Goodeid Working Group

The Goodeid Working Group (GWG) is an international working group focused on the protection of fish from the Goodeidae family, which was founded in 2009. The Ostrava Zoo has been a member since 2017. The Goodeidae family includes unique ray-finned fish, the vast majority of which are viviparous, among which there are many endemics mainly from Mexico. A significant part of them is very seriously endangered, some species have already been exterminated in the wild.

Threats to goodeids

The reason of the disappearance of several species of these fish from the wild is the concurrence of several factors. River water is widely used by locals for irrigation or as drinking water and is polluted by domestic animals. The surrounding forests are extensively cut down, which also contributes to the instability of the waters. The biggest problem was and probably is the introduction of non-native fish species and their competition with native ones.

GWG activities

The members of the GWG mainly ensure ex situ protection by supporting cooperation between private aquarists, schools, and universities, zoological institutions, or museums to preserve aquarium populations of species and naturally occurring forms of goodeids. At the same time, it supports the involvement of members in in-situ projects directly in the place where goodeids occur.

The Faculty of Biology at Mexico's University of Michoacana in Morelia, in the capital of the neighboring Mexican state of Michoacana, bears the main burden of goodeid conservation. The Ostrava Zoo contributes annually to the project "Repatriation and protection of critically endangered goodeid fish in Mexico" at the University of Michoacán. The main goal of the project is the protection of the natural habitat, research, and repatriation of the critically endangered tequila splitfin.

You can learn more at www.goodeidworkinggroup.com.

Tequila splitfin (Zoogoneticus tequila)

This tiny fish is a sort of a flagship species of the efforts to save goodeids. It is a species that returned to Mexico from Europe twenty years ago after disappearing in its original location. Great credit goes to British aquarists, in whose farms the species survived. Subsequently, the fish were multiplied at the university in Morelia, Mexico, where a kind of "fish ark" operates - a laboratory that tries to obtain all endangered species of Mexican fish, especially goodeids, and keep breeding them. In 2016, i.e. after almost 20 years, nearly a thousand individuals could be released back to their original location. The project was very carefully developed and included was not only the investigation of the aquatic environment and its inhabitants but also work with residents. They are the ones who have taken over the patronage of "guarding" the fish as local schoolchildren and students will check how the splitfin fish are doing and what the condition of the location is.

How Ostrava Zoo helps

In 2008, the Ostrava Zoo already started breeding the first representative of the Goodeid family - the butterfly splitfin (Ameca splendens). Currently, four species of these rare viviparous fish are bred here - in addition to the above-mentioned, there is also tequila splitfin (Zoogoneticus tequila), golden skiffia (Skiffia francesae) and Balsas splitfin (Ilyodon whitei). Through the new aquarium with these goodeids at the entrance to the Little Amazon pavilion, the zoo is also trying to inform that saving the species can be the work of a single enthusiastic aquarist.

In addition to the fact that the Ostrava Zoo breeds the endangered goodeids itself, it also supports the protection of these fish together with all its visitors through the "3 CZK for Wildlife" program.