Scientists have found a way to prevent the world's rarest fish from extinction

Olin Feuerbacher really doesn't believe my eyes. It was in December 2017, when he was reviewing the footage shot from the night before from Devils Hole shark (Devils Hole pupgfish) - the planet's rarest species.

Blue electric 1-inch individuals were stuck in limestone caves that were sunk in the desert of Nevadan since the Ice Age. In 2013, their number was only 35.

A few years later, the US Fish and Wildlife Service opened the Ash Meadows Fish Conservation Facility (Ash Meadows Fish Conservation Facility), which is a huge storage of 100,000 gallons of Devils Hole species through which researchers can control and protect it. The goal of this facility is to create a 'rescue population' of this fish to be able to replenish and replace this species naturally if it is at risk of extinction.

Devil's Hole pupfish is captured by Feuerbacher.(Source: National Geographic).

When Feuerbacher reviewed infrared scenes with the ability to observe objects in the dark, a tiny fish larva swam quickly through the camera frame. This is indeed a big news. When the number of individuals declines to an alarming level like pupfish, all animals - wild or captive, larvae or adults - are very important to the loss of the species.

Feuerbacher, a fish biologist at the US Department of Fish and Wildlife, revealed: 'I'm really excited to see that this species has a reproductive life going on, and I just watch it once. a little bit. However, then I saw a bug swimming across. '

He started swimming around the fish and approached.'Then it ripped the fish in half,' Feuerbacher said.

From fear to hope

Over the past few decades, scientists have known that the live beetle lives with the pupfish in the Devil's Hole limestone cave . With over 4,300 species discovered throughout continents except Antarctica, there are not many places where water beetles do not invade. In fact, Feuerbacher said that when he and other scientists came to the cave to perform the counting of fish, they felt that some bug was biting their feet.

As time went on, scientists began to suspect that this water bug is capable of gnawing on eggs of pupfish. But how do the larva-killing larvae have twice the size? That is amazing.

Water bugs eat eggs.(Source: National Geographic).

However, it is also the aid. Efforts in captivity since the establishment opened have not been smooth and no one knows where the cause comes from. Now, they know what they need to do.

The war

In March 2018, scientists began to actively remove water bugs from hiding places with each lure to catch as they rose to the surface to breathe.

During the first collection of bugs, facility manager Jennifer Gumm said they had caught 500 in 3 hours. And during the follow-up of pupfish eggs by removing debris from where pupfish lay eggs, the team collected nearly 40 eggs.

Before that, they were lucky to find 4 or 5 eggs during the pupfish hideout information gathering. Normally, the number of eggs found is 0.

Scientists have concluded that the water bug is eating eggs from pupfish, and with more and more insects removed, the number of offspring gets more and more. However, we are talking about poppy-sized beetles in a 100,000 gallon tank. That means destroying this bug is still completely impossible.

The team has not yet removed water bugs from the Devil's Hole for several reasons. First, they still do not know how that could affect the ecosystem there, according to Gumm. Secondly, the fact that bugs eat eggs has not been observed in nature. Thirdly, the number of bugs in Devil's Hole is greater than that of tanks, and that may be due to the artificial environment with less food, which leads to bugs tend to eat eggs.

Since recent spring, the team has succeeded in separating eggs and bringing them to adulthood in a separate laboratory, thanks to a new anti-microbial method that prevents eggs from developing into a toxic fungus. .

Devil's Hole limestone cave.(Source: spookygeology).

Gumm shared that there are currently about 50 fish in the tank, and 10 to 20 are in the process of developing in the laboratory, of which a few are beginning to lay eggs. That means scientists have been able to collect eggs from three sources. Moreover, the team counted 187 animals in the wild in the previous fall.

'2018 is a great year for Devil's Hole pupfish , ' she said.

10,000th bug

While recent breakthroughs are compelling news for species on the brink of extinction, they also provide important scientific discoveries.

When fish evolve in isolated environments, it can develop strange adaptive traits, according to Prosanta Chakrabarty, a fisherman at Louisiana State University.

Devil's Hole pupfish (Cyprinodon diabolis) has no fins in the chest, and that helps them survive in warmer environments and less oxygen than other fish.

Chakrabarty said: 'How can they wave in a place smaller than the human office? Most animals have genetic diversity to live in small spaces with low numbers of individuals. So, understanding how they survive is important for evolutionary biologists. "

The problem is that we cannot do experiments on species that are struggling to survive. However, if everything continues as the researchers are doing with artificial aquariums, Feuerbacher and Gumm say that one day they can conduct control studies to find out not just how pupfish can survive for many years, but there is a way we can help them better in the future.

In the meantime, the war with bugs is still ongoing. Since March, the team has been able to remove thousands of bugs from artificial aquariums.

Gumm shared: 'Our technician is still monitoring carefully. I will give him a cake when he catches the 10,000th bug ".