It's time that aquarists began taking responsibility for what they breed. Many good fish are being destroyed due to the bad breeding habits of even our most advanced breeders. What I'm mainly talking about is out-crossing. There is more to breeding fish than just spawning and raising fry. Maintaining species integrity and viability must take an increasing role of importance when we decide to breed our fish.

So you say you've never crossed species, therefore you're not guilty on that account. It may be true you never knowingly crossed species, but it is also very likely you did cross species without even being aware of it. How many people have lost a male or female of a species and obtained another fish so you could still have a pair? Did you then breed these fish? Before you bred them did you know if they came from the same population group? Unless you were sure, you may very well have crossed species, subspecies or color forms. This destroys the genetic integrity the fish we keep and pass on to the next generation of aquarists.

Oh, so you claim to know fish too well to have never accidentally crossed different fish. Besides, if they're the same species, what's the big deal? Since I'm primarily a rainbow keeper I'll use a rainbow example to explain this problem.

Rainbows are a very confused taxonomically. If you were to look at the difficulty in identifying these fish to genus, species, subspecies and color form, it might make the problem a clearer. I'll choose Melanotaenia eachamensis since no other bow has had its taxonomy studied as extensively. This is because Melanotaenia eachamensis went extinct in the wild. Many felt it should have been described as a M. splendida color form or subspecies and identified as such. The physical variation does not greatly differ from many other M. splendida and its subspecies. After all the work was done it ended up being its own species and endemic only to Lake Eacham.

Do to the introduction of non-native fish into Lake Eacham its numbers began to drop. The area encompassing Lake Eacham was in a nature preserve and nobody could remove this fish from its native waters. Some Australian native fish keepers took some fishes out of the lake and established a captive breeding program. This was an illegal act at the time. These are now the parents to the only M. eachamensis Lake Eacham fish left in the world today. They no longer exist in the wild. On subsequent surveys of the area, fish where found in nearby waterways which appeared morphologically similar to the Lake Eacham rainbow. Some claimed they were just another splendida others thought they were true variants of the M. eachamensis. To figure out what they were genetic testing was under taken of the fishes. By using the captive population they were able to determine that they did have the genetic fingerprint of M. eachamensis. They don't look exactly like the Lake Eacham rainbow but they are presently considered the same species. But there are also M. splendida on this tableland that look identical to these fish. You cannot tell the difference when you look at these fish. You can only tell with genetic testing. On top of this, some areas of this tableland have fish that are a cross between the two species. Again, only genetic testing can distinguish them apart. Mixing any of these four populations of fish would destroy what nature is making. These different populations of fish are evolution at work. Whenever we get a new rainbow (or any other fish) we're getting a slice in time from a specific location.

Now, if aquarists go out and get any other eachamensis what have we done? We may have the same species, but then again maybe not. What is the same species today, may be a new species or subspecies tomorrow and visa versa. Remember that eachamensis was once considered a splendida by many. And many scientists do not agree fully with the findings of the latest study. This probably means a new study will someday be undertaken. And when that's published we may have a new species or subspecies again. If aquarists had been breeding these fish with no thought to the population group they came from, what will the species be of the fish we have in our tanks? They will be crosses. They will not resemble any of the fish from the wild.

Many of the fish that have been in the hobby for years, are now recognized to have once been multiple species. Nothing can be done for these fish today. We need to recognize them as the manmade variants they are and keep them separate. Most are not as attractive as the original imports. Others have been bred to bring out specific characteristics that would destroy their survival chances in the wild. However the new fish coming in from the wild can be kept separate, recognized as the unique fish they are. This means species, subspecies, color form and collection location.

This is not just a problem with rainbowfish. The South American cichilds are going through and unbelievable amount of classifying. Many fish that were considered one species are now muliple. The loricaradids have barely been described and new ones are brought out faster than they can give them L numbers. Look at the killie keepers. Here is at least one group of fish keepers that have recognized this flux. They keep track of not only the genus and species but each collection. This is a numbering system that recognizes each time the fish are removed from the wild environment. If these fish are split or grouped in the future, we will still know what we have. With most other species we will not.

This does not mean I'm advocating inbreeding. That's another topic all together, with its own dangers and harm to the fish. But if we continue only to care about what species a fish is, more and more will fall into the category of manmade fish. As man encroaches on and damages more waterways, fewer wild caught species will come into our hobby. And all we'll be left with is poor comparisons of our former wild finny friends. The latest United Nations study on endangered species has just determined that 34 percent of the known species of fish are now threatened with extinction. How many aren't even known yet? Were do we get knew fish when these are gone?