Fish seeks mate: London Zoo seeking open-minded female cichlid

Officials at the London Zoo are desperately seeking a female mate for two male Mangarahara cichlids, two of the last known remaining members of their species.

Aquarists at the ZSL, London Zoo, are launching an urgent worldwide appeal to find a female mate for the last remaining males of a critically endangered fish species, the Mangarahara cichlid.

ZSL/AP

May 10, 2013

The London Zoo is urgently seeking a female mate for the last-known males of a critically endangered fish species.

Zoo officials say the Mangarahara cichlid is thought to be extinct in the wild and that two of the last known individuals — both male — are in the zoo's aquarium. A third is in the Berlin zoo.

Officials say the species' habitat in Madagascar has dried up due to dam construction.

Democrats begin soul-searching – and finger-pointing – after devastating loss

The zoo on Friday asked aquarium owners and fish collectors to come forward it they know of any living females "so that a vital conservation breeding program can be started."

Officials say a worldwide search of zoo and aquarium organizations has so far proved fruitless.