Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Fishes

Blue Marlin Picture

Could we maybe get a better picture of the blue marlin?

References

The current format that I've been using for citations is based on the MLA citation:

Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of specific article." Title of complete work. ed. Editor Name(s) (City: Publisher, year), ##-##. URL: path.html ISBN #-###-#####-#

The MLA is more like the following:

Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of specific article." Title of complete work. Ed. Editor Name(s). City: Publisher, year. ##-##. URL: path.html ISBN #-###-#####-#

The APA is more like the following:

Author's Last Name, First Name. (Date of Publication) Title of specific article. In Editor Name(s) (Ed.), Title of complete work (xth edition) (pp. ##-##). City: Publisher. URL: path.html ISBN #-###-#####-#

The reason I didn't purely follow the MLA was because doing underlines required me to use HTML, so I'd rather use WikiMarkup, so I italisized the title of the complete work (similar to how the APA does it). Other than that the existing way I did the citations was the same. In all cases above the handling of internet URL's in the format "URL: http://www.whatever.com" has been adapted from the correct "Retrieved on DATE from http://www.whatever.com".

Under the APA we should use something like the following:

Froese, Ranier, and Daniel Pauly (Eds.) (October, 2004). Xiphophorus hellerii. FishBase. URL: Xiphophorus helleri.
Integrated Taxonomic Information System (2004). ITIS Standard Report. Washington, D.C.:National Museum of Natural History. Retrieved on 2004-04-28 from ID 165920.

Under the MLA:

Integrated Taxonomic Information System. "Barbus tetrazona." ITIS Standard Report. Washington, D.C.:National Museum of Natural History. Retrieved on 2004-04-28 from ID 163655
"Puntius tetrazona." FishBase. Ed. Froese, R. and D. Pauly. 04/2004. URL: Puntius tetrazona

Proposed Citation:

Froese, Ranier, and Daniel Pauly (Eds.) (2004). FishBase. October 2004 version. S.v. "[http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.cfm?genusname=Xiphophorus&speciesname=hellerii

Xiphophorus helleri]".

National Museum of Natural History (2004). ITIS Standard Report. ID 165920.

Personally I find the APA a bit cumbersome to use and a bit more inconsistent. The "template" that I have been using is an attempt at finding a single way to represent everything in an easy format, although it technically deviates from both formats. I much prefer the MLA style, but of course there is no set way to do things here, just that the citations happen. One major difference from the proposed citation format is the retrieved on date for ITIS. I think this is pretty important. Fishbase doesn't need it because the current version of the database is always given on the site and that is sufficient. It also adds the city/publisher which is required for proper citation. Despite my preference for the MLA, if the APA is what the consensus is, I will go with that too. -- Ram-Man 03:12, Dec 2, 2004 (UTC)

I personally can't stand either MLA or APA; my professional field (history) uses Chicago. However, for science articles we should be following APA. There's no reason to use MLA, since it is a humanities style and inferior in every way to Chicago *wink*. (I'm a bit emotionally invested in that one since I'm constantly struggling with breaking students of bad MLA habits they picked up in English 102...). I've never heard of MLA being used in the sciences, either.

Don't get caught up in the italics/underlining thing, BTW: They are absolutely the same, and in a published work following any style, underlining should never be used. Some presses require it in manuscripts, but they change it to italics in the published work, and some outdated style guides for students still specify it because they haven't updated since students used typewriters incapable of doing italics to type their papers. Wikipedia should only ever use italics.

I'm a bit perplexed why you have "URL" in the citation. What follows is not the URL, which is automatically added to any external link when a Wikipedia article is printed. Guidelines for paper usage of the various styles append the URL to the citation, but that is superfluous for our purposes. The href should just go from the article name or ID number.

It is, I believe, redundant to include FishBase or ITIS as author, since they are also the titles. (Style manuals recommend omitting the author in footnotes where it is part of the title, e.g., William Shakespear's Complete Works.)

I used "s.v." (sub verbum), which is what we use in Chicago style to refer to reference works (encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc.), rather than an article title; it is the most appropriate for a searchable database. If you want to treat them as articles instead of database entries, I would use:

"Micropterus salmoides". FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. October 2004 version.
"Micropterus salmoides". ITIS Standard Report. Accessed on 1 December 2004.

We should use wiki markup for the full date for ITIS so that users' date format preferences are respected. I know YYYY-MM-DD makes sense to programmers (I'm a Linux geek myself) but it is out of place in this context and is not used in Wikipedia style. We could use the full date (19 October 2004) for FishBase, too, since that is given at the foot of every FishBase page.

BTW, Wikipedia style specifies full names for authors, not initials, even when otherwise following APA format.

Publisher and place of publication are normally omitted for electronic sources; in both cases, they would moreover be redundant, because they are simply FishBase and ITIS.

It's probably not necessary to give the ITIS ID number, because that is part of the URL and can be therefore seen both by on-line and paper readers.

My objective with the format for these is to keep them as clean and simple as possible while ensuring that they fit with other source citations. Thoughts? —Tkinias 04:12, 2 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Where can I find more information on your prefered style of citation? I wouldn't mind looking at that before doing anything else. I would note that it would be best if we included city and publisher information. I understand your desire to keep things simple, but I don't think that should be the driving force here. I don't really care so much about the format as long as it has as much of the information as possible. I should note that when I started, I abbreviated ITIS and someone else came along and didn't like that. They prefered to spell out the full name. I suppose this is because in a print version, ITIS would not be immediately understood. So while your new format looks great (for the information in it), I imagine you will want to leave out what you believe to be extraneous information, but what I think is necessary for a complete citation. I doubt I'm going to change my mind on this, and I think that the Wikipedia:Cite sources page would match with what I feel: format is secondary to content, and don't worry about the size. Now I'm not legalistic about Wikipedia "policy", but I do agree with it in this instance. -- Ram-Man (talk) 05:33, Dec 3, 2004 (UTC)

There's no on-line version of the Chicago Manual of Style, but I do have a quick-and-dirty guide based on it I put on line for a course (Guideline for Notes and Bibliography; it mentions Turabian, which is the students' "mini" Chicago). Chicago is a mammoth, comprehensive guide to all aspects of book and journal editing, typesetting, etc.

I think the person who "fixed" all the ITIS links is one of the anti-redirection zealots who goes through and changes all links to redirects; there are a few here.

As far as giving cities, we can guess Washington for ITIS—but a traceroute suggests that their server is in fact in Denver (that's the location of the last router before hitting their firewall). And where is FishBase? They have mirrors in Germany, France, Sweden, Taiwan, and the U.S., and DNS round-robin to send fishbase.org to any of them (I'm getting sent to Kiel, Germany, at the moment, even though I am in Arizona). Their home pages says FishBase was originally developed at the World Fish Center, which is headquartered in Penang, Malaysia, with the cooperation of FAO which is, IIRC, in New York City. I'm not opposed to giving a city in principle (and always would for something which had an unambiguous place of publication), but I think making one up or picking one at random for something which is published on servers around the world does not convey useful information.

As far as publisher goes, for both FishBase and ITIS the publisher is FishBase and ITIS, respectively. Full citations would be:

"Micropterus salmoides". FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. October 2004 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2004.
"Micropterus salmoides" (ID 168160). Integrated Taxonomic Information System. N.p.: Integrated Taxonomic Information System, 2004. Accessed on 1 December 2004.

(N.p. is used for "no place" where no place of publication is indicated by the work.)

BTW, I can e-mail you a paper I'm working on which employs Chicago citation for a wide variety of sources. I can't post it on line, though, for copyright reasons. —Tkinias 20:35, 3 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Alright, the full citation above looks fine for me (although I'd like to check fishbase's website later, but it appears to temporarily be down). The only problem that I might consider is that many people are not used to the format. For instance, I had no clue what "N.p." was. I'd suggest that you update Wikipedia:Cite sources and maybe add a section on the Chicago style of citations. That way I (and others) have a format to use with the fish articles when we use other sources. Because APA is so commonly used, I would almost recommend its usage just on that alone, but personally the citation above seems perfectly fine otherwise. It's the idea that sometimes we have to use the less technical or less preferred way of doing things in order that it becomes accessible to the largest group of people. But that's just a thought on my part. For now I support updating the WikiProject to reflect the full citation you've given. -- Ram-Man (comment| talk) 14:45, Dec 7, 2004 (UTC)

The project page now recommends use of the template, so we can tweak the format if we want. I don't have the APA book; what does it do for the equivalent of "n.p."? IIRC MLA also uses "n.p" for missing information (it can stand, BTW, for "no publisher" also, or both, as in "N.p., 1901"). Let's get the pages using the template and we can always change to APA if we want to later. I'll write up a bit on Chicago and Oxford (I also have that manual) at some point, explaining them both and their differences, to provide a traditional humanities style to go with the ultramodern APA. —Tkinias 16:56, 7 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Sounds great. Since it's using templates, I figure we could sit on this for a while and not feel in any rush to change anything. Maybe someone else will provide some thoughts in the meantime. BTW, I added some more generic citation templates at Wikipedia:Template messages/Sources of articles. They follow the style i've been using, but again they can change at any point. -- Ram-Man (comment| talk) 17:42, Dec 7, 2004 (UTC)

