The pupfish of the genus Cyprinodon live, so to speak, in the limbo for fish. Once the area, which today represents the desert regions of the western USA and northern Mexico, was a huge lake plate, the fish there lived in paradise. But the lakes gradually dried up over the millennia. Today, some species of pupfish can only be found in a single small water hole in the desert, such as the Devils Hole Pupfish (Cyprinodon diabolis). Some of the 49 currently recognized Cyprinodon species are therefore acutely threatened with extinction, some are even extinct, because if the groundwater sinks or the pond is polluted, it was.
But some species, such as Cyprinodon variegatus, are widespread and in no way threatened. All these survival artists can endure one thing: strong temperature fluctuations (up to 20°C in the day-night-change) and rapid changes in the salt content. C. variegatus also occurs in hypersaline waters (where the salt content is higher than in the sea), on the other hand there are also pure freshwater populations.
The Cyprinodon variegatus, which we can currently offer, come from a garage roof in southern Germany. They have been living there for many years now and reproduce happily. It doesn’t matter to them whether the sun is burning or the rain is crackling, they do everything. They are only not allowed to freeze, not even pupfish can stand that.
For our customers: the animals have code 321503 on our stocklist. Please note that we only supply the wholesale trade.
Text & photos: Frank Schäfer
