A non-reviewed article to watch for in the future: Assessing the CARES program

[bekateen]

Valdez, J.W. & Mandrekar, K. (2019). Assessing the Species in the CARES Preservation Program and the Role of Aquarium Hobbyists in Freshwater Fish Conservation. Preprints 2019, 2019070030 (doi: 10.20944/preprints201907.0030.v1).

https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/201907.0030/v1

ABSTRACT
Freshwater fish represent half of all fish species and are the most threatened vertebrate group. Given their considerable passion and knowledge, aquarium hobbyists can play a vital role in their conservation. CARES is made up of many hobbyist organizations, whose purpose is to encourage aquarium hobbyists to the most endangered or extinct-in-the-wild freshwater fish to help ensure their survival. We found the CARES priority list contains nearly six hundred species from twenty families and two dozen species extinct-in-the-wild. The major families were typically the ones with largest hobbyist affiliations such as killifish, livebearers, and cichlids; which alone were half of CARES species. CARES contained every IUCN threatened species of Pseudomugilidae and Valenciidae, but only one percent of threatened Characidae, Cobitidae, and Gobiidae species. No Loricariidae in CARES were in the IUCN red list as they were not scientifically described. Tanzania and Mexico contained the largest amount of species, with the latter containing the most endemics. A large percent of species were classified differently than the IUCN, including a third of extinct-in-the-wild species classified as least concern by the IUCN. The vast disconnect exemplifies the importance of collaboration and information exchange required between hobbyists, the scientific community, and conservation organizations.

• Subject Areas: aquarists; aquarium trade; captive-breeding; IUCN red list; ornamental fish; threatened fish; undescribed species

[TwoTankAmin]

I am biased here as one of my fish club officers is intimately involved with Cares. https://caresforfish.org/?page_id=818

I now have three CARES species. The first are my Ambastaia sidthimunki aka dwarf chain loach. I have had most of this group for almost 15 years. My next CARES fish is listed on their site as Puntius denisonii but has been renamed, Sahyadria denisonii (this is the redline barb).

Finally, my club's June auctions are special as the sellers get 100% of the proceeds, so a lot of neat stuff shows up. I grabbed five white cloud fry offered by Leslie at that auction. I don't remember (OBS/CRS) which of the three Tanichthys on the Cares list it is, but she offered fry from all of them in the auction.

I am not at all active in any CARES programs, but I do know this is a good organization. My one criticism is there are not enough plecos on their list https://caresforfish.org/?page_id=297

[Bas Pels]

I never heard about CARES, but that does not say much. following the link, it is easy to find what they are about.

It is the conservation of fish species by keeping them in our tanks.

On one hand similar initiatives are known - and I support them - for the lifebearers of the Gooidae family, but on the other hand, fishes do need to fulfill a few things before this can work.

Keeping them implys breeding them. So they must be easy to breed.

Problem with aquarium stocks is, the numbers are always small. We might be able to find 10 people, all willing to be involved with the same variety of the same species, and willing to keep an average of perhaps 15 fishes. Than our population will be 150 animals, assuming we are willing to swap the animals regularly, in order to keep the gene pool as good as possible.

This is a very small number, and many species are unable to cope with the accompaniing amount of inbreeding. Goodeids seem to be able to do so, just as many Poecilids.

Returning them to the wild is hard. The fishes will have to learn how to survive there, which will be difficult (that is, expect 90 % mortality) and we will have to be certain we don´t introduce any desease. For Zoogeneticus tequilla this has been done. An important step had been a few years of keeping them in a pool at the university of Moreilla, Mexico, to harden them and, I think, look for any desease. This university has also prepared local communities for keeping them save. Most often, the reason for them to disappear has not been solved.

I myself keep Ambastaia sidthimunki too, but as far as I know, hardly anyone has bread them in a tank, and those who did, did it by accident resulting in a few fry. I don´t kid myself that my sidthimunki are part of a population needed for any reintroduction.

Still, the fishes are bred, I think artificially, and perhaps for these fishes it works different: by buying them, the breedingprogram provides income to the people involved, and therefore they continue doing so.

But I wonder whether they aim at any reintroduction

[TwoTankAmin]

I find nothing on the CARES site about introducing fish back into the wild??? Please link me to this if I have missed it. Here is what I do find:

CARES has four major goals:

1) to bring awareness to the critical situation of fish in nature, while educating the public and stressing the importance of our roles as responsible aquarists;

2) to recognize, encourage, and offer support to hobbyists who maintain species at risk;

3) to share fish as well as data and experiences through notes and manuscripts so that others may learn to maintain those identical and similar species; and

4) to preserve species at risk for future generations.

My understanding is that breeding the CARES fish in tanks is encouraged. My experience is most fish will spawn in captivity. Sure there are those species that are difficult or almost impossible to spawn in tanks, but these are not a majority. They do not need to be easy to breed as long as experienced keepers know what is needed.

Finally, CARES works with species at risk but will not work with species that are banned for export from their native countries.