but your convention and Roy's visit (is it such a mess?:->>)
seems to take you so much time that nobody except Chris
answered on my question who would want to get involved
into a Species Maintenance Project. I can't remember who
was it but he was right, we have to know which species is
endangered (not only in nature but also in aquariums) before
we can start such a program. But additionally and in a parallel
way we can also try to estimate if there are any people who would
try to conserve species for five or ten years or even longer.
So anybody who would like to get involved into a SMP project
should at least post a note. If only two people do so, it's nothing
for us now. However, before you answer to the question above
please make yourself sure that it will cost you money and
time to become involved into such a SMP project.
Harro
harro.hieronimus at t-online.de
Harro, the RSG has finally started a real species maintenance program. You
should have gotten the list with our last newsletter. Some of us have been
keeping the same species of rainbowfish going for the last dozen years. Others
can't be counted on to keep any species for longer than 2 years. The sad fact
of the matter is that unless it's a pretty good looking fish people don't want
to take the time to keep it going. M. oktediensis wasn't considered commercial
enough over here for one of our members who had it so he let it go. I believe
that was the last hobbyist to have it. Although I had sent out several batches
of fry in my talks around the country it appears that all that had them either
lost them or lost interest. Another problem seems to be that many aquarists
just don't seem to have the tank space to devote to something like this. How
many people, even on this list have over a dozen tanks and also have the space
to raise fry? I would venture a guess that it's less than 25%. That number
drops even lower when you look at <any> membership as a whole, eg the RSG, IRG,
or ANGFA. I certainly think that it's a worthwhile effort to set up lists and
to try and keep many of these fishes going. If you have some particular
rainbows in mind email me and let's see what we can get going.
Gary Lange
gwlang at ccmail.monsanto.com