Fish names and the dreaded Latin

[GaryE]

I was recently looking at a thread where an aquarist, who may have way more experience than me, was talking about feeding plecos. Then I saw a thread about setting up for Cichlids. Now, I was an English teacher and am a writer, and I believe the words we use matter. It's not just a question of pickiness or snobbiness - it really affects whether or not we keep many fish properly.

Let's take pleco. It's a trade name. It isn't even English. so the "I want a name in my own language" argument fails. There is one fish called Hypostomus plecostomus. There are well over 600 Lorarariids called plecos in the trade (if they are even in the trade). Does it matter? In the over 60 Genera, there are radically different diet needs, water needs, social needs, etc. I suspect, based on years of talking to newer aquarists who like these fish, that thinking they are all just plecos with the needs of plecos has killed untold numbers of fish.

Cichlids - an enormous family from both Americas, Asia, Africa, the Middle East...yet we lump them together in their needs or decide that they like crowding like the Cichlids from one or two lakes in the vast, Cichlid filled continent of Africa do. If you say "Africans", an experienced keeper will have to pause and what to see which Africans. Which, lake, river system, stream, region - jumping in too quickly can lead to terrible advice being shared.

Type the trade name of the fish you want into google. Get the Latin name. Then use the Latin name to get much better info than an often local trade label will get. 10 minutes.

I'm not mechanically inclined, but I know if I go to a garage looking for one of those thingies that rotate the whatchamacallit, I will be robbed blind and laughed at at worst, and may not get the right repair, at best. 10 minutes on google and I can at least know what does what, even if there's new vocabulary to learn. Wait, they called "tires". Put some on my car - size or season doesn't matter...

 

[Guyb93]

I’m a cichlid enthusiast and when I read cichlid I automatically assume rift lake . Often South America and Central American cichlid owner will refer to the common name of the fish like Severum or green terror which I think personal is enough to identify the fish and offer enough advice, plecos again the Phrase common pleco is enough to offer advise on the 3-4 species What get labelled common , I agree totally on the scientific name being the best sorce of information but that could somewhat make the hobby off putting to people if we’re having to google the fish just to get the correct spelling of it even before we can get help easier just to use a common name

 

[Back in the fold]

@GaryE You were an English teacher ? I thought you lived in Canada. Oh , that's right , England still owns Canada.

 

[davros]

How many of those 600 exist in the wild? I can see why they have a number scheme.

 

[davros]

@GaryE You were an English teacher ? I thought you lived in Canada. Oh , that's right , England still owns Canada.

OH, ouch. Sometimes we wish they still did. It is a place for the royal offspring to go to school...

 

[emeraldking]

Type the trade name of the fish you want into google. Get the Latin name.

Scientific names of fish are named in latin or greek.

suspect, based on years of talking to newer aquarists who like these fish, that thinking they are all just plecos with the needs of plecos has killed untold numbers of fish.

Yes, this is a good thing of you to mention. This doesn't only go for just plecos but for all kinds of fish within the same genus. A lot of people will let themselves lead by generalizations. Which can cause serious problems.

 

[Colin_T]

The reason people use pleco to describe suckermouth catfish from South America is because the common pleco (Hypostomus plecostomus) was one the the first suckermouth catfish to come onto the market after the bristlenose catfish (Ancistrus cirrhosus). People just started to refer to all suckermouth catfish (besides the common bristlenose) as plecos.

For those wanting to use scientific names, they are normally put in brackets after the common name and italicised (put on an angle). However, I am lazy and don't always use italics

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The reason a lot of new catfish have numbers is because there aren't many ichthyologists doing work on catfish. Ichthyologists are people that identify and classify different groups of fish. They might be working on rainbowfish, cichlids, catfish, tetras, livebearers, marine butterflyfish, damselfish, or something else.

It can take a long time to go through and count fin rays, teeth, scales, and look inside each fish. They normally do this to 10 or more of each species to get a good sample of the species. Then they get another species and do the same thing. It is tedious work and takes a long time.

Having a relatively large number of new catfish appear on the market at the same time (or within a few years of each other) puts more pressure on the ichthyologists and the fish quite often don't get identified or classified until many years later.

 

[Back in the fold]

I wondered what italicized meant. I thought it had something to do with Olive Garden. Thanks @Colin_T .

 

[GaryE]

The 600 known species are mostly still going concerns. More are being added, as logging/forest destruction opens roads into previously unresearched habitat. It's a shame, but the path of destruction is the only road to a lot places.

England no longer owns Canada. The USA does. But we still spell British style. And where I come from, we also speak French, because France owned the place before the British owned it before the American corporations owned it. We are rich in old empires to resent!

 

[Back in the fold]

The hosers have cut down all the trees in Canada and dug up all the minerals and now they're moving into the U.S.