Scope

Question: Should this project cover only the Actinopterygii, or should it also include other taxa called "fish" -- the Chondrichthyes, Actinistia, Dipnoi, and maybe even Cephalaspidomorphi and Myxini? —Tkinias 08:46, 2 Dec 2004 (UTC)

All the taxa - general icthyological references always seems to include all these groups. Stan 14:51, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Reference templates

So that I can continue to work on articles while we discuss citation format, I've created templates for the references. I will update the project page to explain their usage. For now, the text they produce is equivalent to my last suggested format, but that can of course be changed. —Tkinias 09:39, 5 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Pedant's question on project name

why not WikiProject Fish? Pedant 02:05, 2004 Dec 7 (UTC)

The other analogous projects use the plural (birds, mammals, cetaceans), and fishes is customarily used to refer to multiple species or types of fish: cf. the largemouth bass and the smallmouth bass are two fishes in the sunfish family and I caught two fish this morning. See also Fish#Note on usage: "fish" vs. "fishes", which I am trying to follow. —Tkinias 02:49, 7 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Yeah, just like the famous Godfather quote: "Luca Brazzi sleeps with the fishes." If there had been only one species in that river, they'd have said "fish" instead of "fishes". :-) Dave 11:16, 6 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Categorization

I see that the project states to Categorize under either the common name or the scientific depending on circumstances.. I wonder why you do not categorize under both. For the casual user of wikipedia, the common name is often beneficial, but for a student doing a project, being able to follow links by the scientific taxonomy holds a lot of value. Because there are 2 classification schemes common and scientific, why not follow both? Sortior 23:12, Dec 26, 2004 (UTC)

Seems kind of confusing - at least it confuses me. :-) Common names for classifications are more accessible all-around, because a scientist can see "catfish" and think "siluriform", while the reverse is unlikely to be true of a lay person. Note that I'm assuming we use official taxonomic criteria for categories; while one could create a Category:Sardines to include everything ever named sardine by anybody, I think that way lies madness; categorization is binary, doesn't allow for explanation of the nuances (for this fish it's a market name used by unscrupulous businesses, for that fish it's a traditional Sicilian term, etc). Anything that needs an explanation should be in an article, not in the category system. Stan 00:22, 27 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I see this subject was last discussed two years ago, so sorry to revive it, but I do think it may need some consensus. I recently did some updating to the category to include the scientific names to the species in the category Tetraodontidae by adding the category link on the scientific name redirects. An inquiry was posted on my talk page asking about these actions. Following was my answer:

Regarding your question on adding category to redirect pages, I don't know that there is a specific policy on this. In my opinion, it completes the category list by giving both the common and the scientific name. Anyone doing a search by category can then find the species both to the common name as well as the scientific name. Although the redirect pages contain no material, if you click on these links from the category page, you will automatically be redirected to the actual article. In effect it completes the index. In particular, this could be helpful for wikipedians of other languages in that even if they can communicate in English, they may not know what the translation of a common name may be. For example, Sattel-Spitzkopfkugelfisch is german for Valentinni's sharpnose puffer, even the most advanced German english speaker (or vice versa), would be hard pressed to know the german-english translation for this, but the scientific name connects the two and so the scientific name should be included in the category list. I would suggest that this be done for all species and if it needs a policy, please let me know where I can go to propose it. To be honest, I think a separate scientific name index would be valuable as common names are not always the same. The above mentioned Valentinni's sharpnose puffer for example, is the official common name given on fishbase but it is far more commonly known as a black saddled toby. Which one is right? Regards Jnpet 02:44, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

At any rate, my impression of the category is that it is a form of index, regardless if you’re a fisherman or a scientist or German. The scientific name, connects it all together and should necessarily be included in the index. As seems to be the case in just about every reference book I’ve ever come across. May I suggest that this be a matter of policy?Jnpet 07:09, 23 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Grunion

I am currently working on an article on grunion. So far, I've only put up the beginnings of the article (intro + infobox) as a subpage of my User page (see User:BlankVerse/Grunion). If anyone has any suggestions about article organization, sources for images, etc. that would be greatly appreciated. BlankVerse ∅ 17:17, 1 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Batoidea

Our articles on batoids were a bit of a mess (and still are to some extent), involving a mixture of several systems of classification. I've tried to clean them up so they all follow the FishBase system — three orders Rajiformes, Pristiformes and Torpediniformes — instead of a mix of that and McEachran's system (which has the stingrays, eagle rays and their relatives in Myliobatiformes). I've added some discussion of the different systems of classification.

I would be grateful if someone could check Batoidea and the articles it links to. If some system of batoid classification is generally thought to be better than FishBase then please say so.

I've made ray (fish) redirect to Batoidea rather than the other way round, to avoid the question of "are skates rays?" If that's wrong, please change it around. Gdr 20:25:36, 2005-08-15 (UTC)

Fishbase references robot

I have just written and tested a robot that can read an article, find a taxobox, get the genus and species and add a reference link to fishbase. I have permission to run this for one weeks test and have successfully done so for some of the shark articles. If the taxobox does not contain both genus and species it does nothing. It should work for all fish articles also. The robot is User:StefanBot see edits to check pages it have changed. The bot have a few issues.

For now it can only handle 2-3 versions of the taxobox templates, I'm fixing it as I find more versions. For a unknown taxobos the bot just ignores the article.
It have problems with pages that have no header for external links, references, related articles or see also, if non of these exists the robot will add the reference section last in the article which is some cases places it after the fish_stubs templates, I will fix this, but I must list ALL templates by names to know what the bot shall put the text before, for the shark articles I have monitored this by hand, but for fish articles I do not think I can do that, which means that you who probably look at the fish pages more that I must do these fixes. I can change the bot to not update any articles that does not already have any of the headers mentioned above if that would be preferable. now fixed.
The bot adds the references as a * text, this does not look so good if the reference templates have been used in the article, I guess I can find {{ref and ignore the article but I have not found so many artciles yet that uses this so not sure. See for example of problem failed edit

Except for that the bot seams to do a OK job, I will not run it on the fish articles unless I get majority of positive responses here, please add comments. Also I plan to try to make it add marine bio references later, but that is when I have had time to learn more python. Stefan 05:29, 1 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds like a good idea! About placement, it doesn't concern me so much; it's more important to get the reference in there than to worry about positioning. (There have been periods when I've preferred to have the stub note in front of other end matter anyway.) A more serious question is how to ensure that the link is actually checked to see that it works; imagine a misspelled genus name for instance. It would be helpful to have the bot add a special-purpose category like "Unchecked FishBase references", requiring a human to actually verify that the link goes to the expected page before removing the category from the article. Stan 15:27, 1 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

OK, that should be resonably easy to implement, I will work on it, fishbase gives a special page if the species does not exists, so I will modify my bot so that if the species does not exists in fishbase I will add a special category instead of the link. Stefan 09:57, 2 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

OK now implemented and tested. I named the category "taxobox binomial name does not exist in fishbase" which is more descriptive I think, but I'm fine with any name. Also fixed the fish_stubs problem, now I insert the reference section before the fish-stub. Stefan 11:17, 2 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Articles for the Wikipedia 1.0 project

Hi, I'm a member of the Wikipedia:Version_1.0_Editorial_Team, which is looking to identify quality articles in Wikipedia for future publication on CD or paper. We recently began assessing using these criteria, and we are looking for A-class, B-class, and Good articles, with no POV or copyright problems. Can you recommend any suitable articles? Please post your suggestions here. Cheers, Shanel 20:17, 9 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hello - anyone here

Hello - I recently been doing some work on fishes and related articles - just wondered if anyone is here at the moment - maybe you could check some of my articles for errors etc.

Things I've done so far:

Added disambiguation pages for armoured catfish, sailfin catfish, suckermouth catfish

Moved 'plecostomus' articles to their respective scientific names - left the plecostomus page as a general page for Loricariidae catfish (especially those common in aquaria/pet shops)

Added to Loricariidae, created a Pterygoplichthys genus page.

Fish anatomy - created pages on Omega iris, odontode, suckermouth.

Fish keeping - created pages on related terms such as bogwood,aeration and L-number

If anyone is out there I'd appreciate you checking for errors / giving feedback etc. Otherwise I'll just carry on.HappyVR 18:49, 29 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Looks OK. Don't forget to italicise genera and species. Gdr 19:15, 29 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Questions about format - new genus article

I've added a new genus article - acanthicus - maybe someone could check it.

I've also got a few questions about formatting/page layout:

Is there any preference for a 'prose' article vs. a headed list eg:

Distribution South east asia
Habitat Mountain streams
Diet Small crustaceans

vs. "This species is found in mountain streams in south east asia and feeds on small crustaceans."

The headed list seems easier to use to find info. but the 'prose' version looks more readable. Any comment/advice?

