Conserving Denison's barb and few other endangered fish

[elephantnose3334]

How would someone conserve Denison's barb, Somphong's rasbora and the Sierra Leone dwarf characin? Is there a way to save those species from extinction? And how can I breed them?

 

[GaryE]

A proper home conservation project involves a lot of space. The late Roger Langton, a phenomenal killie conservationist and breeder suggested you begin with 18 to 21 aquariums of different sizes, depending on function, per species. You then would link those tank set ups with similar ones, forming a network of aquarium conservationists who would stay in communication and work together to make sure their project continued longterm.

In this hobby, most people have stopped breeding fish and become consumers. I don't know of any hobby networks. There are some on paper, like the CARES project, but like all volunteer run processes, they are unravelling slowly.

You can go to serious sites like seriouslyfish for info on how to breed species. They are missing a lot of the less common fish in the hobby, but they are a good project with solid information.

It sounds discouraging, but what needs to be saved is the habitat that gave rise to and sustains these species. That is not easy to do.

 

[elephantnose3334]

A proper home conservation project involves a lot of space. The late Roger Langton, a phenomenal killie conservationist and breeder suggested you begin with 18 to 21 aquariums of different sizes, depending on function, per species. You then would link those tank set ups with similar ones, forming a network of aquarium conservationists who would stay in communication and work together to make sure their project continued longterm.

In this hobby, most people have stopped breeding fish and become consumers. I don't know of any hobby networks. There are some on paper, like the CARES project, but like all volunteer run processes, they are unravelling slowly.

You can go to serious sites like seriouslyfish for info on how to breed species. They are missing a lot of the less common fish in the hobby, but they are a good project with solid information.

It sounds discouraging, but what needs to be saved is the habitat that gave rise to and sustains these species. That is not easy to do.

Yes. How many species did Roger breed?

 

[GaryE]

I have no idea. I never met him, but I read everything I could find from him. With time, I met many people who had worked with him, and he seems to have been a good man. He knew his stuff, and was very optimistic about how the aquarium hobby could help endangered or extinct in nature fish.

He's been dead for a long time now, and was looking into these issues when very few people had even considered their importance. He was well ahead of his time. He did a lot of work with CITES, the protocol about the traffic in endangered species, and convinced those in charge to allow the sale of killifish as he believed hobbyists would conserve them. Unfortunately, hobbyists didn't and now many killies can't be sold internationally.

Why would it matter how many species he bred?

 

[elephantnose3334]

I have no idea. I never met him, but I read everything I could find from him. With time, I met many people who had worked with him, and he seems to have been a good man. He knew his stuff, and was very optimistic about how the aquarium hobby could help endangered or extinct in nature fish.

He's been dead for a long time now, and was looking into these issues when very few people had even considered their importance. He was well ahead of his time. He did a lot of work with CITES, the protocol about the traffic in endangered species, and convinced those in charge to allow the sale of killifish as he believed hobbyists would conserve them. Unfortunately, hobbyists didn't and now many killies can't be sold internationally.

Why would it matter how many species he bred?

Because I wanted to know how many he bred during conservation projects. But I do understand about the breeding and sale of killies.

 

[Lateral Line]

Space is usually the issue. The basics, keeping males and females separately, and a tank in which to do the spawning already requires three. The fry are invariably very small but grow, they soon require extra tanks. Then you have some fish of a desirable species, at a reasonable size, that you can "sell", ie. you can arrange to take a couple of dozen to a shop, and maybe get a nice pot of TetraMin in exchange, but your "stock" is mostly still there, growing, eating...
A local aquarist society might be interested, for swapping breeders around etc. but, from experience, I can tell you that your tanks will invariably end up, somewhat over crowded, with one or two species, with nowhere to go.
That is why I stopped.

 

[Colin_T]

From a conservation perspective, if you can get 20+ pairs of fish (preferably unrelated) and keep a pair per tank. You breed each pair in that tank, then move one of the pr (either male or female) into the next tank and breed them in that tank. You basically take each female and pair them up with each male. Once you have done the 20 cycles, you start over.

