Tecopa pupfish

Tecopa - mosquito fish ( Cyprinodon nevadensis Calidae )

The Tecopa - mosquito fish ( Cyprinodon nevadensis Calidae ) is an extinct subspecies of the Nevada desert fish ( Cyprinodon nevadensis ).

Description

The Tecopa - mosquito fish was discovered in 1942 and first described in 1948 by Robert Rush Miller. The only 1.5 cm Wüstenkärpflinge had a predominantly blue and purple glistening scales. At the tail end of which was a vertical stripe. The females differ from the males by a stripe pattern. His diet consisted of blue-green algae. In one year, a progeny of two to ten generations was produced.

Habitat

The Tecopa - mosquito fish was endemic in the salt ponds of Tecopa Hot Springs, two 42 ° C hot mineral springs about 56 kilometers east of the southern access to the Valley of Death in Inyo County, California. This Tecopa Hot Springs was one of the hottest habitats for freshwater fish in the United States. The sources were separated by about 10 m and had a common flow. The fish, however, did not live downstream in the hot zone of the sources but several 100 meters, where the water was cooled to about 35 ° C.

Extinction

In the early 1940s they began to channel the northern and southern source of Tecopa Hot Springs and build bathhouses. In the following years, these mineral springs became so popular that they built cottages and caravan parks in the area. 1965, the outflow of the two sources was connected and straightens the remaining channel. This led to such a strong increase of the temperature in the habitat of the Tecopa - Kärpflings that another survival was hardly guaranteed. At the same time the mosquitofish ( Gambusia affinis ) and the Blue sunfish ( Lepomis macrochirus ) were introduced in Tecopa Hot Springs, as lay the Tecopa - Kärpflingen. 1970 Tecopa - mosquito fish was last detected in an artificial pond. After intensive search in 1977 failed to 1979 he was painted in 1981 by the list of endangered species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services. At the same time Tecopa - mosquito fish was the first species, which was officially declared by the statutes of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to be extinct.