todd@uhccux.UUCP (The Perplexed Wiz) (02/05/88)
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.
--
Todd Ogasawara, U. of Hawaii Faculty Development Program
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INTERNET: todd@uhccux.UHCC.HAWAII.EDUrichard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton) (02/08/88)
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
todd@uhccux.UUCP (The Perplexed Wiz) (02/19/88)
In article <2461@gryphon.CTS.COM> richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton) writes: >In article <1530@uhccux.UUCP> todd@uhccux.UUCP (The Perplexed Wiz) writes: >>Has anyone out there seen a textfile/database/whatever listing various >>common names of tropical aquarium fish with their scientific name? I >Gak, you have probably the best already, ETF. >The best you can do to find a common name you are unfamiliar with >is look in lots of books. Yup, I'm afraid you're right. I haven't received any leads to my query since posting it two weeks ago. I have found, though, that between ETF and Innes' book, I can usually match up a popular name to a scientific name. Oh well, maybe it is time to rev up the OCR software to learn to read the fonts in some books and start scanning in the indexes of proper and popular names.. :-) ...todd -- Todd Ogasawara, U. of Hawaii Faculty Development Program UUCP: {ihnp4,uunet,ucbvax,dcdwest}!ucsd!nosc!uhccux!todd ARPA: uhccux!todd@nosc.MIL BITNET: todd@uhccux INTERNET: todd@uhccux.UHCC.HAWAII.EDU