The recent BBC article about the Mangarahara cichlid that may soon be extinct got me thinking (2 males in London Zoo, 1 male in Berlin Aquarium; likely extinct in the wild, though one can hope for a rediscovery like Ptychochromoides itasy.) Many fish are rapidly heading towards extinction due to building of dams and the situation has only become worse since Harrison and Stiassny wrote the fish chapter in Extinctions in Near Time in 1999. All extinctions are tragic, but when it involves a truly unique lineage like the parrot pacu, Ossubtus xinguense it is arguably even worse. I know this species was in captivity, both privately and in public aquaria (Aqua Terra Zoo, Vienna) until 2010-11 at least. Does anyone know if: 1) Are there any parrot pacus, O. xinguense in captivity today? 2) Has it been bred in captivity? Numerous other species, especially rheophilic Loricariid catfish, will disappear when the Belo Monte Dam opens on the Xingu River in Brazil (more than the half a dozen species usually mentioned in the media), but to my knowledge the Ossubtus is the only without any close relatives elsewhere.
Thanks. I had heard private aquarists talking about breeding it, but not sure if any serious attempts were made and haven't heard about anyone succeeding (it's believed to be a cave breeder, supposedly?). But I do hope this is wrong and it has been bred; preferably in big quantities like the zebra pleco rather than tiny quantities like sunshine pleco! *corrected a mistake in my first post: 2010-11, not 2009.
The sign for O. xinguense at Aqua Terra Zoo in Austria is still up but I doubt any remain. Couldn't see it (might hide in the dark rear corner of the tank but I doubt it) and some of the other inhabitants, decent-sized ocellate river stingray, were large enough to make a fish the size of O. xinguense "mysteriously" disappear during the night. Regardless, a nice medium-sized aquarium+terrarium with a few highlights even for a repeat visit by a fan of unusual species, though it suffers from the same "missing species label syndrome" that most aquaria around the world have. Not too much of a problem for me but unfortunate for most other visitors. Notable species I found particularly interesting was the smallest, perhaps 10 cm, African tigerfish I've ever seen (unlabelled and mixed with various South Americans; easy to miss), Sulawesi water skink, as well as the first place where I've had good views of a diplurid tarantula AKA "two-tailed tarantula", Linothele megatheloides. I've seen it and L. fallax before but always barely visible views. The giant girdled lizards from Schönbrunn have been moved to Aqua Terra where kept near the entrance with emperor flat lizards. If anyone knows the answers to the two questions in my first post I'd still appreciated a comment
