A recently completed stocking of more than 50,000 golden-line barbells (Sinocyclocheilus grahami) fry into Lake Dianchi by the research team of Dr. YANG Jun-Xing will enhance the chance to rebuild the fish population of this water area in future years.
The golden-line barbell is under category Ⅱ of national special protected animals. Due to its life habit of living in the dim water area, it is the blindfish which only retains the trace of eyes. The golden-line barbell is of importance in maintaining the integrity and diversity of species gene bank. And it also plays a special role in the biological diversity research of the hidden streams in Karst region.
The golden-line barbell is endemic to Lake Dianchi, Yunnan province, China. It used to be a very common and important commercial fishery species (one of the four characteristic fish of Yunnan province), but it has undergone a massive population decline from around the mid 1960s and totally disappeared from the lake body in the 1990s. Now, the appearance of wild golden-line barbells is extremely rare in field. Severe water pollution, over fishing, introduced fish species and this species’ poor propagation all attribute to its dramatic decline.
Based on the current situation, Dr. YANG and his colleagues have made great efforts to rescue this endangered species. In 2007, thanks to the technical breakthrough of the artificial propagation, their research group had successfully produced 170,000 golden-line barbells fry. About 12,000 golden-line barbells fry have been released into Songhuaba Reservoir and Lake Dianchi in 2009 and 2010, which is of significance as that was the first reappearance of golden-line barbells in Lake Dianchi after 30 years. According to the newly tracked monitoring data of the released fry stock, those golden-line barbells have adapted well to the environment of Lake Dianchi and are in great physical condition. Till October 2011, the average body weight has reached 13 g.
The series successful work of fish releasing are important in rescuing species, improving population balance and eventually restoring the healthy biotope of Lake Dianchi.