Also the family Loricariidae contains links (mostly red) for all its genera - should all these genera have separate pages? As web sources/references for most of these pages are the same three sites maybe the family page should just contain a link to the sites without having a page for each genus - any thoughts?HappyVR 10:37, 31 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I favor the prose version. The headed version looks semi-illiterate, as if the writer couldn't manage to produce actual sentences. Plus you miss out on some explanatory opportunity (presumably the "small crustaceans" in mountain streams are amphipods rather than king crabs, etc :-) ). On genera, we actually want articles for all of those with more than one species; not just for navigational convenience (why hunt through a long family article?), but also because each genus needs at least an explanation of its circumscription, etymology, and rationale, which often includes some interesting ichthyological history too. You won't find much good genus detail online, but books and journal articles are a great source. Stan 12:22, 31 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

ok prose it is then - I've already have one person say they don't like the headings so two makes it final. And I'll continue adding genera as time allows. Is this page a good place to 'announce' new fish pages for checking? previously I've used Wikipedia:Reference desk/Science but the page is pretty busy. I don't think I make many mistakes but it's better if someone looks at the page early on to check for obvious mistakes that the writer overlooks.HappyVR 12:49, 31 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You might want to look at the pages linked from list of fish families to see what other editors have done with fish family articles. For example, Cichlidae shows a way to format a long list of genera; Carangidae and many others show ways to format a list of genera and species. In terms of level of detail and style I think Melanocetidae is quite good. Gdr 13:13, 31 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Bass

Back when I was a newer editor, I stumbled across Bass (fish) which looked like this. After some head scratching, I took a cue from the category and made it into a disambiguation page. It was immediately reverted by an admin. Being new and not wanting to tangle with a trigger-happy admin, I let it go for a while (see Talk:Bass (fish)), but eventually remade it into its current version, discussing the various unrelated taxa that are called bass in English. I'm not happy with that, however, and I see now that this WikiProject recommends articles be about particular taxa, which Bass (fish) is not. What should be done with this article? --Ginkgo100 19:28, 31 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Articles about miscellaneous fishes sharing a common name can be OK if the fishes have something in common; for example the flounder and halibut articles are not so bad, concerning as they do the cooking and commercial fishing of groups of similar fishes.

However, bass (fish) is really just a collection of summaries of unrelated articles, which is not such a good idea. I recommend you be bold and reduce the page to a disambig (after having made sure all the information is included in the appropriate genus and species articles).

I note in passing that the bass page is far from complete; see FishBase for many more species known as "bass". Gdr 20:19, 31 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Seahorse, a request

May I request the Seahorse page to be :-

brought upto the high stds of WikiProject Fishes. It doesnt have a taxobox.
edited by someone to give the article a good opening. The opening paragraphs of the article in its present state are ambiguous to a person who expects to find a generic article on sea horses but comes up against a genus-based article.
more photos and information please.

The WikiProject may consider putting up a section/project page for suggestions, requests, development and cleanup.

I am of the opinion that Seahorse is one of the most important pages of this WikiProject since mamy children, parents or students would be drawn to this unusual and attractive group of fishes. I am ignorant about fishes in general and usually inhabit WikiProject Lepidoptera and its domain and sometimes venture to other articles.

I'm also impressed with the quality of the WikiProject Main Page and commend all concerned. Regards, AshLin 02:49, 11 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've added the taxobox.HappyVR 11:30, 11 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, looks better now, I've edited the opening sentance. Regards, AshLin 16:20, 11 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Stub genera

I was thinking about attempting to complete the list of genera for the family loricariidae - however quite a few of the genuses have very little info available (and some are now possibly invalid) - apart from adding a taxobox and a link to fishbase and basic region found information many would contain very little info. otherwise. Should I go ahead and create these genus stubs or not bother or do something else?HappyVR 12:00, 16 June 2006 (UTC) For example acestridium this page contains about as much info as I could get hold of (for free) and other articles probably would contain even less info. than this.HappyVR 12:11, 16 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Opinions differ, but I think a good-quality stub is better than nothing at all - not only does it add more facts than there were before, the linking in and out is useful in many ways (not least that it forestalls the creation of a bad stub by somebody else). I guarantee there are printed references out there that discuss the genus in some detail, for instance the taxonomic works justifying the definition of the genus in the first place. Stan 12:58, 16 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, unfortunately the papers are not always in English - often Spanish (could that be Portugese?) or French, a translation by me would be very slow and quite probably wrong (one word at a time via a dictionary)HappyVR 13:31, 16 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'd say go for it. Think of the stubs that you create as a big welcome sign to everybody out there shouting out "ADD TO ME!". There are people who know some things about genera or species, but don't feel confident starting articles from scratch, or perceive that the lack of an article indicates a lack of interest in that article. Even if they are able to add a short reference from another source, having the framework there is more inviting for someone to throw in a bit of information, or a photo. Neil916 15:06, 16 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I was also going to ask about genera that have been made invalid (or are debated) - I assumed to just include everything and let the reader make their mind up. I'm not a biologist but it seems that the reclassification of species is quite common.HappyVR 13:31, 16 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

This project's page in the "taxonomy" section seems to state that Fishbase should be the de facto reference point for taxonomy. I've been interpreting that to mean that if a genus or species is no longer considered valid in Fishbase, it shouldn't be included here. This seems logical since Fishbase is updated regularly and can reflect the newest consensus in the scientific community, whereas my reference book from 1994 could be horribly outdated. If it were me, I'd create a redirect to the new genus or species and add a sentence or paragraph in the new article discussing the reclassification. (example: Tiger Barb has redirects from Barbus tetrazona, Capoeta tetrazona, and Puntius tetrazona, among others). Chime in if I'm wrong... Neil916 15:06, 16 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I've been using fishbase as a source (mentioning differences when discussing old or now invalid genera). It seems widely used and accepted (even being used as a reference in popular fishkeeping magazines). There is a point I've been wondering about though - regarding the classification system: Is there an official board or similar organisation that decides when a new classification is valid. Some of the reclassifications I've seen seem to be based on published papers - which makes sense since these things are peer reviewed - but surely getting a paper published is not all that it takes - maybe some sort of consensus rules here, I've honestly no idea how it works in practice - I assume differences of opinion do arise? If no-one has the answer here I'll try on the science help desk. Can't find anything on wikipedia?HappyVR 22:29, 16 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

There is no centralised authority for taxonomy, any more than for any part of science. In many well-studied areas, there's a consensus. However, there are always areas where scientific opinion differs. What this means for Wikipedia is that (a) we should say whose taxonomy we are following; and (b) we should document differences between experts. Gdr 17:10, 18 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. that gives me the info I need, thanks.HappyVR 17:29, 18 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Redirects (or even disambigs!) from synonyms are highly desirable; they help prevent creation of duplicate articles for instance. Genera and higher taxa that have been broken up or entirely abandoned may actually need to have their own taxobox-less articles that tell readers what happened to them and why, and most importantly, how to find all the ex-subtaxa in WP; see Violales for a (poorly explained) example of a former plant order. Stan 17:00, 16 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

FishBase is our reference if in doubt, but we are not obliged to follow it in all details. In particular, WP:NPOV means that we ought to describe obsolete taxa, and taxa in other systems. There are two sensible approaches:

Redirect to an appropriate page and describe the alternative taxonomies. For example, Rhinobatiformes.
Write an article describing the taxon, and explain where its members are classified in the FishBase system. For example, Myliobatiformes.

(I agree with Stan that Violales does not explain its subject well. Indeed the whole of Wikipedia's coverage of the higher classification of plants is poor in much the same way. A shame; let's hope we don't get into such a mess with fishes!) Gdr 15:52, 17 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Wikiproject Banner

Is there already a banner for this Wikiproject, or is there someone who can design one for this project? See Template:StarTrekproject, Template:WPMILHIST and Template:Stargateproject for a couple of examples. Putting those on talk pages would not only attract the attention of editors with similar interests, it could also encourage consistency of pages by encouraging everybody to read the style guidelines. I think it would be a good tool; I don't remember how I first stumbled across this project, but most people probably aren't aware of it. Neil916 17:26, 17 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Good idea - couldn't find such a thing but a few minutes cutting and pasting produced this:

Fishes Project‑class

	Fish portal This page is part of WikiProject Fishes, an attempt to organise a detailed guide to all topics related to Fish taxa. To participate, you can edit the attached article, or contribute further at WikiProject Fishes. This project is an offshoot of the WikiProject Tree of Life.FishesWikipedia:WikiProject FishesTemplate:WikiProject FishesFishes articles
Project	This page does not require a rating on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.

Which is inserted into an article using {{Fishproject}}.

As yet there is no fish portal but I've left that in 'just in case'. Any good? If the wording is wrong you can edit this as Template:Fishproject --HappyVR 18:42, 17 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Well 'somebody' changed my White Cloud Mountain Minnow picture to a shoal of fish on the grounds that it was not 'exciting' - if minnows aren't exciting I don't know what is!

But seriously are we now going to use this template on all the talk pages, shall I start adding it to articles I've edited?HappyVR 13:59, 18 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think it looks good. Thanks for your work. I think any minor changes can be hashed out on that banner's talk page and changes that are made will automatically change on the pages where it has been inserted, so go ahead and start inserting. I'll do the same. Neil916 16:03, 18 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

ok I'll start using it.HappyVR 16:11, 18 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've finished going through the all of the articles and inserting the banner in all of the talk pages that didn't have it. The banner is now included in about 1700+ articles. I think the banner has been successful, as the number of participants listed on this project have more than doubled in the month or so since the banner was rolled out.

