The worst trade names for fish.

[GaryE]

Now why we do we have false julii Corys? Is poor julii being accused of lying? Is she swimming around behind her true love's back? Did she try to get elected against a famous politician who makes up names like that for his opponents? It's a terrible name. "trilineatus' isn't that hard to say - not worse than jul with ii on it.

Why do we have two radically different Cichlids called "parrots"? I get the deformed mouth on the charmingly named blood parrot, but the original parrot is a cool fish.

Why are there five pencil fish now being sold as the red pencil? That couldn't go wrong, in mail order. Nope.

"Rummy nose" is a fantastic use of old slang, and the bright red nose with that name was creative and funny. Why did it stop there. There are 3 rummy nose fish from South America, and one from Asia. All the same name? Did we run out of creativity?

Do you know any other trade (English) name misses? Or do you want to nominate any currently named species for even better names? We can be creative and have some fun.

 

[lnsaneM]

Angelfish, why are the wings on the bottom and not up top?
Black ghost knife, the only thing correct about this is the colour.
Almost all algae eaters don't eat algae.

 

[Back in the fold]

Why ? ! ? ! Why Golden Wonder Killifish ? It's a colored sport of the Aplocheilus lineatus that was once known in ages past as the Malabar Killifish because it came from the Malabar coast of India. Golden Wonder ? What ? Like the sidekick to some superhero crime fighter ? The Golden Wonder is to Panchaxman as Robin ,the Boy Wonder, is to Batman ? I could just scream. Plain old Gold lineatus would have been much better.

 

[GaryE]

I think we need new names for the Chinese algae eater, the common pleco and the blood parrot. Anyone want to try?

As for angels, I think the artists' depictions are wrong, and any real ones are shaped like the fish.

 

[Back in the fold]

Chinese Algae Eater ? How about Asian sucker because that's all they are. Ever catch a sucker while out fishing ? Those who have will know. The common Plecostomus should be known as the Stringy Turdfish.

 

[DoubleDutch]

Dwarf Gourami.

 

[Crispii]

It's funny how WetSpot gives their own common names to some Betta species on their site.

-Betta hendra = Purple Neon Ninja Betta
-Betta falx = Red Skirt Betta
-Betta simplex = Pumpkin Betta
-Betta mandor = Ninja Betta
-Betta strohi = Golden Ninja Betta
-Betta foerschi = Foerschi's Ninja Betta
-Betta persephone = Batman Betta

I guess WS really like to name their Betta's "Ninja."

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

I think we need new names for the Chinese algae eater

Surprise serial killer fish.

the common pleco

Nope fish. Shouldn't be sold at all, renamed Giant Nope fish.

and the blood parrot

Deformed man-made fish. Sorry, not a fan.

 

[GaryE]

Chinese Algae Eater ? How about Asian sucker because that's all they are. Ever catch a sucker while out fishing ? Those who have will know. The common Plecostomus should be known as the Stringy Turdfish.

I'm with you on the algae eater, but I would call the common pleco the "monumental stringy turdfish'. It sounds classier and would certainly, uh, push sales, right?

I wonder if the repeated ninja thing is because you know you're dealing with real ninjas when you can't see them.

 

[Herpin Man]

Being more familiar with herp names, there is one that I absolutely despise: pac-man frog.
There is no such thing as a “pac-man” frog.
Back in the early 90’s, captive bred horned frogs of the genus Ceratophrys were beginning to show up in pet stores. These frogs have short, fat bodies and big mouths. Someone somewhere decided that these frogs would be easier to sell to children if they were named after a video game. For a while, several frog species, from Pyxicephalus to tree frogs, were being sold as pac man frogs. The result is that we now have a generation of frog hobbyists who are completely unaware of what these frogs are actually called.
For a while, pet stores were selling all turtles as “ninja” turtles. I guess I should be glad that didn’t really take off.

 

[GaryE]

The problem is that even if there is no such thing as a pac man frog, there is a pac man frog in the minds of hobbyists. The trade names persist, even if they get in the way of us informing ourselves.
In the 90s, there was a fisherman who would sell his new discoveries under the names of his kids. Apistogramma sp Maria just kept arriving, and each time it appeared to be a different species in a complex of closely related species in what looked like the A. eunotus group. Some were nice fish, but that group isn't really a set of beauties (poor Maria) comparatively. I don't think they were ever bred as the name seemed to vanish into the void, and the few that were exported again had different names by then.
Imagine how we all could have fought if the names had stayed, since they may well have had different needs and behaviour? "You're a fool - my Marias didn't need soft water! They blah blah blah"
I wonder how Maria's life has gone.

 

[Back in the fold]

Some fish get an undeserved reputation by their name. Tiger Barb is one . A guy might think they are vicious and predatory but they are not. They have their special requirements that if not provided bring out the beast in them but they are great fish. I love @Fishmanic 's Tiger Barbs. His pictures are awesome so I can only imagine how cool they are in person.

 

[GaryE]

Killifish.
A "Kill" is old Dutch for a small stream. So killifish are fish from a small stream.
If you knew how many people have asked me why I like brutal killers in my tanks, or have decided the reason killies don't work in communities is most of them live to murder. Meanwhile, most species are too shy to compete for food....

Golden wonders and a small number of others are predators (Golden Wonders should be "Neon Pikes"), but the number of killer killies is so tiny.

 

[Uberhoust]

A number of people really like the binomial names for organisms, but they can be just as bad. For example, "false" names are pretty common in the binomial naming system, an example I am familiar with is "Pseudotsuga menziesii" the genus of this tree is "False Hemlock", based on the term Tsuga being the genus for the hemlock trees. Even worse, the species is named after the biologist who first cataloged the plant in the 1700s, this conveys no information about the plant.

Others:
Pseudo-chroococcus a type of cyanobacteria
Pseudo-nitzschia a type of diatom
Pseudoponera a type of ant

I would say we have names like False Julii Cories because we are following a long line of history calling things false. You go from someplace or something you know, I know Julii cories (well maybe we didn't), and this cory is pretty similar to Julii cories, so it is a false Julii cory.

 

[Back in the fold]

@GaryE Neon Pikes. I like that. Ed Warner , in his book, describes them as Pike like. A fellow AKA member who is quite a Nothobranchius breeder claims that only one fish in his fish room has a name. A very large lineatus named Lucifer that he uses as a culler. I have several males that show the golden color very well and Neon really fits.