Endangered
Comanche Springs pupfish
Cyprinodon elegans
Comanche Springs pupfish is a ray-finned fish in the family Cyprinodontidae (order Cyprinodontiformes) — Cyprinodon elegans, recorded as Endangered.
Appearance
The Comanche Springs pupfish stands out amongst cogeners due to the striking speckled color pattern of the males, as well as a more streamlined body shape and lack of vertical bars. Differences also occur between members of the species from different locations in the number of fin rays and patterns of belly scales.
The species reaches a maximum length of around 50 mm (2.0 in).
Range and habitat
Comanche Springs pupfish are currently found in a system of interconnected springs near Balmorhea, Texas: Phantom Lake Spring in Jeff Davis County, Texas, and San Solomon Springs, and Giffin Spring, as well as Toyah Creek, in Reeves County, Texas. Additionally, runoff from the Davis Mountains recharges the overlying, alluvial aquifers. Quantity and quality of habitat respond rapidly to these recharge events.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
The diet of adult Comanche Springs pupfish consists mostly of filamentous algae as well as some snails, while juveniles subsist solely on infusoria until they grow larger. Comanche Springs pupfish spawn year-round in spring outflows and small pools.
Females will enter the territory from downstream and select a breeding site on the algal mat. Breeding behavior is similar in slow-moving water except that the territories are centered around a convenient landmark such as a rock or patch of plants.
In crisis
The Comanche Springs pupfish is included on the IUCN Red List of endangered species and was federally listed as endangered by the U.S. Threats to this species include loss of habitat due to human alteration, reduced spring flows due to high levels of water mining, and competition from introduced species. In addition to Comanche Springs, the type locale for this species, a number of other springs in the area have gone dry as a result of the pumping of irrigation water from the aquifer, demonstrating the vulnerability of the remaining springs to desiccation.
Historic stocking of black bass species into the irrigation canals of the Phantom Cave Spring system likely severely impacted that population of pupfish. One study found that when these hybrid offspring mated with Comanche Springs pupfish the resulting backcrossed offspring had lower fitness than those resulting from matings with sheepshead minnows, that could potentially result in extinction of the Comanche Springs pupfish through hybridization.
Comanche Springs pupfish is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Comanche Springs pupfish, Wikidata item Q305815. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