The manual insertion of the banners was considerably more time consuming than I anticipated and am now wondering what will happen a few months down the road when new articles are created without that banner in them. Manually checking a couple thousand articles for the banner would be just as time consuming. I think that it would be a relatively simple task for a bot to accomplish; basically, start at Category:Ray-finned fish and navigate all of the articles and subcategories to check for the inclusion of the template in their talk pages. Anybody know anything about bots who is willing to volunteer for this? Neil916 16:19, 27 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

What is our reference for species?

I wonder how we handle things like [1] and [2]. What I mean is what is our reference for what fish species there are? For the first example there is a reference "Last, Chidlow & Compagno" and I would use Compagno as the authority on shark species, but I think that wikipedia have fishbase as its main reference, not FAO or individual papers. Fishbase does not list Orectolobus hutchinsi yet? I do not want to change this page since I consider the edit to be correct but I would like to hear some others view? What is really our reference for the number of species and what they are in wikipedia? fishbase or something else? The second example I think is easier, I made that edit and I did not claim that the new species is official so I would say that is a correct edit also, but also want comments on it also. Stefan 14:35, 23 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Any reliable source - I fishbase isn't up to date with new species - don't worry - If a new species has been discovered - add it - that's what I would do.

This project page does suggest using fishbase as it's main reference, however it's not 'our bible'. Your first example uses a ref from zootaxa - that should be a reliable source. There's no problem with individual papers. (Also fishbase is really just a collection of references - stuff on there always has a paper that the info. has come from. - it's not really the primary source.)

Not sure what 'FAO' means. Your edit seems fine - I'd suggest a note in the taxobox as well maybe. Though the article could do with some sub headings..(just my opinion). Oh and thanks for bring up Wobbegong - I've always found those interesting. Did that answer your questions?HappyVR 18:21, 23 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, very good answer, thanks! And FOA is FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS, they publish species reports on sharks, see the only one online [3] which I though was the most official documents describing at least shark species. Stefan 23:56, 23 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Please add new section

Please add a section where the fish-stub, project banner and any other templates concerned with WikiProject Fishes are displayed. You may like to see WikiProject Arthropods and WikiProject Lepidoptera as examples. Regards, AshLin 18:26, 23 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'll do that now, AshLin. Also, in the future, can you add new sections of this page to the bottom instead of the middle? It makes it difficult to find your edits otherwise. Thanks Neil916 19:20, 23 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, I've cut and pasted a version from the Arthropods Project page. The fish have a number of categories and subcategories that should be listed on a subpage that is redlinked in the part that I've added, but I don't have a lot of time to add that part today. Nor do I really understand how the categories are organized (which is a good reason in itself to add that page). If someone has the inclination, feel free to jump in and tackle it, otherwise I'll try to get to it in the next week or so. Neil916 19:35, 23 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've thrown together a first draft of the category sub-page. There are a lot of them. Many of those categories only have one page in them, although I'm sure that a year from now we'll be talking about how we need to split those into smaller groups because there are too many articles in each one :)

One source of potential confusion is that I listed the categories in a heiarchical fashion, then alphabetically. Most of the category names are scientific names based upon the family. Others use common names. Anybody have any ideas how to make that page easier to navigate? Neil916 08:09, 24 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It's a long list, not a lot we can do about that. I prefer using the scientific name as 90% already do. Luckily most of the common name categories are at the end of the taxonomic branches so it shouldn't cause too much confusion.HappyVR 13:10, 24 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Can we also have a user-box for all WPFish participants like the TOL or Arthropod user-boxes. see my user page. I'd very much like to have a fish user-box there too.AshLin 04:12, 25 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Added one. Consider it a starting point, as I couldn't quickly find a picture that looked decent in a 50x50 square; the fish needs a solid background behind it in order to be recognizable at that small size, so as it is, the picture is oversized compared to standard userboxes because that species is long and skinny. Something like a freshwater angelfish would probably look good if we could find a photo without a busy background. See discussion on the template page. Use {{User WPFishes}} to include it on your user page. Neil916 08:06, 25 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

List of fishproject relevant categories

Hello. I've expanded upon the category list for this project a bit. Some of the categories I've added don't exist yet but I've every intention of using them later on. Here's a summary: Added Category:Poeciliidae for live bearers and added species to this new category. The 'old' category 'live-bearers' is unchanged but now does not specifically just mean the family:Poeciliidae. Also added new categories Loricariidae and Callichthyidae as sub categories of 'armoured catfish'.

I've also added 'Geographical categories' - some of which don't exist yet. I think all species/genus articles should be in one of these (list not complete yet).

I tried to collect all the 'relavance to mankind' categories. I'm not sure about the category 'cold water aquarium fish' - should this be a list - I will change it if anyone wants.

I've also added lists relevant to this project as it seemed sensible.

O.K. First of all I'm sure I've missed a lot - please start adding more stuff. Secondly is it ok, feedback please etc..HappyVR 22:59, 24 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Questions - for categories such as Fish of south america - should I include every species or stop at genus or family level?HappyVR 23:44, 24 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Also there's a choice between 'wildlife' and 'fauna' in the geographical categories - any thoughts?HappyVR 23:44, 24 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Happy, It sometimes helps to stand back and look at some other category scheme for ideas. It may suggest a better way to organise or some new category such as 'fish-scientists' or 'fish-books' , yes, I dont know the correct terms for these. I suggest you take a look at Lepidoptera category and its sub categories. Its not yet completely done but we have done some house-cleaning in it. Also see draft guidelines for categorisation (at present of butterflies only) which can be accessed here.Regards, AshLin 04:07, 25 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, category fish-scientists is a good idea - they're called ichthyologists, I guess butterfly scientists are called Lepidoptorists?HappyVR 13:42, 25 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You mean like Category:Ichthyologists? :-) Stan 16:36, 25 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Live bearers category

I've created a category:poeciliidae and put added the category tag to all the articles about this genus I could find. Further to this I've added non Poeciliidae genus live bearing fishes to the category:Live-bearers. Finally I've added a request that the category:live-bearers be renamed category:Ovoviviparous fish. Which all made sense to me. See Wikipedia:Categories for deletion/Log/2006 June 25. Hope this is ok.HappyVR 16:46, 25 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

category:viviparous fish and category:live-bearing fish also now exist.

My suggestion is that if the exact type of parental support is unknown the fish be placed in category:live-bearing fish otherwise category:viviparous fish orcategory:ovoviviparous fish should be used. Livebearers of the guppy, platy, and molly type should also go in category:Poeciliidae. Hope I've got that right.HappyVR 03:40, 26 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

log of new articles

I know that wikipedia has a log of articles created - but what about fish - is there anyway to generate one so we can look at the new stuff. Otherwise how about having a user created one - I'd be happy if I knew any articles I had written had been given a good going over by a lot of other people. I definately have time to check a list, read an article and add any info. I have / do spelling. Is it worth trying this?HappyVR 19:13, 26 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You may find [4] and [5] useful (although these lists don't find pages with no taxobox). Gdr 07:29, 28 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yes thanks that works quite well.

Barbel

Note: for anyone using a link to the term barbel, I have disambiguated it.

New pages Barbel (fish species) Barbel (anatomy) and Barbel (disambiguation)

Thank youHappyVR 20:39, 27 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've merged the Barbel (fish species) article into Barbus barbus and further modified the disambiguation page. Neil916 15:19, 28 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Categories - Europe

Seems quite a few people are working on categories at the moment - here's a note for anyone who knows their "European fish" - if you have time - there is a new category Category:Fish of Europe. ThanksHappyVR 13:15, 28 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

barbs

(Copied from main page)

Would anyone with more information on 'barbs' like to write a non taxonomic article on them - suggested title Barb (fish species) - similar to the articles for carp or dace HappyVR 20:55, 29 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Given the ambiguity of "barbs" would Barbus (the genus) be better? I'm happy to have a go at it? MidgleyDJ 00:52, 30 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

that's one of the problems - many of the barbs (especially southeast asian) (tropical fish) such as the tiger barb have been moved into the genus puntius - hence the need for a barb (common name) page, So now there are barbs not only in barbus but puntius and it seems the tinfoil barb is in another genus as well.. My suggestion was basically for a common name disambiguation page (for 'barbs') but now you mention it the genus barbus article could also do with some work esp. regarding behaviour, habitat, taxonomy etcHappyVR 01:44, 30 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Barb (fish) should exist and explain the difference between genus Barbus and the various species called "X barb". I find fish called "barb" in Barbichthys, Barbodes, Barboides (yes, they're different genera!), Barbonymus, Barbopsis, Barbus, Caecobarbus, Capoeta, Catla, Catlacarpio, Chela, Cyclocheilichthys, Devario, Discherodontus, etc. (BTW, I'm getting really fed up with the crackers who keep fucking with FishBase...) Tkinias 09:46, 30 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

(Does fishbase get vandalised like wikipedia - I've never noticed this. What sort of problems are there.) Thanks for the list anyway.HappyVR 13:35, 30 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Not like Wikipedia, just cracked into... the FishBase admins seem to have a running battle going with a cracker group right now, with the crackers getting in and defacing the site/taking down all the databases every few hours, and then the admins restoring everything... So I'm mostly using the French and German mirrors right now. Tkinias 14:33, 30 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Actually you've given by enough info to get started on it, I'm going through the fish kingdom adding geographic categories so if I find more barbs I'll add them.

