# extinct livebearer



## navigator black

I thought I'd throw in a photo of Zoogoneticus tequila, a probably extinct in nature Goodeid livebearer. It's a Mexican fish - pushed to the edge (or beyond) by agricultural polllution and water use. There are a few people using their fishkeeping skills and space to keep species like this around.
Here is a male I photographed this afternoon.









I've had them around for a few years now, and they are an interesting fish.


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## majerah1

Very beautiful little fish! I would love to house a few, could you tell the tank requirements for them? LOl you know me and wild/ endangered/ extinct fishes.


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## SuckMyCichlids

Love the colors on him, where'd you end up getting your hands on some of those?


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## dirtydutch4x

That is a really nice looking fish! How big do they get and how often do they spawn and how many average do they produce? I wont ask about habitat as it was already asked.


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## navigator black

I don't know where you'd get them in the US, probably the American Livebearer Association would help.
I like keeping them in 40-50 gallon tanks with HARD water. I breed them seasonally, with no heater.Right now, I am having a little trouble keeping the numbers up, as I distibuted too many young pairs and went a little low in numbers.
I found them in a good local petstore (it is nice not to have Petsmart established here) and since I'm always reading about fish, I recognized them as what they are. I think that was 9 years ago, and they are still going strong.
They have a weird feature. They are herbivores, needing lots of fibre. If you feed them high protein food, you kill them. Each baby is born large, and is fed by two umbilical structures. With too much protein, the babies grow beyond what is natural, and there is a fatal breech birth. You have to respect their diet.
They are also kind of interesting to watch - they are smart fish. But they are tough, and not ideal community fish. They aren't nippy, but they dominate their tanks.
here's another photo:


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## zero

wow there so pretty! its good to know there still here with us thanks to humans,even tho it was humans who destroyed them! crazy world we live in!!


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## navigator black

Hey, I found a new magical breeding trick. Post a picture of the fish you are worried about not breeding.
I just had a nice gaggle of newly dropped tequilas come grazing through the Crytocorynes. Two different sizes, meaning two different mothers. They look to be 2-3 days apart. There are enough of them that I am probably good for another generation. That made my morning!


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## zero

Yay for the babies!! Your lucky you even got fertalized eggs, my guppy is trying to get it on with one of the lady mollies!.....wrong!!!


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## majerah1

Fantastic! 

I want to find some here in the states.


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## coralbandit

Congrats!


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## ChessieSFR

Wow, they are really cute. Congrats on the new babies!


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## navigator black

There are hundreds of people keeping extinct in nature or critically endangered fish that came into the hobby before they were in danger. There are international agreements to keep people from plundering and selling endangered species wild stocks for aquarium use, but a lot of fish were in tanks before their habitats were destroyed. You might be surprised at this, but there are many more cherry barbs in the hobby than in their devastated habitat. The fish in danger are usually species with limited distribution - ones from one river system or one isolated lake. They are magnificently adapted creatures, but if you take away their water, it's lights out -on a journey of billions of years.
In the freshwater hobby, cherry barbs and Celestial Pearl Danios are the only two I know of whose status was created by greedy overfishing for aquariums - the others are usually losers from agricultural and industrial pollution.

I keep two doomed Goodeids, each of which needs its own tank - Ameca splendens, and Zoogoneticus tequila. The very prolific Amecas are kept at the school I teach in, and are distributed as educational projects to other schools, for whom I get donated aquariums. It's really small as a project right now. I also sell them and ship them to people within Canada who want to maintain them, and plough the money back into the costs of the project.
A species lives for tens of thousands of years, if it's lucky, and a fish-nerd like me might be good for 75-80 years. I have no illusions about permanently saving fish whose homes are gone. We are destructive and short sighted and we are constantly adding to the list of losses. But maybe we can learn from these fishes, and maybe we can value them more with exposure to them. Values can change.


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## Auban

i see those fish on aquabid from time to time. there is a pair up for sale right now, under liver bearers, wild type.


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## skiffia 1

nice photo's nav. Zoogoneticus tequila, rio teuchitlan. Jalisco, mexico ) since it's discovery ln 1990 this species has been found from another location, i like to keep them in a large tank maintained at a temperature of 70f.
i feed plenty of live foods to keep them in good conditions,
to do well and to keep them at there very best all goodeids should have live foods in there diet . z. tequila Rarely grow more then 2" long. brood size usually less then 20. adults usually leave there young alone the fry grow well on baby brine shrimps, and or micro worms, grindal worms, all are good first foods for goodeids.


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## navigator black

I'd send you some for shipping if I could, but the US border is tighter than the pants I bought when I was in high school. I'd need to spend $225 to legally give fish to a US citizen.


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## Auban

they are still available on aquabid.


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## skiffia 1

extinct in the wild skffia francesae rio teuchitlan


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## skiffia 1

skiffia 1 said:


> extinct in the wild skffia francesae rio teuchitlan


skiffia sp. v188 first described as a new collection of Francesae but till its varified both species should be kept separate


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