Allotoca meeki
{{Short description|Species of fish}}
{{Speciesbox
| image =
| image_caption =
| status = CR
| status_system = IUCN3.1
| taxon = Allotoca meeki
| authority = (Álvarez, 1959)
| synonyms = Neoophorus meeki Álvarez, 1959
}}
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.{{FishBase |genus=Allotoca |species=meeki |month=August |year=2014}}
The specific name honours the American ichthyologist Seth Eugene Meek (1859-1914) who wrote the first review of the fishes of Mexico.{{cite web | url = http://www.etyfish.org/cyprinodontiformes3/ | work = The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database | author1 = Christopher Scharpf | author2 = Kenneth J. Lazara | date = 26 April 2019 | title= Order CYPRINODONTIFORMES: Families PANTANODONTIDAE, CYPRINODONTIDAE, PROFUNDULIDAE, GOODEIDAE, FUNDULIDAE and FLUVIPHYLACIDAE | accessdate = 18 September 2019 | publisher = Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara}}
Conservation
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.
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.
References
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Category:Freshwater fish of Mexico
Category:Endemic fish of Mexico
Category:Natural history of Michoacán
Category:Taxa named by Jose Álvarez del Villar
Category:Fish described in 1959
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