save the rare fish!

Interesting read. Aren't some of these in some of our member's tanks?

http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/mobile/content.php?sid=6270

Well, I was a bit interested in what this Skiffia was that I hadn't heard of before.... It seems that people aren't quite sure what it may be but it is leaning towards a variety of S. multipunctata, although initially it was considered S. francesae.... I currently have a colony of the first, but still waiting to get some of the second.... It can be a bit frustrating when there are species quite similar and called different things by different scientists. I am currently trying to get more thoughts and hopefully concrete decisions on some Ilyondon Namely whether I. furcidens and I. xantusi are the same fish and I. whitei and I. lennoni are also the same - I have read conflicting thoughts.... this one I'm sure Gary will chime in on....

I have grown quite cycnical about reintroduction. I only know of one - Xiphophorus couchianus - and there has been little news follow-up on how it has gone for them. The greatest threat to the fish we love is oil. Every fish in th oil zone of Nigeria is skating on thin ice, always. Add our ever expanding population, and our water use.... We prefer fountains and golf courses in Las Vegas to pupfish, oil to kribensis and Nigerian killies, exotic woods to wild Bettas, food fish to Haplochromines, soy farming to Amazon forests - as a species, a few of us talk preservation, but we are destroying habitat at an accelerated rate. A fish outside of its habitat is a friendly zombie.

I see my endangered fish as tools for education. Zoogoneticus tequila is beautiful, in a lumpy way, and maybe if we can keep them we'll take the time to learn about and respect the world that made them. Am I saving them for reintroduction? No. I have fishtanks in a house in Canada. I could have a power blackout, a fire, a flood, a health crisis - I may even be mortal.
Plus. my breeding population hovers around 30 fish. It has for more than a decade. 300 is the bare minumum for genetic diversity.

Now, for Ilyodon... the mini bass. As an aquarist - I'm a lumper. I'd throw fish together in one species. As I learn more, I am more of a splitter - to understand nature I think we have a lot more species out there than we admit yet. So the endless division of similar species under new names actually brings something - if it's based on DNA work, biogeography and sound science. It can make us understand how complex evolution is. So Ilyodon whitei, lennoni, furcidens...
As aquarium fish, I hated them. They grew too big, barged around and wrecked everyhing I planned. As species, I can't have an opinion. I don't have the tools. If researchers say they are distinct, I'd keep 'em apart and enjoy them.
I have an acquaintance who is an Ichthyologist/researcher with one of my favourite groups of fish. He has very compelling arguments why what is currently one species, and what looks like one species to my eye is really three, and he is working on a revision of the names based on that. He's looking at things I don't see - dissecting the fish, analyzing DNA, etc. I figure whatever he produces, I'll roll with.