Purpose
The purpose of SMP is to protect endangered livebearer species by ensuring enough club members are keeping and breeding these fish at any one time.
Species Covered
The species covered by this program are "wild" or "wild-type" livebearer populations that, since originally collected, have been kept separate from other livebearers, including fish of the same species from other collection sites, so that no fertilization (i.e., hybridization) from outside the populations has occurred. Furthermore, no selective breeding should have been conducted with the populations to emphasize particular characteristics. The ideal wild/wild-type species population has collection data including collector, location, and date.
Approach
The approach to protection is to determine which/how many members have the species in question and, where the number keeping the species is thought to be low, to encourage these members to share their fish with others. The program, therefore, takes experts/advisors to determine which species are at risk in the natural environment, members with the species willing to share them and members without the species willing to devote tank space to them.
Confidentiality
All information gathered from members is confidential. The information gathered for the program as to who has what fish is kept confidential and is known only to the chairman of the program. This protects club members who have the fish from unwanted contact. Further, centralizing the information facilitates keeping track of who obtained fish and determining when these individuals might be capable, in turn, of being providers for the program.
Communications
This SMP Forum in members only area of the ALA website will be the primary source of most communications regarding the program. Periodic updates will be posted in the SMP news section.
Breeder Inventories
SMP will only be successful if we have accurate and up-to-date information on the inventories of club members keeping the fish we are tracking.
We are currently tracking all Goodeids.
If you are breeding any of the fish we are tracking, we need to know what you have by having you fill out the following inventory sheet(s):
The inventory sheet should be forwarded to the SMP Chairman via email.
FILLING OUT THE SHEET DOES NOT COMMIT THE CLUB MEMBER TO SUPPLYING FISH.
Willingness to supply will be established in a follow-up discussion with the Chairman in which the terms and conditions of supply are discussed. Whenever there is a significant change to a member's inventory (e.g., new species added; previously reported species lost), an updated inventory should be completed.
The Chairman will publish a list of the number of breeders of each fish we are tracking. Members interested in breeding a particular fish would contact the Chairman who will, in turn, contact the breeder(s) to determine interest in supplying the fish. Fish for SMP will also be made available via periodic announcements in the "SMP NEWS" section here in the MEMBERS section of the website.