I'll start with a list and eventually try to have a short paragraph with relevant links for each genus that has 'barbs' in it (with a brief description)HappyVR 23:46, 30 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

oceans

Re:Categories: Is there a term that describes (species) that are found in the pacific,indian and atlantic oceans (but not artic ocean), also is there a simple term that includes tropical and sub-tropical fish ie a replacement for category:Pan-(subtropical and tropical) fish?

Why not just list it in the indian ocean category, atlantic ocean category, and pacific ocean categories? Neil916 15:51, 3 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'll do thatHappyVR 15:53, 5 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

trinomial fishbase

Is there a way to use the fishbase template to get a sub-species?HappyVR 14:49, 3 July 2006 (UTC) I can't get the subspecies fishbase template to work.. The ID is ?HappyVR 15:09, 3 July 2006 (UTC) Ignore - I've worked it out.HappyVR 15:14, 3 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

To do list

I've added a 'to-do' list as suggested by User:Lethargy, probably a better way than adding stuff to the bottom of the main page. There should be a link from the talklist on the main page. I'll copy the current list over as well.HappyVR 15:56, 5 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks

Thanks to Neil916 for adding the tag to the talkpage. My last message got wipe on editing accident. Sorry this is so short.

See my notes on Salmon and classification of government websites and bystate.

See my Mad Cow Page for and example of what the classification will look like.

--meatclerk 19:10, 5 July 2006 (UTC) meatclerk 19:10, 5 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Duplicate Spanish Mackerel article? Help needed

Expert advice needed re. possible merging of two articles. Please see talk page: Talk:Atlantic Spanish mackerel. Thanks! --Velvet-Glove 18:19, 11 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Update to the above: article merge has now been completed. --Velvet-Glove 00:15, 1 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Tilapia advice

We currently have a Tilapia page which discusses tilapiine cichlids (Tilapia, Sarotherodon and Oreochromis) under the common/trade name for these fish - tilapia. This is a confusing situation (see Talk:Tilapia). I was wondering whether I could get some advice from the WikiProject Fishes participants as to how to fix it?

Given the ambiguity of the common name (eg: tilapia vs Tilapia), I would suggest that a new page "tilapiines" or "tilapiine cichlids" be created to include most of the information on the tilapiine group as a whole (including information on aquaculture/invasive species) with links to three separate genera pages (eg: Tilapia, Sarotherodon and Oreochromis).

Thoughts/Suggestions? MidgleyDJ 21:48, 14 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Tilapia should talk about the group as a whole - the name in that sense is just *so* common - and focus on the food and commercial aspects. Use Tilapia (genus) or Tilapia (fish genus) for the genus proper, give it more of the science, such as systematics and common characteristics of the genus. Stan 12:43, 18 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

What to do? Reverts/Edits

Hi WikiProject -

I'm having some trouble with a user (User: 69.232.73.33) continuously reverting changes to cichlid. The user wont discuss the change (*which involves the listing of the genus Maylandia over Metriaclima*). Maylandia is the name given in fishbase - and the contentious nature of the genus is discussed adequately (and in a NPOV) on the Maylandia page itself.

So I'm asking for your advice in dealing with this person? MidgleyDJ 09:00, 18 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Contribution history shows this is not the first time a problem has arisen, and yet this editor has not made a single edit to any talk page - ever. The editor does seem to know something of the field, so I hate to block summarily. Let's do a last warning. Stan 12:36, 18 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

This particular editor has a long history of making edits that seem fairly minor, yet when you look deeper into his edits, many of them seem (to me) to be malicious in nature, while others are entirely constructive edits. MidgleyDJ certainly has memories of his robotic reversions of commentary about the accuracy of photos on Fishbase, which led to 2 3RR blocks of his anon account. His other edits to the Cichlid page in particular raises an issue, since this Wikiproject uses Fishbase as the ultimate authority on taxonomy. Most of his edits to Cichlid are additions of various genera that are in a state of transition. Fishbase doesn't acknowledge almost all of them, yet other authorities (i.e. IUCN) do. It's an issue I've deliberately kept away from since I'm in no way any type of authority on taxonomy, but today I decided to take a look at many of his recent edits and found that several were flat-out wrong (malicious? can't tell, he doesn't use edit summaries, ever.) such as the removal of asian arowana from the Endangered species article, changing species names in articles, and his arbitrary changing a caption on a photo in the Halfbeak article. I guess it wouldn't be so annoying if he would just respond to attempts to communicate with him on his talk page and article talk pages. That is why I would characterize many of his actions as malicious in nature. Even when he got blocked, he was right back as soon as the block expired with the same exact behavior without as much as an edit summary comment to defend his actions. Neil916 06:55, 19 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

For what its worth, I too had a review of this user's history and even if he does seem to have some knowledge of the subject, the fact that so many of his edits seem to be non-verifiable or flat our wrong and especially the fact that he refuses to engage in any discussion about his edits makes me feel less inclined to give him the benefit of any doubt. How many warnings does someone have to have before he gets shown the door. If it were in my power I would ban him outright. Perhaps it is better that it is not in my power <grin>.Nick Thorne 12:05, 19 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

OK, I've posted the final warning. It's very rare to run across someone who does deliberate but subtle injection of bad info into WP, and there are reasonable edits mixed in, so it's hard to be certain of malice. Behavior strikes me more as someone who's utterly convinced of the correctness of his alternate reality. But in any case it sucks up too much time reviewing and re-reviewing un-discussed edits, we don't need that. Stan 12:22, 19 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think your warning worked. Neil916 15:34, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The user has again made unexplained edits (this time removing all of one side of the story) to Maylandia, and also to cichlid. MidgleyDJ 20:07, 20 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Photos with Tape Measure

Hi.. I think it is benefitial to have photos with a scale, so you get an idea of the size of a fish. This can be done by placing a physical tape measure or ruler next to the animal, when taking the photo. This would be more reliable than doing it after the shot, I guess. I think this can be included in the "images" section. However, I'm not a member of the WikiProject Fish, and I don't want to mess with your guidelines ! -- Andreas

You don't have to be a "member" of WikiProject Fishes. It's part formal, part informal group of people interested about the same things. That said, I have to agree with your assessment, but I would say that finding such pictures is perhaps harder than you might think. I've taken pictures of objects (example) that can't move, but it's a little harder, since you most likely have to remove the fish from the water, and if you do that it doesn't look as natural as taking a picture of a fish in the water (behind glass or through the clear water). Due to these complications, it wouldn't make sense to make it a "standard", but it's not a bad idea either. On the other hand, you don't need a ruler to get a sense of scale. A standard sized object next to the fish can also be helpful. Ram-Man 14:47, 28 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I added a little paragraph on this subject. Feel free to change it! -- Andreas

Oceanic whitetip shark to FA

Hi!

We are trying to get Oceanic whitetip shark to FA status, please review and update. Thanks! Stefan 03:11, 29 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Coregonus

There is an odd reference to a submarine at the end of the coregonus article that probably doesn't belong there. I've left it there, but someone might want to have a look.

The reference to blackfin cisco being extinct is incorrect, and is in fact contradicted by the blackfin cisco page. I'll make the correction. The status of this group is problematic. The proliferation of cisco species in the Laurentian great lakes is based on the work of a single researcher and the subject of debate. Some note might be made of that, but since it's all pretty up in the air, maybe not. I'm new to this encyclopedia business.

I will also clean up the capitalized species names in the section.--Peter3 18:28, 3 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

OK. I've just started looking at some other coregonus entries and discovered that the submarine business crops up in other species. Doesn't seem to fit. The lake herring/cisco entry is a bit jumbled, with a bunch of stuff that has nothing to do with the species C. artedi but relates to ciscos generally. The general bits probably belong in the general Coregonus article.--Peter3 18:47, 3 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've added pages for some cisco species and redirects where appropriate, but I am new enough to this that I may have messed up the classification (I just classified everything Salmonidae),etc.

