Why Are We Beating Ourselves Up

[jayjay]

we're getting abit of subject lol oh well.

i couldn't count how many fish are in my pond they breed every spring so it's practicly impossible to get the exact number of fish in there it's over 2600 U.S g about 2400 U.K g i think. and i have 4 indoor tanks, 3 tropical 1 coldwater.the coldwater tank has one goldfish that's soon moving to the pond.

good luck with your tank

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Hmm, never knew that WCMM's were extinct/almost extinct in the wild . What a shame. But then again, despite being very hardy little fish, i can understand why they are dying out- requiring cool fresh fast flowing mountain streams and everything to breed & thrive in. The adult fish are probably not very much effected by the polutants in the water, but rather their eggs and fry are, and are simply failing to reach maturity.

I have 9 of the beautiful little fish myself. Hoping to move them into a 125gal tank with a heap of danios eventually and turn it into a sub tropical tank (WCMM, despite popular belief, are sub-tropical fish and not tropical or coldwater ones, they thrive in temps between 18 and 23 degrees)- from what i have heard, WCMM's are relatively simple to breed and very similar to many of te danio species out there in their requirements.
I think it would be a nice thing to breed these fish especially considering their wild population issues...

 

[jayjay]

if your planning on breeding them, there are many articles on it out there. i've read a few just can't remember where lol.

hope you have good luck with them

 

[dwarfgourami]

I don't suppose there is much risk in them totally dying out in captivity, more degenerating to the point where they would no longer be fit to be reintroduced to their original habitat. (Unless I am mistaken, the White Cloud Mountain is just outside Guangzhou in southern China, which looks a horrendously filthy place, so this might take some time).

So a good breeding programme would need to concentrate on producing:

fish that are physically as close to their wild ancestors as possible (so no encouraging of fancy flowing fins etc)

healthy fish (no inbreeding, preventing less fit individuals from breeding)

fish that are fit enough for a cool fast flowing environment (avoid inbreeding, let only the healthy fish breed, raise fry under suitable conditions for them to grow strong and fit= cool tank+good current)

 

[Miss Wiggle]

never knew the were extinct in the wild

they are hardy little buggers tho, must have been v v v polluted, my big sis had one of them teeny tanks with them in when we were younger, no filter, heater anything like that from what I remember. She thought they had all died and just stuck the tank in the garage, didn't empty/clean it or anything like that, my Dad was cleaning out the garage about 4/5 years later, saw the tank, was about to clear it out and saw something moving. Cleaned up the tank carefully (he's kept fish for yrs so knew what he was doing) and there were 5/6 in there still alive! He rescued them, got them a decent tank and took good care of them from then on and the last of them only just died about a year ago. Dunno how many generations they were but they lasted about 10 yrs in total!! I've always been amazed they managed to exist just as they were, lord only knows what they were eating?!?!