RE: NANFA-L-- Re: Chinese Sturgeon on AquaBid

matt ashton (ashtonmj2003-in-yahoo.com)
Wed, 10 May 2006 14:10:24 -0700 (PDT)

This is really really long and I am headed out the door but I will write a full comment about this tonight. There is alot I can clarify straight from the horses mouth about the details of the barrens topminnow. I also need to talk to you about your conversation with the TWRA official because they are DEAD wrong amongst other things. I also w

"J. C." <hillbillynursery-in-yahoo.com> wrote: Warning going to be long.

What bothers me is the wild caught and endangered
status of this fish.

If someone was to collect an endangered species
legally and get it to reproduce in captivity the
offspring should be spread to others who could
reproduce them. You all know the old rule of not
putting all your eggs in one basket. This is a good
reason to spread the fish to others. A good example is
the Barrens topminnow. It is very endangered and all
atemps-in-restocking has not been successful. The
problem is an indrouced specie(mosquetoe fish). My
understanding is the breed very well in captivity to
the point that few fish are raised from the ammount of
eggs they produce. Why not allow an agency like the
AKA to distibute them to people who breed these type
of fish to insure a better chance of them being
around.

But the sturgeon even if paired properly would be
very hard if not impossible to reproduce in captivity
by a hobbiest due to size. The killies mentioned above
are small and known to breed easy in captivity. I know
of fish that can be released and do good when grown
properly in captivity.

So I see a bad and good side to letting hobbiest in
on the production. I know that the fish need to be
aquired legally and not me going and collecting them
from the wild thinking I am doing some good. I know
the program for the Barrens topminnow has several
populations and has split them up so they can prevent
inbreeding. I am limited on space but I know I could
maintain and produce a single line of them. If you
spread out the lines to several people and a disaster
hit the breeding facility all would not be lost.

I also know about genetic drift and even fish with
the same genetics showing different phenotypes when
grown in different inviroments. The drift problem is
solved by larger numbers of breeders. The phenotype
problem though is harder to address but is only a
problem is will releasing the new phenotype which may
not survive well in the wild enviroment. I currently
have a fish either showing some recessive trait or a
genetic drift in one of my species of killifish. I
like the new color and plan on seperating him and
giving him a few females and see if I can line breed
the color. But that is for aquarium use and not
releasing them.

I think aquabid needs some requirements for
protecting itself even more from such stupid things
like this sturgeon. I know my endangered killifish
specie was collected before the habitat was destroyed.
I would hate to see that I could not see eggs of this
specie on aquabid. But I would take the missing of a
few sales to protect the site and its future if it
would not allow any endanger species.

Matt and all,

I asked the local game wardens about collecting
minnows for aquarium use, for fishing, and selling.
They were dumb founded by my questions. I got way to
amny I do not know and they finally gave me a number
to call. The number was to Crossville TN office. To
follow are some of the things I found out according to
the person I talked to. I can legally collect the
barren topminnow and use it as bait for fishing with a
regular fishing license. The reason given was to few
of the endangered species get collected by a person
collecting a few minnows to fish with that it outways
the expense of trying to police this action and train
each person what is and what is not endangered. For
home aquarium use it is illegal to collect this fish
knowingly. But if you collected it without knowledge
for personal use said that it would be unlikely cause
charges to be filed. But if you get a lincense to sell
minnows you are to train yourself as to which species
can be collected and sold as bait fish. There is no
way of selling the species which are legal to have in
aquariums in the state of TN. But you can give the
fish away to people in states the fish are allowed.
The loop hole is if I collect a legal to have in
aquarium specie and raise offspring from them the
offspring are legal to be sold on this end but some
states will not allow these species due to fear of
them getting released and mixing with the local
species simular to them and spreading disease.

What I found out that really got me upset is a
fisherman can catch and use this endangered fish for
bait. But according to the person I talked to boiled
down to money and man power vs. the impact and chance
of the endangered species getting caught.

I am sure money is the seller on aquabids main
interest. Those of us on this list are enviroment
friendly for the most part or we would just keep
tropical fish instead. I know many of you rather
snorkel and see the fish in their native waters as
well. Just more proof of our conservationist ways.

BTW I have not caught another minnow like the one I
had over a year ago that I thought maybe the Barren
Topmiinow. I have netted the area couple times last
year. I hope to take a picture if I ever catch another
fish like that for better id as the state said they
would be interested in knowing of another location.

--- Bruce Stallsmith wrote:

> >Does anyone have a good explanation for the
> behavior that has piqued
> >Dustin's curiosity below? What is it about the
> attempted sale of an
> >individual Chinese sturgeon that has us so upset?
> If I had attempted to
> >sell an endangered Mexican goodeid, would the
> reaction have been the
> >same? Why or why not?
>

John Cox of Cumberland Killifish
Honey Robber beekeeping and removal services

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