> The problem could be easily solved by breeding welaka so that nobody
> needs to collect them in the wild. This has prooved in many other
> species, e.g. the reptiles and amphibia from Madagascar. Since they
> are restricted from export the numbers of captive bred offspring has
> raised remarkably.
That's the crux of the issue. I want to be able to provide fish to people who are truly capable of breeding them, but except for a
handful of well-known breeders (who haven't petitioned me for fish) a lot of folks want to try their hand at it, for which I don't blame
them, but I think there is too much pressure on this fish to justify shipping them willy-nilly.
> Has the person from the museum verified other factors, e.g. the floods
> this summer, pollution (which is not rare as I learned from NANFA and
> NFC), invaders a.s.o.?
I can't discount seasonal factors, as I have found that in certain locations welaka come and go. Mike is an aquarist at the museum,
not one of the research staff, so this information should be regarded as anecdotal. But there is good reason to believe that the range
IS declining due to a variety of stressors.
Prost,
Martin
-- The people in the village were real poor, so none of the children had any toys. But this one little boy had gotten an old enema bag and filled it with rocks, and he would go around and whap the other children across the face with it. Man, I think my heart almost broke. Later the boy came up and offered to give me the toy. This was too much! I reached out my hand, but then he ran away. I chased him down and took the enema bag. He cried a little, but that's the way of these people. /----------------------------------------------------------------------------- /"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily / reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes / Association" / This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes Association / nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word / subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to / nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to / nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead. / For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org