You Keep records of which parents the offspring in this tank came from. You try to grow the fish up as quick as possible so you can get rid of them to make room for the next batch of fry.

Separate prs in individual tanks is fine for some species but schooling fishes prefer to be in groups. However, if you don't have numbers to work with, then separate prs in each tank is something you have to do even if the fish don't like it.

--------------------

When I was breeding rainbowfish, I had 4 foot tanks with around 20 adult fish in from several species. The adults lived there and when I want to breed them, I moved a pair into a 2ft tank for about a week. I removed the adults and reared up the fry in the tank. Under good conditions most common aquarium fishes can reach 2 inches in 2-3 months and can be sold in 2-3 months after they hatch.

Sometimes I would mix fry from different batches and grow them up together. This was more common if a pr only produced a few young. I would put them in a rearing tank with similar sized young that looked completely different.

I would breed some common species every month and other species several times a year. The stuff that didn't sell as well was bred less often because there wasn't a big market for them. The better selling fishes were bred regularly and I could unload lots of them.

--------------------

Most rasboras and barbs are similar for breeding purposes.
Feed 3-5 times a day for several weeks before breeding.
Separate males & females for 5 days before breeding.
Put a pair in a breeding tank with soft slightly acid water.
Have Java Moss and an air operated sponge filter in the tank, (heater too if needed).
Leave pr in tank for a day or two and then remove them.
Wait for the babies.

More info at link below

Back to Basics when Breeding Fish

STARTING OUT Make sure you have a pair, (1 male + 1 female). There is nothing worse than spending your hard-earned dollars buying a couple of fish to try and breed and ending up with a pair of fish of the same sex. Let's face it, to reproduce fish you need a male and a female. Two males won't do...

www.fishforums.net

 

[elephantnose3334]

From a conservation perspective, if you can get 20+ pairs of fish (preferably unrelated) and keep a pair per tank. You breed each pair in that tank, then move one of the pr (either male or female) into the next tank and breed them in that tank. You basically take each female and pair them up with each male. Once you have done the 20 cycles, you start over.

You Keep records of which parents the offspring in this tank came from. You try to grow the fish up as quick as possible so you can get rid of them to make room for the next batch of fry.

Separate prs in individual tanks is fine for some species but schooling fishes prefer to be in groups. However, if you don't have numbers to work with, then separate prs in each tank is something you have to do even if the fish don't like it.

--------------------

When I was breeding rainbowfish, I had 4 foot tanks with around 20 adult fish in from several species. The adults lived there and when I want to breed them, I moved a pair into a 2ft tank for about a week. I removed the adults and reared up the fry in the tank. Under good conditions most common aquarium fishes can reach 2 inches in 2-3 months and can be sold in 2-3 months after they hatch.

Sometimes I would mix fry from different batches and grow them up together. This was more common if a pr only produced a few young. I would put them in a rearing tank with similar sized young that looked completely different.

I would breed some common species every month and other species several times a year. The stuff that didn't sell as well was bred less often because there wasn't a big market for them. The better selling fishes were bred regularly and I could unload lots of them.

--------------------

Most rasboras and barbs are similar for breeding purposes.
Feed 3-5 times a day for several weeks before breeding.
Separate males & females for 5 days before breeding.
Put a pair in a breeding tank with soft slightly acid water.
Have Java Moss and an air operated sponge filter in the tank, (heater too if needed).
Leave pr in tank for a day or two and then remove them.
Wait for the babies.

More info at link below

Back to Basics when Breeding Fish

STARTING OUT Make sure you have a pair, (1 male + 1 female). There is nothing worse than spending your hard-earned dollars buying a couple of fish to try and breed and ending up with a pair of fish of the same sex. Let's face it, to reproduce fish you need a male and a female. Two males won't do...

www.fishforums.net

That's a good link. I'm learning all about fish breeding and other stuff.