Schistura pridii

[Mike Ophir]

Is this species really endangered?

Mike

[Emma Turner]

Absolutely. I have it on very good authority from someone who is desperately fighting to get exports banned.

Emma

[Mike Ophir]

Hopefully their environment can get protected so that fishing them becomes illegal. It would be a shame for such a nice looking fish to become extinct from the wild.

Mike

[Mike Ophir]

If only there was a way for us to start a petition or something to prevent them from being exported. How many are left in the wild? Any idea?

Mike

[Emma Turner]

They are supposedly very sparsely distributed within their range, and the range overlaps with an area that is supposed to protected and no fishing is allowed. A big percentage of where they are found is in the protected area, yet some were available last year through one supplier. From what I was told, these were likely to have come from the protected area because there not enough living outside that area to have made up the small shipment. At the time, I managed to buy most of them so that I could be sure they ended up in safe hands, and I think the others went to a reputable aquatics shop up north. How we felt about the idea that they were fished was irrelevant at that point as they had entered the supply chain and were going to be sold to whoever would pay the (very high) price - I wanted to do my bit to ensure they had the best chance possible so bought a large percentage of what was available. Since then, I have informed my supplier that they were likely to have been poached in the first place so that he can make an ethical decision about whether he should buy them from the fishermen again. Meanwhile, I have a species only river-tank set up for 26 of them, in the hopes of breeding them, other large-ish groups are with Graeme and Ashleigh. I feel so bad that they were taken from the wild when they probably shouldn't have been, but glad that most at least ended up with people who know what they are doing and want to breed them. From what I have been told, their population density is estimated to be in the low thousands, hence the number that were exported (100 or so in total I believe) is quite a large proportion. I would so love to be able to breed these and distribute them among other loach lovers.

Emma

[Mad Duff]

I now have a group of 10 of these that are growing very nicely in my river tank, there are definate girth differences between them so hopefully they will eventually spawn.

[Mike Ophir]

Lets hope so MD. This would be a huge breakthrough if S. pridii is spawned in captivity....can I get first choice of the fry that will ensue? haha

Mike