Re: NANFA-L-- FW: Desert pupfish story from the L.A. Times

Peter Unmack (peter.lists at)
Tue, 22 Mar 2005 18:33:41 -0600 (CST)

On Tue, 22 Mar 2005, matt ashton wrote:

> I just visited the NC state zoo in Asheville where they had a gorgeous
> display of Devil's Hole Pupfish. Amazing blue colors and just a general
> appreciation for the fact I got to see them, in the wild or not. Got
> some nice pictures.

A few minor corrections if I may. :-)

First of all, place names in the United States never use apostrophes,
although this is a little know fact. (There are supposedly 3 place names
or so that are exceptions to this, I forget where, but they are rather
obscure).

Secondly, there are no Devils Hole pupfish in captivity due to the fact
that no one has been able to successfully rear virtually any ever. And
they are so rare that they just don't hand any out for people to play with
relative to trying to get captive reproduction.

Relative to the article, the "desert pupfish" is a specific kind of
pupfish, Cyprinodon macularius, thus it shouldn't be used to refer to
pupfishes in general (many of them live in the desert though, it's a bad
common name for C. macularius). Also, there are not five species in Death
Valley, there are only three. Cypinodon diabolis, C. salinus which has
two marginally different subspecies, salinus and milleri, and C.
nevadensis which has six subspecies in the Death Valley system (one is
extinct). Additionally, if you plan to visit, go out with the Desert
Springs Action Committee (http://www.pupfish.net/dsac) and see them up
close and get to fondle some too! We'll be out in Ash Meadows again
around Columbus Day weekend. Casper keeps threatening to come along. :-)

Ok, I'll stop being nit picky for a little while. Any publicity for
native fishes, especially pupfish is good publicity.

Tootles
Peter
/-----------------------------------------------------------------------
/ This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes
/ Association (NANFA). Comments made on this list do not necessarily
/ reflect the beliefs or goals of NANFA. For more information about NANFA,
/ visit http://www.nanfa.org Please make sure all posts to nanfa-l are
/ consistent with the guidelines as per
/ http://www.nanfa.org/guidelines.shtml To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get
/ help, visit the NANFA email list home page and archive at
/ http://www.nanfa.org/email.shtml