The Behavioral Ecology and Environmental Science Research Team (BEERST) announces their collaboration with the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas to raise and house the endangered species Zoogoneticus tequila. Zoogoneticus tequila (Tequila Splitfin) is a species of Goodeid that is currently being bred and raised on Brother Martin’s campus; then they mature as adults returning to the aquarium for stock and further distribution.
Goodeids are freshwater livebearers endemic to Central America (mostly Mexico) and southern United States. There are approximately 40 species, most of which are threatened in the wild, as well as a number of species which are thought to be extinct in the wild. This decline in natural populations is the result of habitat degradation, invasive species, and a plethora of anthropogenic reasons. There has been a huge conservation push in the last six years with the founding of the Goodeid Working Group (GWG), which is a worldwide organization run by volunteers such as hobbyists, people with a public aquarium, and those volunteers who have academic backgrounds. Essentially, this group along with other organizations such as the American Livebearer Association (ALA) has been trying to get more people involved in keeping Goodeids. The more people breeding them, the least likely we are to lose these species (in some cases, species that are already extinct in the wild). The goal is to have large captive populations that maintain good genetic diversity through the movement and exchange of breeding individuals between hobbyists and between institutions.
Then, the ultimate goal is to use these captive populations to boost the wild population and in some cases reintroduce species that have been lost. Up until this point, most of the work has been done by hobbyists, but there has been an effort within the public aquarium world to care for and educate people on this extremely rare family of fish.
