Fish Conservation/Restoration

[monsteridea]

Hi,

I was just curious if anyone has ever tried to help with fish conservation or restoration with species in their local area? I've recently run across this idea and it has piqued some interest in me.

For starters, I have emailed my state's DNR representatives and asked them for information. Still waiting on a reply.

I've also researched into what sort of species of fish are endangered, the cypress minnow or banded killifish (Illinois) seem relatively doable in a home aquarium setting with their smaller size, but I'm still not to sure to go about it.

Has anyone had any experience with it? Or has known someone who has? Any information would be great.

[fort384]

Have not personally, but it sounds like something admirable to get involved in. Tell us your findings as you step through it

[monsteridea]

I sure will.

I may contact an Aquatic Research Center near by and see what is all necessary.

With the little research that I've done, supposedly killies can be a little harder to care for in an aquarium environment. I don't know what the scale is as what constitutes as "hard to care for" in the description. It just says "average aquarist."

I would have to hope that they are at least somewhat compatible with the fish I have. I would also have to make sure the tank resembles more of the what they would have in the wild. A sandy/muddy bottom with live plants would be the general... I'm not too sure about how I'm going to replicate that, unless I can add sand to my current set up?

Does anyone have experience with making their tank more sandy while there are fish in there already? I was thinking about doing more sandy anyways to properly cultivate more live plants. Currently, I have some Anacharis growing very well, but other species haven't done that well... I fear its a substrate depth issue.

Also, can play sand be good or harmful for fish? I have still have a lot of it left from designing the hermit crab tank.

I am also planning to test the water systems in the area, specifically streams and rivers, just for data collection purposes. Hopefully, it helps me out in other ways.

[MrPillow]

When I was working through my masters I worked heavily with TPWD in the gamefish rearing programs, concentrating mainly on documenting and supplementing red drum and spotted sea trout populations in the Upper Laguna Madre system. It was alot of interesting work and a very succesful program, unfortunately I wasn't allowed to expand any of it into my own personal aquariums!