CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. – Aquariums in Chicago, Connecticut and Iowa are helping Chattanooga’s Tennessee Aquarium save an endangered minnow.
Two years ago, the aquarium reached out to other institutions with the goal of breeding a large, genetically diverse population of barrens topminnows to reintroduce to the wild.
Three signed up: Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, The Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk, Connecticut, and National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium in Dubuque, Iowa.
The first of the minnows bred through that collaboration were recently released into Tennessee streams. Maritime Aquarium Aquarist Bert Sadler says of the collaboration, “We should do all we can to help any species that needs assistance.”