I also added a page for coregoninae and one called freshwater whitefish, and edited the dismbiguation page for whitefish accordingly. I've been working away at expanding the Coregonus entries and expanding various stubs. I have also added a northern cisco page and will edit the Cisco(fish) page to make it general to the group rather than specific to northern cisco/lake herring. Peter3 21:21, 27 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Project Sharks

After trying to get enough people to join for a long time I have now made Wikipedia:WikiProject Sharks official, if anyone is interested please come join us! Stefan 23:13, 10 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Water conditions

This has been bothering me for some time having worked on numerous fish articles. We often list the water conditions, such as what temperature and pH should be used. But these are often only averages. Fish in the wild are never exposed to the same conditions at all times. Temperature and pH change with the weather, especially different from dry and wet seasons. Really serious aquarists who do breeding and other such things will take the time to vary the temperature, water level, pH, and so forth to imitate the changing seasons, but if you read the average fish article you would have no idea about this. Some articles say something like "Fish in the aquarium should be kept at these conditions...", but that isn't necessarily true. Maybe the articles should be changed to say something like "average" temperatures. I'm not really sure. Right now our articles are great for people who want to keep fish, but maybe not as much as for scientific studies. Maybe that kind of information isn't well-known, however. — Ram-Man ^{(comment) (talk)} 12:50, 11 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

prolink the Czech version

the Czech version of this page exist at http://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mn%C3%ADk_jednovous%C3%BD how ever it is not suggested in the left-hand-menu

Yellow clown goby

I've requested a peer review for this article at WP:PR and was hoping to get someone from this project to have a look. I'm hoping for featured article status on this one. All comments appreciated! Mmoyer 15:22, 30 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

merger proposal

There is a project at Wikipedia:Wikiproject Improving Fish Articles which covers substantially the same ground as this larger project. I suggest that whatever content is appropriate from the other page be merged into this one. Badbilltucker 20:11, 15 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I don't see any content of value in the other one - looks like someone not knowing what we already have. Stan 22:51, 15 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Fishapod sequence

In Late Devonian vertebrate speciation, descendants of pelagic lobe-finned fish like *Eusthenopteron* included *Panderichthys* with adaptions to muddy shallows, *Tiktaalik* whose limb-like fins could take it onto land, then early tetrapods in the weed-filled swamps like *Acanthostega* whose feet had eight digits and *Ichthyostega* with developed limbs. Pelagic lobe-finned fish continued, including coelacanth species.

In the dim mists of time when Tiktaalik was first found to have roamed the earth I put together an illustration and the following caption:

Late Devonian vertebrate speciation saw lobe-finned fish like "Panderichthys having descendants such as Eusthenopteron which could breathe air in muddy shallows, then Tiktaalik whose limb-like fins could take it onto land, preceding the first tetrapod amphibians such as Acanthostega whose feet had eight digits, and Ichthyostega with developed limbs, negotiating weed-filled swamps. Lobe-finned fish evolved into Coelacanth species which survive to this day."

When someone altered the sequence on some of the articles to put Eusthenopteron first and on checking it appeared that it was a pelagic fish, not a muddy shallows dweller, I revised the illustration and have been trying to sort out the caption: current draft shown to the left. Can some knowledgeable people please review this and suggest improvements. - - dave souza, talk 15:28, 27 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

That's a fairly unwieldy sentence. I think it would be improved if, instead of a comma-separated list, you used bullets. Something like this:

In Late Devonian vertebrate speciation, descendants of pelagic lobe-finned fish – like *Eusthenopteron* – exhibited a sequence of adaptations:

*Panderichthys*, suited to muddy shallows;
*Tiktaalik* with limb-like fins that could take it onto land;
Early tetrapods in weed-filled swamps, such as:

*Acanthostega* which had feet with eight digits,
*Ichthyostega* with limbs.
Descendants also included pelagic lobe-finned fish such as coelacanth species.

In Late Devonian vertebrate speciation, descendants of pelagic lobe-finned fish-like Eusthenopteron exhibited the following adaptations:

Panderichthys adapted to muddy shallows;
Tiktaalik developed limb-like fins that could take it onto land;
Early tetrapods like Acanthostega in weed-filled swamps had feet with eight digits;
Ichthyostega developed limbs.

Descendants also included pelagic lobe-finned fish such as coelacanth species.

-Axlq 03:32, 29 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. I've tried it to the right of your list, with slight modification: bulleting as suggested didn't work in captions. Note that the information and sequence is my interpretation as a non-expert, and expert assessment would be appreciated. ..dave souza, talk 09:41, 30 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I just re-did your version above with with HTML markup instead of hard-coded bullets and line breaks. Unfortunately, I'm a non-expert also, so all I can help with is formatting and readability. =Axlq 01:27, 1 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Flying fish and Ocean Sunfish

I just noticed that the flying fish page didn't have a fishes project tag, so I added it to the project and reorganized the paragraphs into the general order recommended. However, the article still needs work that goes beyond my knowledge. In particular I can't figure out what to do with the fishbase referencing; the month and date fields are confusing. (I'm new to this project) =Axlq 05:16, 28 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Also the ocean sunfish page has many questionable assertions as well as some outright contradictions (a "weak swimmer" that can leap 10 feet into the air). I have flagged these with "citation needed" tags. This could be a good article with cleanup. =Axlq

common name vs genus

Morning all. I know the Wiki convention is to use the common name over the genus/species name. I am wondering what we do, however, when the common name isnt well known in some places. To give an example I am thinking of Neetroplus redirects to "poor man's Tropheus". I've virtually never heard anyone in Australia use this common name for this fish. Most often they are Neets or Neetroplus. In such cases I'd think Neetroplus would be a much better name than poor man's Tropheus. Thoughts?

Image Uploads

Is there a way we can contribute images for easy use? Have a number of photos which I'd be happy to share, but not sure how to label them for easy search and use for anyone wanting to create an article on a specific marine creature. Perhaps an image request list would be beneficial. Jnpet 07:17, 9 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The best place for them is the [Commons], which is the Wikimedia-wide image repository. Upload the photos and then either add them to existing galleries and categories, or create new categories for taxa not already there. For fishes, start from commons:Category:Chondrichthyes and commons:Category:Osteichthyes and work your way down to see what we have already. Generally article writers know to swing by commons and see what we have in our "stock photos" when putting together the article. Stan 13:32, 9 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Pipefish and.... erm....

I took some photos at an aquarium yesterday, and did a little work on images in the Pipefish article earlier.... I boldly replaced the infobox image, which I thought had a dubious claim to fair use, and added a couple of others. I've labelled two of those photographs as Alligator Pipefish (I previously knew only that they were Pipefish) solely on the basis that they look exactly the same, to my inexpert eye, as the creature in the original infobox image, which was labelled as such. I'm sure this must be correct, but if possible, I'd like for somebody who knows their pipefish to confirm that this is the case.

Also, I wonder if anyone can identify these strange beasties?

[6] [7] [8] TheMadBaron 12:40, 20 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Those beasties are Spotted garden-eels, Heteroconger hassi. Have spotted them a few times diving in Malaysia and Indonesia. When you see them on a dive, you'll understand why they're called garden-eels. There are usually several individuals burried in the sand with their heads sticking out and the distance between each burrow seems almost scientifically exact, (about 25~30cm?). So at first look, you see what appears to be a planned "garden" of something planted in the sand, which on closer examination turns out to be these fantastic eels. By the way, those are purely my own observations and so have no references. Cheers! Jnpet 01:44, 23 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Project directory

Hello. The WikiProject Council has recently updated the Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Directory. This new directory includes a variety of categories and subcategories which will, with luck, potentially draw new members to the projects who are interested in those specific subjects. Please review the directory and make any changes to the entries for your project that you see fit. There is also a directory of portals, at User:B2T2/Portal, listing all the existing portals. Feel free to add any of them to the portals or comments section of your entries in the directory. The three columns regarding assessment, peer review, and collaboration are included in the directory for both the use of the projects themselves and for that of others. Having such departments will allow a project to more quickly and easily identify its most important articles and its articles in greatest need of improvement. If you have not already done so, please consider whether your project would benefit from having departments which deal in these matters. It is my hope that all the changes to the directory can be finished by the first of next month. Please feel free to make any changes you see fit to the entries for your project before then. If you should have any questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you. B2T2 23:43, 25 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Wildlife Barnstar

There is currently a barnstar proposal at Wikipedia:Barnstar and award proposals/New Proposals#Wildlife Barnstar for a barnstar which would be available for use for this project. Please feel free to visit the page and make any comments you see fit. Badbilltucker 15:35, 15 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Stablepedia

Beginning cross-post.

See Wikipedia talk:Version 1.0 Editorial Team#Stablepedia. If you wish to comment, please comment there. ★MESSED ROCKER★ 03:35, 26 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

End cross-post. Please do not comment more in this section.

