying to catch and photograph and endangered fish
>good enough to prove they are still here. After you
>give the state photo proof they will send in the group
>over this fish(currently in Chattanooga and near
>Knoxville) to try and catch some of the fish for
>breeding in aquariums to release. They do let the
>public raise the fish for them. But I think what gets
>under alot of peoples dander about this is you are
>removing some of the few that are in the wild to begin
>the process. Right now the conservation effort has a
>few different locations. I just want this area better
>protected. I want the cattle fenced out. The cattle do
>not need to get to the spring pool. They has access to
>the whole river(which I understand in not good for the
>river either). Very little of the vegatation that used
>to be in this pool is still there. I went back to this
>pool to get an aquatic plant I had in my tanks years
>ago to find it no longer there when I started getting
>back into fish(college stopped my hobby, wife and kids
>kept me from getting back into it sooner).
>
> I am awaiting a settlement for a back injury. I
>plan on building a house with a full basement. The
>basement is going to be one large fish room. The
>property has a 35 X 80 barn which part of will be used
>in warm weather for fish. I also plan to have 10 500
>gallon concrete tanks outside for summer use. Alot of
>people say I am nuts but I used to make alot of
>spending cash from a few 10 gallon tanks inside and
>about 15 cast iron bath tubs out in the woods. My idea
>is to raise tropical aquarium fish for proffit.
>
> BTW marbles are the best substrate for some fish.
>The eggs slide off the round structure of the marble
>and get down so the adults can not eat the eggs. When
>raising barbs I used tanks with 3 marbles deep as the
>substrate with a corner air suplied box filter. These
>tanks did get did get regular water changes and the
>adults were not in them very long-in-a time. I hate
>the bright colored fixtures like your pink castle
>quote. My wife has a bright pink/green/blue cave thing
>in the kids goldfish tank. The sunken ship with a
>bubble opening chest can look cool if in the right
>tank, but my tanks are drift wood and alot of aquarium
>plants with pea gravel as my substrate. Most of my
>killifish breeding tanks are bare except for the
>breeding mop or container of peat moss for deposit of
>eggs with no filtration(killifish in general do not
>like water movement). With no filtration I am doing
>30% water changes every 2 days on 10 gallon tanks with
>2 to 6 guppy sized fish in them.
>
> So do not let a few people puffing up-in-you for
>wanting to do this stop you. If they will not listen
>to reason that you are really looking out for the
>fishes well being just walk away or delete the emails.
>
> Later, John TN
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