Post by Sharon Faulkner on Sept 1, 2006 23:39:36 GMT -5
Devil's Hole pupfish tank infested with invasive snails
September 01, 2006
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Wildife officials have removed some of the few remaining Devil's Hole pupfish from a concrete tank near Hoover Dam after it became infested with invasive snails.
The rare desert fish were captured earlier this month and taken to an aquarium at Mandalay Bay hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip, the Willow Beach fish hatchery on Lake Mohave and a temporary holding facility near the dam, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Thursday.
Native only to a water-filled, limestone cave 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, the Devil's Hole pupfish was listed as an endangered species in 1967. Officials have struggled to preserve the fish despite management mishaps and a recent drop in population.
Fish traps fell into the hole in September 2004 and killed about one-third of the fish population. In April, wildlife officials counted 67 fish in existence: 38 at the hole and 29 at the Hoover Dam preserve.
Bob Williams, Nevada's field supervisor for the Fish and Wildlife Service, said it was not clear how the non-native snails or their eggs had infested the Hoover Dam preserve. The snails also appeared in another refugium holding hybridized pupfish in the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Nye County. "We're not really sure," Williams said. "It could have come on nets."
The problem was mentioned in a statement Thursday announcing that a panel of scientists and government wildlife managers "are hopeful" that a plan developed last week in Las Vegas "will reverse the decline of one of the most imperiled desert fish species in North America."
A decision putting pupfish back in the Hoover Dam refugium and at Ash Meadows will be made at the end of September, based on a count of the Devil's Hole population, Williams said. Williams said the snails have been removed from both refugia.
Regional managers and biologists from the Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service and the Nevada Department of Wildlife met last week to evaluate a management plan for the Devil's Hole pupfish.
The panel decided to consolidate all but two male pupfish that exist outside of Devil's Hole at the Willow Beach hatchery, where biologists will artificially propagate and rear pupfish.
A pair of male pupfish will be kept at the Shark Reef aquarium at Mandalay Bay, where biologists will experiment with reproduction techniques using hybridized female pupfish.
www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2006/sep/01/090110733.html
September 01, 2006
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Wildife officials have removed some of the few remaining Devil's Hole pupfish from a concrete tank near Hoover Dam after it became infested with invasive snails.
The rare desert fish were captured earlier this month and taken to an aquarium at Mandalay Bay hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip, the Willow Beach fish hatchery on Lake Mohave and a temporary holding facility near the dam, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Thursday.
Native only to a water-filled, limestone cave 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, the Devil's Hole pupfish was listed as an endangered species in 1967. Officials have struggled to preserve the fish despite management mishaps and a recent drop in population.
Fish traps fell into the hole in September 2004 and killed about one-third of the fish population. In April, wildlife officials counted 67 fish in existence: 38 at the hole and 29 at the Hoover Dam preserve.
Bob Williams, Nevada's field supervisor for the Fish and Wildlife Service, said it was not clear how the non-native snails or their eggs had infested the Hoover Dam preserve. The snails also appeared in another refugium holding hybridized pupfish in the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Nye County. "We're not really sure," Williams said. "It could have come on nets."
The problem was mentioned in a statement Thursday announcing that a panel of scientists and government wildlife managers "are hopeful" that a plan developed last week in Las Vegas "will reverse the decline of one of the most imperiled desert fish species in North America."
A decision putting pupfish back in the Hoover Dam refugium and at Ash Meadows will be made at the end of September, based on a count of the Devil's Hole population, Williams said. Williams said the snails have been removed from both refugia.
Regional managers and biologists from the Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service and the Nevada Department of Wildlife met last week to evaluate a management plan for the Devil's Hole pupfish.
The panel decided to consolidate all but two male pupfish that exist outside of Devil's Hole at the Willow Beach hatchery, where biologists will artificially propagate and rear pupfish.
A pair of male pupfish will be kept at the Shark Reef aquarium at Mandalay Bay, where biologists will experiment with reproduction techniques using hybridized female pupfish.
www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2006/sep/01/090110733.html