Weather loach

Hi WikiProject,

it seems there's a duplicate article in your project scope:

I've marked the articles for merging and thought I'd let you folks know here, too, so that it can be swiftly resolved. Thanks for all the hard work! -pinkgothic 19:09, 27 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think perhaps the reason for this was that "Weather Loach" can be used generically, but the article was written for a single species. As a result I've merged the articles. I can't say its the best merge, but it will have to do until someone else comes along and updates it. -- RM 20:17, 27 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Well, that explains why there were two articles - thanks for letting me know. And of course: much thanks for the merge. -pinkgothic 16:13, 28 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Antennarius

Frogfish seem very difficult to identify because the vast variety in camoflage coloration even within one species. Therefor, I thought perhaps someone here could help with the identity of this beauty. Initially, I tagged it as an A. pictus, but on further consideration, I'm starting to think it could be an A. commerson. Would highly appreciate a confirmation, correction or an alternate possibility. FYI, on this specimen. About 15 cm from head to tail and location is North Sulawesi, Indonesia.Jnpet 05:41, 29 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

FishBase references

I notice that down at the bottom of their main page [9], they are asking people to include citations of their "main ref" and "data ref" publications. Makes sense, because FishBase is like us, they just aggregate other people's data. Only downside I can see is that we're adding refs to works we probably haven't seen ourselves - although I've done it before, I don't think every editor agrees with the practice, so we'd have to establish an explicit rule that it's OK here. Stan 15:34, 29 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Review of Asian arowana

I have developed Asian arowana pretty extensively. Currently I'm soliciting other editors to review it, with the hope that it may reach FA someday. Any comments or contributions would be appreciated. --Ginkgo100 ^talk 21:25, 29 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Proposed Veterinary medicine project

There is now a proposed project at Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals#Veterinary Medicine to deal with matters of veterinary medicine, a subject which currently has disproportionately low content in wikipedia. Any wikipedia editors who have an interest in working on content related to the subject are encouraged to indicate as much there. Thank you for your attention. Badbilltucker 22:10, 6 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The Fish Portal created

Just to let you know that I have created the fish portal. Here are the current contents of the portal:

The fish portal
Selected article of the month (this can be anything: fishing, fishkeeping, fish in culture, etc.)
Selected fish of the month (this can be a species, a genus, or a family of fish)
Selected picture of the month
Fish news
Did you know...
Selected quote of the month
Categories
Fish lists
WikiProjects (links to WikiProject Fishes and WikiProject Sharks)
Related portals (links to the Sharks Portal, the Marine Life Portal, and the Biology Portal)
Selected topics about Fish (with 6 groups of topics: Fish biology, Fish taxonomy, Fishery, Food fish, Fishkeeping, Aquarium fish, and Others)
Things you can do (this is a link to tasks)
Web resources (FishBase and ITIS)
Associated Wikimedia

As the fish portal is just started, I took the liberty of choosing the December article and the picture of the month myself. But from now on the portal is open for nomination. Is there anything else I should include in the portal? Any comments would be appreciated --Melanochromis 00:27, 10 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The Fish Portal

Hi, User:Melanochromis has done a great job getting the Fish Portal up an running. At this point, more sets of eyes can help make it even better. If you can offer some tips on the portal talk page about how to improve Fish up to "featured" quality, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. Rfrisbie^talk 13:55, 11 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I was impressed as well, and very pleased to see Asian arowana as the featured fish. --Ginkgo100 ^talk 21:11, 11 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Did you add Pala(the fish found only in river indus)

Hello there, I am aquarium fish lover, I wish I could keep some with me but I am afraid to mange them and feeding and I do not know what steps to take, I used to play tycoon fish game so that I can get idea of keeping aquarium fish, is not it funny ,well that game idea did not work. So still I am waiting to get strong to fulfill my hobby of keeping aquarium fishes .anyway I have to talk about topic ,I am just wanted to ask you, have you add Fish( Pala, this fish is only found in river Indus. if not then I request you to add it. Please). —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Khalidkhoso (talk • contribs) 05:24, 12 December 2006 (UTC).[reply]

The fishbase shows that there are many fish with the common name Pala. But the one you are talking about is probably Tenualosa ilisha, also known as Hilsa, which is the national fish of Bangladesh. The Hilsa article says that the fish is also called "Palla" in Sind. Is this the same fish? If you are interested in the fish, I suggest you can help expanding the Tenualosa ilisha article. --Melanochromis 08:39, 12 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Category:Wikipedia requested photographs of fishes

Hi guys, I'm working on sorting out the ~6000+ photo requests currently in the Category:Wikipedia requested photographs, so I have among other things created Category:Wikipedia requested photographs of fishes. Populating it now by running AWB though the category and updating the photoreq template where I find your project banner. Just figured you guys might be interested (it's better to keep photo requests by subjects so interested parties can easily see what we want photos of rater than having to sift though one massive category full of "unrelated" stuff). Put {{reqphoto|fishes}} (or if the subject already have a fair use image, and is too rare to qualify as {{Replaceable fair use}} outright: {{reqfreephoto|fishes}}). On article talk pages add them to the category. Hope some will find it usefull. --Sherool (talk) 09:09, 13 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

WikiProject Aquarium Fishes

Hello all, just like to let you know that the WikiProject Fishes has a new descendant project: The Aquarium Fishes Wikiproject. Check it out here !! --Melanochromis 02:29, 16 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia Day Awards

Hello, all. It was initially my hope to try to have this done as part of Esperanza's proposal for an appreciation week to end on Wikipedia Day, January 15. However, several people have once again proposed the entirety of Esperanza for deletion, so that might not work. It was the intention of the Appreciation Week proposal to set aside a given time when the various individuals who have made significant, valuable contributions to the encyclopedia would be recognized and honored. I believe that, with some effort, this could still be done. My proposal is to, with luck, try to organize the various WikiProjects and other entities of wikipedia to take part in a larger celebrartion of its contributors to take place in January, probably beginning January 15, 2007. I have created yet another new subpage for myself (a weakness of mine, I'm afraid) at User talk:Badbilltucker/Appreciation Week where I would greatly appreciate any indications from the members of this project as to whether and how they might be willing and/or able to assist in recognizing the contributions of our editors. Thank you for your attention. Badbilltucker 17:31, 30 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Portal:Fish feature nominations

The fish portal only has three users regularly voting for the selected article, selected fish, and selected picture. Come place your vote, or nominate your favorite article/fish/picture! --Ginkgo100^talk 20:53, 6 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Gobius lagocephalus

Hi, anyone willing to start a stub on that critter? There is currently a major taxonomical dispute raging, and I have the papers and would like to put them somewhere. Being not very firm as regards gobies, I don't dare to start the article myself.

BTW, I have put a number of descriptions of new species (mainly catfish and tetras from South America) as annotations in the family or genus articles; check out the source code. Most should be online for free. If you're in the mood, grab that stuff and edit away. Dysmorodrepanis 21:49, 22 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Microformat

Please be aware of the proposed Species microformat, particularly in relation to taxoboxes. Comments welcome on the wiki at that link. Andy Mabbett 22:36, 26 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Internal fertilization

If someone can think of a good title for a single article on internal fertilization in fishes, we should go ahead and create an article. Claspers, Gonopodium, and Andropodium are all stubs, and their concepts overlap rather well. Although I'm no expert, the articles give some indication that, at least, gonopodium and andropodium are relatively similar organs. Anyone else got any ideas? MiltonT 07:44, 2 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Wyoming Game Fish

I came across this via newpages. It seems like a good start to an article, but I'm not sure about the title (aside from the capitalization issue). Should it become something like Fishing in Wyoming? There aren't any similar articles for other U.S. states or even countries that I've been able to find, and this isn't a subject I'm familiar with. —Cel ithemis 06:47, 13 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

fauna article naming conventions

Morning all -

Greetings from Sydney, Australia.

I'm writing to propose a change to the way common names are used as article names for fish species. I've been contributing to various fish articles on Wikipedia for some time now and I'd noticed a number of articles under common names not used in my country. To give some recent examples see the discussions at Talk:Managuense cichlid, Talk:Mayan cichlid. Neither of these common names are in "common" use outside the aquarium/fishing hobbies - and moreover - both names arent in common use in english speaking countries other than the USA. I understand the logic behind using common names for fauna such as birds - where there are established "formal" common names. These, however, don't exist for the vast majority of fish species. Fishbase lists any and all common names for fish, however, many arent in common usage in english (or even in english used in the fishing or aquarium hobbies).

Here's an example: Julidochromis regani has been assigned the common name "convict julie" by fishbase. I've kept Julidochromis species for 13 years and I've NEVER seen any Julidochromis regani sold in this fashion in Australia - where they are often just referred to as "regani". To use this commmon name as a title for an article - just because it's been assigned to the fish by fishbase seems very silly to me (incidentally - the same applies to the Mayan Cichlid, in my experience).

