Scientists and schoolchildren worked together to bring the tequila fish back from extinction in the wild.
At first glance, there's nothing remarkable about Mexico’s tequila splitfin fish. Only 2½ inches long, the fish aren’t colorful or poisonous. They aren’t particularly fast. They don’t change colors or exhibit other strange behaviors. In many ways, they are forgettable.
Dibble’s colony of 10 fish grew. In 2012, the team transferred 40 pairs of tequila fish to an artificial pond at the university. They needed to prove that the fish could survive in a semi-natural environment. In the pond, the fish had to compete for food, contend with parasites, and avoid predators like turtles, birds, and snakes, just as they would in the wild. After four years, the school of 80 grew to an estimated 10,000.
Finally, in 2017, 1,500 tequila fish were reintroduced to the river in floating cages. They rapidly multiplied. And after several months, biologists marked and released the fish from their protective cages. Now a stable population of around 2,000 fish are again happily swimming in the Teuchitlán River, about 40 miles west of Guadalajara. Just last month, the fish even migrated to another portion of the river.
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