Fish Renovation Project Final Report - Summary
Carlsbad Caverns National Park. 2007. Fish Renovation Project Final Report - Summary. Carlsbad Caverns National Park. Carlsbad, NM
The purpose of this project was to remove exotic green sunfish, large-mouth bass, and western mosquitofish from the pond and the natural channel at Rattlesnake Springs, a detached unit of Carlsbad Caverns National Park. This project required assistance from federal, state, and local agencies to complete. To accomplish the exotic fish removal, we drained the pond and used seines and minnow traps to remove fish from the pond and natural channel. We separated the native and exotic fish, held the native fish in aerated tanks, and released the exotic fish in the Pecos River. After removing all the fish we could find over the course of 5 days, we allowed the pond to refill. The pond required three days to refill to the level prior to the project, at which time we reintroduced the roundnose minnow (1,054 total) and greenthroat darters (216 total) to the pond. While the pond was drained, the park also completed needed maintenance work on the pond and irrigation ditches.
- Type
- Unpublished Report
- Authors
- Carlsbad Caverns National Park
- Date of Issue
- 2007-07
- Publisher
- Carlsbad Caverns National Park
- Units
- CAVE
- Keywords
- Animal Studies, Exotic/Invasive Species - Animals, Fish, green sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus), greenthroat darter (Etheostoma lepidium), Largemouth Bass (Micropterus salmoides), roundnose minnow (Dionda episcopa), Western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis)