Allotoca meeki, commonly known as the Zirahuen allotoca or the tiro de Zirahuén, is a species of fish endemic to Lake Zirahuén, a small endorheic mountain lake in Michoacán state of central Mexico.[2]

Allotoca meeki
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Cyprinodontiformes
Family: Goodeidae
Genus: Allotoca
Species:
A. meeki
Binomial name
Allotoca meeki
(Álvarez, 1959)
Synonyms[2]

Neoophorus meeki Álvarez, 1959

The specific name honours the American ichthyologist Seth Eugene Meek (1859-1914) who wrote the first review of the fishes of Mexico.[3]

Conservation

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The Zirahuén allotoca is critically endangered. The species has a small range, limited to a single lake basin. Two non-native predatory species of bass (Micropterus salmoides and M. punctulatus) were introduced to Lake Zirahuén in 1933, and by the 1990s the allotoca had been extirpated from the lake.[1]

A population survived in the Estanque de Condempas in Opopeo, a small lake on the Río El Silencio tributary of Lake Zirahuén. Bass invaded the estanque in the 2000s, and by 2011 no allotocas could be found there. As of 2017 a few allotocas have survived in an outlet of the lake, and in a nearby spring-fed pond where bass are also found.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Koeck, M. (2019). "Allotoca meeki". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2019: e.T191697A1998439. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2019-2.RLTS.T191697A1998439.en. Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  2. ^ a b Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Allotoca meeki". FishBase. August 2014 version.
  3. ^ Christopher Scharpf; Kenneth J. Lazara (26 April 2019). "Order CYPRINODONTIFORMES: Families PANTANODONTIDAE, CYPRINODONTIDAE, PROFUNDULIDAE, GOODEIDAE, FUNDULIDAE and FLUVIPHYLACIDAE". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. Retrieved 18 September 2019.