• Creation of Valencia robertae and Valencia letourneuxi stocks at HCMR facilities

• Description of the reproductive behaviour and early development of Valencia spp.

• Description of thermal and salinity maxima of Valencia spp.

• Assessment of killifish antagonistic interactions with the alien mosquitofish G. holbrooki

• Stocks of both V. letourneuxi and V. robertae were established at HCMR aquarium facilities and breeding protocols were developed for V. robertae. Breeding of the target species was achieved with high larval survival rates. Photographic material of the embryonic and larval development of V. robertae was obtained to elucidate the early life stages of the species

• Video material on the reproductive behaviour of V. robertae was obtained and was analysed, in order to elucidate the species’ reproductive behavior

• Experiments were conducted on the interactions between the native V. letourneuxi and the alien mosquitofish G. holbrooki, and fish boldness, aggressiveness and feeding propensity were analysed
  
• Experiments were conducted on the thermal and salinity maxima of V. robertae and G. holbrooki using loss of equilibrium as endpoint

Kapakos, Y., Barbieri, R., Zimmerman, B., Miliou, H., Karakatsouli, N. and Kalogianni, E. (2024). Embryonic and larval development of a highly threatened killifish: ecological and conservation implications. Environmental Biology of Fishes, 107(3), pp.293-305.

Kapakos, Y., Leris, I., Karakatsouli, N. Kalogianni, E. (2024). Behavioural interactions between a threatened native killifish and the alien invasive Eastern mosquitofish. Journal of Ethology, pp.1-10.

Kapakos, Y., Vlachopoulos, K., Zimmerman, B., Karakatsouli, N., & Kalogianni, E. (2025). From the laboratory to the wild: Comprehending the reproductive dynamics of the Peloponnese Killifish Valencia robertae for its effective conservation. Limnetica, 45(2), 1.

Kapakos, Y., Leris, I., Karakatsouli, N., Zimmerman, B., & Kalogianni, E. (2025). Comparative Critical Thermal and Salinity Maxima of a Threatened Freshwater Killifish and of the Global Invader Eastern Mosquitofish. Fishes, 10(10), 526.

Kapakos, Y., Oikonomou, A., Vlachopoulos, K., Karakatsouli, N., & Kalogianni, E. (2026). Ecomorphological variation in the Corfu killifish and trait overlap with the invasive mosquitofish: conservation implications: Y. Kapakos et al. Aquatic Sciences, 88(3), 69.

This project was led by Dr Eleni Kalogianni, Researcher at the Institute of Marine Biological Resources and Inland Waters (IMBRIW) of the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR) and Brian Zimmerman, Aquarium Curator at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL)

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