NATHAN HILL
The chances are that you have something in your tank that’s threatened in the wild, and you just don’t know it. Maybe it’s time we all took conservation more seriously.
WHAT DO Russia, Ukraine, the USA, the UK, China, Indonesia, France, Switzerland, Turkey, Israel, Rwanda and Mexico all have in common? In 2020, each of those countries lost a fish species. And that’s not even the complete list of countries. In total, 80 species of freshwater fish were driven to extinction last year, and this year we’ll certainly lose even more.
Welcome one, welcome all...
As fishkeepers, we live something of a grotesque paradox. The hobby is all about enjoyment and feeling good, while the species many of us keep could tell us tales of the terrible natural trauma.
What’s the IUCN Red List status of all of the fish in your aquarium now? I’ll put money on you not knowing, and I don’t say that smugly. I don’t know mine either.
One third of all freshwater fish are currently threatened by extinction, and there are over 2000 more where the data simply doesn’t exist, or is contradictory. In some instances, a fish considered threatened by some scientists might be officially categorised as ‘least concern’ by others, such as recently happened in the case of Corydoras hephaestus, a gorgeous flame-finned species with a notably limited range and very specific environments.
I’m not picking a fight or trying to shame anyone with this, but the chances are that you have fish in your own tanks that are threatened. Red-tailed black sharks, anyone? They were considered extinct in the wild until a single specimen cropped up a few years ago. How about White Cloud Mountain minnows? Practically extinct in the wild, and once believed to be completely so for decades, yet possibly one of the most abundant species in the hobby. That in itself is a testament to farming efforts, but the ‘victory’ of abundance seems somehow tainted with callousness — we took the original fish from the wild, then we bred them and made them our own while the habitat that originally produced them was destroyed by pollution. The fish may have huge populations, yet it still feels like the opposite of a success.
And yet while we celebrate the evergrowing choice of fishes available, we seem more disconnected than ever to the reality of their conservation.
This is a topic that has come closer to my heart in the wake of two recent events.
The first was the publication of the World Forgotten Fishes report — Google it and read the pdf if you haven’t already.
The second was my taking on a new role as an advisor to Shoal, a freshwater fishes conservation group. Between these two sobering experiences, I wonder if it is time that we as aquarists should do more to give back to the wildernesses that are ultimately the original source of our entire hobby. While it’s bad, it isn’t all doom and gloom. There are hobby successes out there that are worth touting. The Tequila splitfin that you met on page 30 is one species that has been reintroduced to the wild. At one stage it was considered extinct in the wild, yet now the population looks to be growing, the result of volunteer home aquarists sustaining the species.
From that I think we can imagine a future where we all do more to help. We need a central hub in order to share information about endangered fish, for those aquarists who want to help conserve stocks — somewhere to record bloodlines and disseminate information. If PFK and Shoal can collaborate to become that central hub, then I’d sure as heck like to try it out.
All we need now is more breeders.