Ami
Fishaholic
Hi
Okay, considered posting this in beginner, but I figured everyone comes here and it's more likely to get read here than anywhere else. Took ages so obviously don't want to have wasted my time completely!
The usage of scientific names, especially on chat, drives me insane. By the time I've googled the name, everyone has moved onto something else and I've missed an entire conversation.
I've decided to do a little research to help me and anyone else who is confused get to grips with the groupings and names. Hopefully, we'll all have at least a basic knowledge once I'm done!
First things first - groupings. Fish are grouped on several different levels and their scientific names represent these levels.
Domain
|
Kingdom
|
Phylums/Divisions
|
Class
|
Order
|
Family
|
Genus
|
Species
|
Subspecies and VarietiesNow it starts to get confusing! The scientific classifications of certain animals, in particular fish, change all the time as we find out more about them. They are often moved from one one group to another and new groups are being created all the time. Hence you will find that there are many subkingdoms, subphylums or classes, or subclasses and orders and so on.
The following is meant as a brief guide and not a scientific text, so please forgive any mistakes or mis-spellings (cos I won't listen anyway after the length of time this has taken! ):
Now that was one long post and did take me 2 hours to write. However, it’s all thanks to the following sources:
Encyclopedia of Fish – An Essential Guide to Fish of the World by John Dawes
DK Handbook – Aquarium Fish by Dick Mills
And of course – the excellent Wikipedia and Google!
Unfortunately, for those of you who are now bored out of your skulls, I’m not finished yet. Oh no, next I’m off to find out what many of the latin / greek names we use actually mean.
Lucky ole me!
Okay, considered posting this in beginner, but I figured everyone comes here and it's more likely to get read here than anywhere else. Took ages so obviously don't want to have wasted my time completely!
The usage of scientific names, especially on chat, drives me insane. By the time I've googled the name, everyone has moved onto something else and I've missed an entire conversation.
I've decided to do a little research to help me and anyone else who is confused get to grips with the groupings and names. Hopefully, we'll all have at least a basic knowledge once I'm done!
First things first - groupings. Fish are grouped on several different levels and their scientific names represent these levels.
Domain
|
Kingdom
|
Phylums/Divisions
|
Class
|
Order
|
Family
|
Genus
|
Species
|
Subspecies and Varieties
The following is meant as a brief guide and not a scientific text, so please forgive any mistakes or mis-spellings (cos I won't listen anyway after the length of time this has taken!
):- Domain (Empire) – In biological terms, the domain is the top level of grouping. Using the most recent system, there are 3 domains: Archaea, Eubacteria and Eukaryota. We are only interested in the latter domain;
- Kingdom - There is generally held to be 6 Kingdoms in taxonomy. Fish, along with humans and every other animal in the world belong to the Animalia kingdom. The others are Eubacteria, Archaebacteria, Protista, Fungi and Plantae. Animalia, Protista, Fungi and Plantae all come under the Eukaryota domain;
- Phyla/Divisions - Fish, reptiles, birds and mammals, including humans, belong to the phylum Chordata (backboned) In addition, you may keep livestock that comes under one of the following: Porifera (sponges), Cnidaria (coral, jellyfish and anenomes), Echinodermata (starfish) and mollusca (clams, octopus and squid). There are others featuring various types of worms and smaller creatures, but this post is going to be long enough!
- Class - this is the hard bit where 'fish' are concerned, because there is a continuing debate about how you determine if something is a 'fish' or not. For example, newts live in water and have gills but aren't fish (humans have gills in the earliest stages of their development!); some fish can breathe air and leave the water; some fish don't have scales but some reptiles do; fish have fins, but so do squid and cuttlefish; fish tend to have an internal skeleton made of cartilidge or bone, but so do sea urchins and they're inverts. Fish can generally be broken down into the following classes or subphylums: Chondrichthyes (cartilaginous fish eg sharks, skates, rays and chimearas); Osteichthyes (bony fish eg guppies, seahorses, the majority of fish really); Myxini (eg hagfish) and Cephalaspidomorphi (eg lampreys);
- Order – this is simply a rank between class and family, or a sub-class if you like! An example would be Cetacea, which includes whales, dolphins and porpoises – ie those mammals most suited to aquatic life. Cetacea comes from the Greek ‘ketos’ meaning ‘sea monster’;
- Family – this is one of the most important ranks and you will find that this is likely to be the highest up the groupings that you will ever need to go! Family can contain several related genera or just one genus. For example, Whale Sharks (Rhincodon typus) are the sole representatives of the Rhincodontidae family whereas the Characidae family contains many, many genera and has traditionally been a dumping ground for fish awaiting classification elsewhere! Humans belong to the family Hominidae (‘the great apes’). The family is normally shown in roman type (ie not in italics or bold!);
- Genus (Genera) - this can contain several related species or a lone species and confusingly sometimes the same name for a genus is used for several completely unrelated genera, although these are never within the same kingdom. The scientific genus should always appear in italics e.g. betta. There are around 50 different species of betta, all of which have a common evolutionary history;
- Species - members of the same species share similar features and can breed together. At this level, the scientific name consists of the genus and species, again shown in italics, eg Xiphophorus maculates (Southern Platy) and Xiphophorus hellerii (Green Swordfish). These fish are not the same species, although they are closely related and can interbreed if kept together. You may sometimes here the terms ‘biological species’ (those that can interbreed and live together) or ‘isolation species’ (those that are not able to interbreed or are geographically separate). Knowing the species name for a fish is very helpful. Say you've gone to your LFS and they have a rare / unusual fish that you'd like to buy. No-one knows what the common name is or anything about the fish, but you can do a google search under the species name and the chances are that whatever you find will have the same requirements;
- Subspecies & Varieties - subspecies are normally geographically separate and can be identified by the use of a second species name. Varieties (var.) are cultivated divisions within subspecies. You may also come across the terms ‘strain’, ‘hybrid’, ‘form’, 'cross', ‘bloodline’ and ‘subvariety’. Most likely when you’re wandering around the live bearer threads! Any fish that are a subspecies or variety should be marked as such, for example by the use of var. or x. after their scientific name eg Xiphophorus maculates var. indicates that this is not a pure bred Southern Platy.
Now that was one long post and did take me 2 hours to write. However, it’s all thanks to the following sources:
Encyclopedia of Fish – An Essential Guide to Fish of the World by John Dawes
DK Handbook – Aquarium Fish by Dick Mills
And of course – the excellent Wikipedia and Google!
Unfortunately, for those of you who are now bored out of your skulls, I’m not finished yet. Oh no, next I’m off to find out what many of the latin / greek names we use actually mean.
Lucky ole me!
