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Changing Fish Fauna of the Southwest 393 <br /> <br /> <br />threadfin shad (Dorosoma petenenw), has failed to reveal native <br />fishes other than Xyrauchen texanus (letter of January 6, 1958, from <br />J. B. Kimsey to Carl L. Hubbs). Both Ptychocheilus lucius and Gila <br />robusta elegans may still be caught in sections of the Colorado River <br />above Grand Canyon, but the series of dams now under construction <br />there may well mean extermination for these fishes in the not too <br />distant future. <br />The Conchos pupfish, Cyprinodou eximius Girard, was described <br />from Chihuahua City, Chihuahua, Mexico, in 1859. On May 29,1903, <br />S. E. Meek collected it in the independent drainage of the Rio Sauz <br />at Sauz, about 30 miles northward from Chihuahua City. Testimony <br />obtained by Clark Hubbs during the summer of 1954 indicates that <br />the Rio Sauz went dry in 1947 and that "there is no living water any- <br />where in the valley" (letter of July C 1954, from Clark Hubbs to <br />Carl L. Hubbs). Whatever local attributes this population may have <br />developed during its isolation from the main range of the species <br />will have to be determined solely from the preserved material. <br />Arivaca Creek, a small spring-fed stream that rises just above <br />Arivaca, southern Arizona (Fig. 1), was originally fishless, according <br />to Fred C. Noon (contacted on April 15, 1950, at Oro Blanco Ranch). <br />It was stocked by the Arizona State Health Department with Gam- <br />busia during a malaria outbreak about. 1936. Thorough examination <br />in 1950 of the main part of the creek (about 175 yards long), above <br />and below the road crossing, revealed only the Gila topminnow <br />(Poeciliopsis occidentalis), which may have been the fish introduced <br />as "Gambusia" about 1936, reportedly from the vicinity of Tucson. <br />It was stated that catfish and bass had been planted on the flat above <br />Arivaca, but these species were unknown in the creek. The native <br />topminnow was again found to be common there on April 12, 1957, <br />when I secured a live stock for experimental work. On March 30, <br />1959, however, when the stream was revisited to replenish our live <br />material, Poeciliopsis had been completely replaced by the exotic <br />mosquitofish, G. affinis a ffinis. How and when the latter species gained <br />entry to Arivaca Creek is not known, but P. occidentalis was replaced <br />by the more competitive alien in a rather short time-apparently in <br />less than 2 years. Charles H. Lowe, Jr_, of the University of Arizona, <br />visited the creek in June, 1959, expresdy to check my finding and also <br />was unable to locate a single specimen of Poeciliopsis. The introduc- <br />tion of G. afftinis in other parts of the Southwest has led to the reduc- <br />