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From: richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton)
Newsgroups: alt.aquaria,rec.pets
Subject: Re: crosslisting of common fish names with scientific names
Message-ID: <2461@gryphon.CTS.COM>
Date: 7 Feb 88 22:25:37 GMT
References: <1530@uhccux.UUCP>
Reply-To: richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton)
Organization: Trailing Edge Technology, Redondo Beach, CA
Lines: 40
Keywords: tropical fish names scientific
Summary: nope

In article <1530@uhccux.UUCP> todd@uhccux.UUCP (The Perplexed Wiz) writes:
>
>Every now and then I will hear someone mention some "common name" for a
>fish that simply does not ring a bell and is not cross-listed in my
>loose-leaf version of Axelrod et al's "Exotic Tropical Fishes."
>
>Has anyone out there seen a textfile/database/whatever listing various
>common names of tropical aquarium fish with their scientific name?  I
>realize that no such list would be "complete."  However, even one with 50%
>of the various names crosslisted with scientific names would be useful.
>

Gak, you have probably the best already, ETF.

The problem with common names is that they are great for things like
angelfish, but when you get to things like (for example) killies and
you have:

	Aphyosemion Arnoldi - thats easy. "Arnolds Aphyosemion"

hmm. dont sound so good. Thats why everybody calls them "arnoldi"

and when you have:
	
	Aphyosemion melanopteron
	A. marmarotus (sp ?)
	A. lujae

then no common name makes sense.

But thats ok, most common names dont make sense anyway, hence the need
for a more formalized taxonomy, using Latin names.

The best you can do to find a common name you are unfamiliar with
is look in lots of books.


-- 
               "It's too dark to put my legs in my munitions"
                          richard@gryphon.CTS.COM 
   {ihnp4!scgvaxd!cadovax, philabs!cadovax, codas!ddsw1} gryphon!richard