Captive Devils Hole Pupfish at the Ash Meadows Fish Conservation Facility

Authors: Desiree Moore, Olin Feuerbacher, Jennifer Gumm, Daniel Villanueva, Michael Schwemm, Ambre Chaudoin, Kevin Wilson, Jeffrey Goldstein, John Wullschleger, Brandon Senger, Bryce Donaghue

Year: 2024

Abstract

In the spring of 2013, only 35 Devils Hole pupfish were counted in the wild, and no captive population existed. That fall, partners from multiple agencies began efforts to establish a captive population using a novel approach, collecting eggs from Devils Hole rather than removing adult fish. In 2014, the first 29 fish reared from wild-collected eggs were stocked into the 100,000-gallon refuge tank at the Ash Meadows Fish Conservation Facility. We have continued to use this approach of collecting wild eggs from Devils Hole to augment the population and maintain a genetic connection and have refined our husbandry methodologies to grow the captive population. During the most recent survey dives, 444 fish were counted in the refuge tank and many more are kept in aquaria. These fish are producing, for the first time, multiple generations in a laboratory setting. Getting to this point was far from straightforward. Along the way, we encountered diseases that necessitated new control and treatment strategies, predaceous diving beetles that eat larval pupfish, eggs being smothered in microbial biofilms, fish that don’t like to spawn in aquaria, low fecundity, and the genetic burdens of massive inbreeding. This talk will cover the progress and the challenges we sought to overcome as we learned to work with these fish, the research that has been produced, and what we have yet to learn to better conserve this unique species.