Don't understand all the Latin names lol.
Scientific names, not Latin
some are actually Latinised Greek or other languages. First reason to get up to scratch on them is what Zoddy said: some common names are used for different species and some species have very many common names. Second reason is that most of the species I named do not have common names so you either learn the scientific names or you're pretty much screwed when it comes to asking for those fish in a shop
For example, the only two common names I have ever heard used for
Apisto. borellii are "borellii Apisto" and "Borell's apistogramma"
Pronunciation tips: read as it is written, mid-word "i"s are usually pronounced as "ee", end-of-word "i"s are usually "aye". For example,
Parotocinclus jumbo is pronounced "parr-oto-SINK-luss jum-BOW" and
Apistogramma borellii is "apist-o-gram-ma bo-rel-lee-aye". If the second half ends in "-ii", that means that the fish was named after a person called the same as the second half minus the "ii".
If you're having real trouble with them, write them down on paper when you go into the shop to ask for the fish. There's nothing wrong with that, I do the same for those that I have trouble pronouncing.
A couple of interesting side points: the best LFS I have ever had (which was my last one, I am currently LFS-less) used only the scientific names, and no common names, for labelling their fish, and when I lived abroad for three years, the only way I had of communication with people at LFS was with scientific names (and by waving my hands about) as we did not speak any languages in common.
While your advice is very detailed and useful, I'm not planning on completely changing my tank
not yet anyway lol only just re-did it all. I asked my experienced lfs about the corys and they said its ok.
My experience is very different from what your LFS says: if there are enough per species to form schools, the different Cory species will not even mix together. It is pretty much a solid fact that all Corys are schooling or shoaling species, so I really don't know how your LFS can say otherwise if they know anything about Corys. Fish are aware of others of their own species in a "me", "me + one", "me + two", "me + three", …, "me + few many", …, "me + many many" sort of way. In my experience, 5 fish in total is "me + four", 6 fish is "me + few many" and "me + many many" is usually 10-15 (varies between species). For some species, those barriers are at even higher number, but I do not know of any species where they are lower. Shoaling (including schooling) species (I say) must be kept in groups because it is a self-defence mechanism and the behaviour that they exhibit when not in groups is very "unusual". It's kinda like the difference between looking at a healthy person and someone with a limp, but where the limp is mental, not physical.
I also was planning on changing to sand but apparently its very difficult to keep clean
I have never had any problems keeping sand clean… are there any specific things that you have questions or worries about?
What are the centre piece fish you recommend? Latin names threw me off there lol. Thanks for the help
Sorry, you're just gonna have to learn them
As Zoddy said, Google is your friend here for finding out more about them.
