LAS VEGAS (AP) — A twice-yearly count found what U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials are calling a healthy population jump for a tiny endangered fish found only in streams and springs about 60 miles north of Las Vegas.

A statement credited expanded habitat protection and the eradication of invasive species in the Moapa Valley National Wildlife Refuge, and said the species called the Moapa dace was getting what a statement labeled “a fighting chance” at survival.