Contribution to the biology of the endangered Mexican fish, Zoogoneticus tequila, and suggestions for its indoor management
Journal Title: Aquaculture, Aquarium, Conservation & Legislation - International Journal of the Bioflux Society - Year 2011, Vol 4, Issue 5
Abstract
The endangered Mexican fish, Zoogoneticus tequila Webb & Miller, 1998, represents a new challenge for scientists: its biology, quite unknown, could perhaps explain the reason for its extremely low consistency in natural environments. An experimental setting was prepared where four pairs of young Z. tequila from the only Italian colony were bred in two different (biotope and enriched) tanks. Breeding results showed that the animals have grown and presented a positive reproductive performance, in both the environmental conditions confirming that the choice of substrata, of the vegetable layout, of food administration and of breeding of fry, resulted optimal for the indoor breeding. Aggressive behavior was extremely low and, although inter-male interactions were unstable, no injuries were observed among the animals, apart from a few episode of cannibalism towards the young. The behavior of animals in stressful situation were also recorded, namely the encounter with a male displaying enhanced sexual characters or with a predator. The behavioral responses toward the male were mainly noticed in the enriched tank, where flicks of tail and display of fins were recorded compared to the biotope. On the other hand, the predator snake Thamnophis sp. elicited an innate flight response in both the experimental conditions and in both genders. All together those results seem to encourage the breeding of Z. tequila in captive condition, although more studies on the cognitive skills of the species are needed before its reintroduction in natural environment.
Authors and Affiliations
Alessio Arbuatti, Roberto Trentini, Nicola Bernabò, Pia Lucidi
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP145368
- DOI -
- Views 98
- Downloads 0
Mendelian laws in aquaculture and cuniculture: simple and efficient
Many aquarists, fish or rabbit breeders have at their disposal for reproduction heterogenic populations as a result of segregation, or due to crossbreeding. In many cases, they must buy new brood stock every 2-3 years du...
Comparative studies of the global ecological state variation of the aquatic environment in the Crişuri Hydrographic Space between 2007 and 2009.
The paper presents a comparative study regarding the evolution across time of the quality of aquatic eco-systems in the Crişuri Hydrographic Space (CHS), between 2007 and 2009. Having as a goal a real and complete...
The Romanian perspective on geothermal energy resources. The chemistry of the geothermal waters from Oradea Triassic aquifer
In 2008, the European Commission put forward a proposal for a new directive (COM (2008) 30) on renewable energies to replace the existing measures adopted in 2001. According to the proposal, each member state should incr...
Use of 17-α-methyltestosterone for production of male secondary sexual characteristics in the adult female green swordtail (Xiphophorus hellerii).
The green swordtail X. hellerii Heckel, 1848 is a commercially important ornamental species. As phenotypic males with the sword extension of the caudal fin are more valuable economically than fish lacking the sword, masc...
The qualitative assessment of Crasna River in terms of Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC and Directive 78/659/EC.
It is the central objective of the Water Framework Directive of the EC to achieve “good status” for all bodies of water, both surface and ground waters, but with the exception of heavily modified and artificial bodies. F...