Aphanius species

[Matt Ford]

Last week I travelled to Zaragoza (around 300km from Barcelona), where I went to meet Manuel Zapater Galve, one of the founders of the Iberian Cyprinodontid conservation project. There are three killifish species endemic to Spain, Aphanius iberus, Aphanius baeticus and Valencia hispanica. All three are at great risk from extinction with many populations being lost already due to the introduction of Gambusia holbrooki (I discussed this with Manuel and it may turn out to be G. affinis, will let you know when I go to net some) to control mosquito populations in the last century. Valencia hispanica in particular is apparently now found in only one or two locations and the situation for all three is worsening each year.

Manuel and his four colleagues are breeding these species/reintroducing them to the wild where possible, and have a plan to make new (hence Gambusia-free) pools in some areas. These should give captive-bred populations of the fish a good chance of surviving in nature. They also have numerous other species of Aphanius from north Africa, Turkey, Jordan and Iran, most of which are also under threat from introduced species/habitat degradation.

I visited their breeding facilities and saw how most of these fish are maintained outdoors all-year round (there's a species from Jordan that needs to be overwintered indoors). Manuel also introduced me to another member of the group, Juan Pablo Campofort who invited us to his house to see his fish room (also full of Aphanius plus some other fantastic species). I also went to Manuel's house to see the fish he keeps at home. He has some really interesting stuff including a new, undescribed species of Steatocranus, Elassoma evergladei and a Haplochromine that is endemic to Tunisia!

At the end of August he and Juan Pablo are coming to visit me here and show me the habitats where the Aphanius are still hanging on in and around Catalunya. Next week I will travel to Andalucia in the south of Spain (visiting my lovely lady) and have been given the locality and co-ordinates where Aphanius baeticus can still be found in the wild so I'll be trying to find it and take pictures.

Manuel has also offered me the chance to get involved in the project. When the boys come here in August I'll be receiving groups of Aphanius mento, a stunning species from Turkey and A. apodus from Algeria, now extinct in the wild. These will be kept outdoors on my balcony. Here are a few pics but I'll save the rest until after I've visited the habitats. Will keep this thread updated with info and hopefully, breeding reports!

This is Aphanius mento, the Turkish species I'll be keeping. Female on left, male on right. Juan Pablo had some of these from another locality that showed differences in body shape and patterning:


Aphanius vladykovi from Iran. Two males:


Aphanius anatoliae anatoliae, another Turkish species. These fish are from the population at Isikli. Male on right, female on left:


And these are the ponds being used to breed most of the Aphanius:

[benny]

Wow!! Thanks for sharing Matt!

In my limited understanding, I never knew there were killifishes from Spain as well. I've always had the misconception that they were only found in Africa.

In any case, you'll be please to know that in the very near future, there will be a sub forum for killifish specifically as sell as a substantial contribution from killies.com.

These fishes are not easy to come by locally, especially in pairs or eggs. As such, their popularity remains with an exclusive group who has connections to their availability.

Cheers,

[stormchild]

Oh my. Beautiful killis there. Keep us updated.

[Quixotic]

Manuel and his four colleagues are breeding these species/reintroducing them to the wild where possible, and have a plan to make new (hence Gambusia-free) pools in some areas.

Interesting project there, Matt.

Am I to understand that these fish are at risk because of competition from introduced alien species, instead of habitat loss?

It also seems like the new pools are going to be man-made pools? If so, will there be any resemblance to their original natural habitat? It will be quite an interesting challenge.

[Matt Ford]

Guys, thanks for your interest! I must stress the project is not mine and has been running for some time thanks to the hard work and dedication of a small team of passionate guys here in Spain. I can post a link to their website for those interested to know more if I´m allowed?

Hi Quixotic unfortunately the fish are at risk from both the introduction of Gambusia and habitat degradation due to human activity, although it seems the former is the by far the major factor involved in their decline. The new pools will be man-made as far as I know, and I think some of them are already in operation. I should be visiting them at the end of the month so will update with more info then.

[hwchoy]

Matty go ahead and post the link.

[Matt Ford]

Thanks Lord Choy for the permission.

http://www.fartet.org/index1_in.htm

[hwchoy]

You sorely missing your English heritage while being holed up in Espanã land huh?

[Matt Ford]

Well this week I visited a habitat of Aphanius baeticus near Tarifa on the southernmost tip of Spain (actually of Europe, you get stunning views of Africa from here). Believe it or not these three tiny (less than 1 metre deep) ponds in an almost entirely dessicated riverbed are one of the last remaining half-dozen or so known localities for this species.




The rest of the river looked much more like this. There were other ponds, but none contained Aphanius. You can see how well-established the terrestrial plants are in the riverbed suggesting it has been dry for some time:



Here are the fish:
Aphanius baeticus pair, male at the top. If Michael Lo or any of the Aquaholics are reading this, using the leaf for photos was inspired by you guys! :



I was very surprised and excited to catch this here. Cobitis paludica, another endangered species:



Atherina sp.?


Crayfish. Can anyone confirm Procambarus clarkii?


The only other creature living in the ponds was this small shrimp:


Thanks for looking. In a couple of weeks I'm off to find A. iberus and hopefully Valencia hispanica so will keep this updated.

Cheers

Matt

[hwchoy]

that Cobitis looks soooo like a Lepidocephalichthys!

[Matt Ford]

Yup it certainly does! I'm going to try to get permission to remove some of the Cobitis so I can try to breed them. As seems to be the way with small brown/grey fish they are protected by Spanish law but there is no programme/funding in place to preserve the habitats...