This endangered fish native to Arizona will be released into a lake near Superior

Later this week, the endangered desert pupfish will be released into Ayer Lake. The Arizona native species has spent the past several years at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum.

It was put on the endangered list in 1986 by the Arizona Game and Fish Department.

The arboretum and the agency have partnered to release the endangered fish into Lake Ayer near Superior on Wednesday.

“There is an inherent value as a native species in the Southwest to maintain and keep that fish alive and well,” said Brett Montgomery, a minnow and pupfish specialist with Arizona Game and Fish.

There are no longer any natural populations of the species in Arizona. This group of fish will be a recovery population for Arizona.

Pupfish are native to the Southwest region and can survive the hotter temperatures and water balance issues that come with the desert regions.

“It satisfies the elevation requirements, the water shed that pupfish can be in. It just exists within the range where pupfish existed before,” Montgomery said.

Pupfish are the pest control of their ecosystems. They eat mosquito larvae and algae found around lakes.

Ayer Lake has more regulations than others in Arizona because of the endangered pupfish. There is no dumping of pets or fish, or stocking of other invasive species of fish allowed.

“It would be really bad if people dumped their unwanted pets or other fish into the pond because we basically have to restart the population, which is what we are doing right now,” Montgomery said.

The fish from the arboretum along with 600 other fish Montgomery is bringing will all be released into the lake.

Arizona Game and Fish are hopeful for their future.

“What we expect over the next year or so, the population will grow, mix genetics from different populations,” Montgomery said. “And then we might even be able to use it as a source population to add fish to other ponds.”