I'd like to propose that the common name policy for naming of articles should apply only when:

the name is used in the majority of english speaking countries
the name is in "common" english use (eg: goldfish, guppy)

Otherwise, use the scientific name. MidgleyDJ 23:08, 20 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

FishBase has the advantage that it's an identifiable and verifiable authority. If you abandon it, what have you got instead? Personal opinion? How are you going to ensure that your personal opinion takes precedence over the snot-nosed 12-year-old that created his login 20 minutes ago? So we don't get into eternal move wars, can we get a reasonably algorithmic way to decide that a FishBase name is "made up"? (I agree, some of them make me suspicious.) Stan 00:25, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Stan - I'm not suggesting fishbase be abandoned. I'm suggesting for the vast majority of fish articles the scientific name (sourced from fishbase) is a better option than the common name. MidgleyDJ 00:36, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Just to clarify my position I've got nothing against the commonsense use of common names - but using them as per my "convict julie" example doesnt seem very logical to me. MidgleyDJ 00:53, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

my vote is Uphold the current policy that uses FishBase common name as the default (species) article titles for the sake of consistency and for the general public who don't use (and can't remember) scientific names. Although wikipedia is written by experts and enthusiasts, it is read by lay people. Scientific names can be used as titles only when no common names are not available (taken by other articles, used for disambigution page). Otherwise just redirect them to the common names. --Melanochromis 00:44, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Melanochromis, it's not a vote ;). It's about reaching a consensus. I'm unsure who is going to be searching for some of these common names - take my convict julie example. I'm not sure anyone knows what that is! MidgleyDJ 00:55, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Well, I was just making it easier for everyone to see what my position is about this. More of my argument can be seen at Talk:Mayan cichlid. Anyway, I agree that FishBase name can sound weird sometimes. But at least, like Stan said, it is quite the authority on fish and they have references for the common names they used. Even names like "convict julie" isn't chosen randomly by FishBase. It is a legal common name that can be traced back to a publication by American Fisheries Society. However, in extreme cases that you think FishBase absolutely made a mistake, there's always WP:IAR

--Melanochromis 02:18, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I wasnt suggesting that "Convict Julie" was randomly chosen by fishbase. It's not, however, a name for the species in regular english usage (in the cichlid keeping hobby or amongst members of the public). The question is very simple:

Why use a name no one uses (Convict julie), or a name some peoeple use (mayan cichlid), when there are two perfectly unambiguous names for these articles that everyone (even outside english speaking countries) uses: ie: Julidochromis regani and Cichlasoma urophthalmus? MidgleyDJ 02:36, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I forgot also to add - what is being suggested is no different in terms of consistency and "verifiability" to the current system - the names would be, in the absence of more recent verifiable sources, sourced from Fishbase. What I am suggesting is the same policy as is already in place in Wikipedia:WikiProject_Tree_of_Life that is:

Article titles and common names

In cases where there is a formal common name (e.g. birds), or when common names are well-known and reasonably unique, they should be used for article titles. Scientific names should be used otherwise.

For the vast majority of fish species - there is no formal common name as there is for birds. To extend my above example "Convict Julie" isnt a "formal common name", it's not well known - though it may be unique. If we were to adopt the TOL naming conventions the name of the article would be Julidochromis regani. MidgleyDJ 03:08, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

So, according to this WikiProject_Tree_of_Life policy we are going using FishBase common name? Because that's the closest thing to the "formal common name" we have for fish. --Melanochromis 03:19, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Birds and fish are different! Birds have "formal common names" - due to birdwatchers (and their associated clubs and societies which manage bird names). As Neale Monks points out in Talk:Mayan cichlid there is no such thing as a "formal common name" for fish. Therefore for those fish (assuming we adopt a TOL model for naming) without established "formal" common names we should use the scientific name. Scientific names are already the standard for species article titles in other parts of Wikipedia. See: WP:PLANTS. MidgleyDJ 03:41, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Well, then why suggesting a policy that prefers the use of "formal common name" when you don't think fish has "formal common name"? Are you trying to trick us, Midgley?

--Melanochromis 03:58, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Because I think for some fish, such as goldfish, the common name is MUCH better than the scientific name eg: Carassius auratus. In the case of goldfish - the name is also universal and unique. Several other animal groups use a similar naming convention. For example Wikipedia:WikiProject_Arthropods says: In cases where common names are well-known and reasonably unique, they should be used for article titles. Scientific names should be used otherwise. This seems also like a more sensible policy - which would mean the use of scientific names for the fish without well-known (and unique) common names. WP:FUNGI adopts the same policy as WP:PLANTS ie: scientific name is standard - unless the plant is better known under common name eg. is of economic value (like tomatoes, turnips, lemons etc) or is notable under it's common name for some other reason. MidgleyDJ 04:02, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

And I think I can argue the opposite way around that Common names are already the standard for species article titles in other parts of Wikipedia. See:

Wikipedia:WikiProject Birds (officially common names)
Wikipedia:WikiProject Gastropods (using bird's title guidelines)
Wikipedia:WikiProject Monotremes and Marsupials (also using bird's)
Wikipedia:WikiProject Sharks (common names first)
Wikipedia:WikiProject Amphibians and Reptiles (most of their articles are common names)

Other than Gastropods, all of these deal with vertebrates just like fish, and they prefer common names over scientific names. I'm not saying all articles must be common names. Of course there will be exceptions. Our policy should be using common names first and scientific names when the situation requires. Maybe instead of trying to turn our policy around, we should be discussing how to define the "situations" that the scientific names will be preferred over common names. --Melanochromis 04:17, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The scientific name is and should be the ‘safe default’ in certain situations. However, I truly feel that the systematic renaming of most/all fish articles to their scientific binomial is absolutely unnecessary and possibly detrimental in some cases. For example, it’s my understanding that Wikipedia article titles are among the first (or sometimes the first) headings to come up in Google internet searches. We have to keep in mind who is searching, what they’re searching for, and what they’re going to see when they make the search. Whether one likes this fact or not, the majority of these searchers are going to be people who own a lot of these fish in an aquarium, and probably know next to nothing about them. I think it’s time to accept the reality of Wikipedia’s demographic. Now imagine the 10-year old searching for “fill-in-the-blank” cichlid on Google; wouldn’t you want a well-written, accurate, informative, cited, not-focused-on-aquarium-care Wikipedia article with a common name heading to be the first/among the first search results they see, or one of the hundreds of possibly inaccurate, biased hobbyist websites? I just did a google search for ‘kribensis’ (one of the articles recently changed to scientific name) and the Wikipedia article came up on the second page of search results. Another search for ‘Mayan cichlid’ (another recently proposed change, but not changed yet) delivered the Wikipedia article as the fourth result on the first page. Now before you jump at me for being ‘homocentric’, keep in mind that this is not Fishbase (which uses scientific name headings) or a similar style of database, but an encyclopedia, and a revolutionary one at that due to the way in which it has made previously archaic areas of information accessible to hundreds of millions of people who would otherwise be left in the dark. Note previously; and this is where I feel it is in the spirit of Wikipedia to avoid being too archaic without sacrificing scientific integrity (which of course can be quite difficult at times). Please don’t interpret this as disagreement with you Midgley; in fact I do agree with you partially, in that fish classification is unlike that of birds where there is a lack of ‘formal common names’ in many cases. What I do oppose is changing to the scientific name at the drop of a hat, and I most definitely oppose to changing most of the fish articles to scientific names. It may have to be, unfortunately, a more painstakingly case-by-case approach. Here are some ideas/possibilities:

Default to use only Fishbase common names (and I agree that sometimes they're questionable)
Maybe agree on a set of various common 'default' sources such as fishery societies, governmental organizations, aquarist societies, universities, all from an inclusive list of various English-speaking countries that we use like an informal literature review to come to a consensus
Other ideas?

Again, I'm not fully disagreeing with this proposal, but I think parts of it are drastic and unnecessary.--Terrapin83 04:26, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

My apologies if you thought I jumped down your throat ever Terrapin, that wasnt my intention. I've pasted the naming conventions for plants below - surely we can adapt this system to work for fish. It's a similar situation were some fish have "accepted/well known common names".

No need to apologize, I haven't taken offense at anything you've said. I was simply trying to make it clear that I'm not coming at this from an 'aquarist-centric' point of view but more from an encyclopedia writer's p.o.v. :)--Terrapin83 04:51, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

begin copy

Plant article naming conventions See also Wikipedia:Naming_conventions_(flora).

Article naming for flora articles differs from standard TOL policy in the following ways:

Scientific names are to be used as page titles in all cases except the following, as determined on a case-by-case basis through discussion on the WikiProject Plants talk page:

Agricultural and horticultural cases in which multiple different products stem from the same scientific name (eg. brussel sprouts, cabbage & broccoli). In such a case, a separate page with the botanical description of the entire species is preferred (eg. Brassica oleracea).
Plants which are economically or culturally significant enough to merit their own page, using the common name as a title, describing their use. Example: Coffee. (A) separate page(s) with the botanical description(s) of the taxa involved, using the scientific name, is preferred.

Common names are to redirect to scientific names.

English sundew → Drosera anglica

All known common names for a taxon are to be listed in the plant article.

Hesperoyucca whipplei (syn. Yucca whipplei; Our Lord's Candle, Spanish Bayonet, Quixote Yucca, Common Yucca) is a species of flowering plant...

In cases where multiple taxa share the same common name, a disambiguation page is to be used.

An adaptation of this system would, in my opinion, solve the problem. MidgleyDJ 04:37, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Related to what Terrapin said is that wikipedia redirects don't show up in google. So, the naming of the articles has the "search" factor to consider too. We have to consider that general public aren't taxonomy-savvy and they won't use and can't remember scientific name. Most likely they will google by the common name. Like what I said in talk:Mayan cichlid:

There will be some random readers like anglers searching for this article and I think they will most likely google a common name rather than a scientific name, remember that wikipedia redirects won't show up in google. On the other hand, experts who use scientific names would probably already have other sources, unlike non-expert people, and would not need to wikipedia this fish as much. I think this is the exact reason why various policies prefer a common name over the Latin name as the title. --Melanochromis 04:41, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

In replying to the suggestion of [[Wikipedia:Naming_conventions_(flora), there's already a well-established Wikipedia:Naming conventions (fauna) which prefers commmon names over scientific names in most cases. The fish cases are even used as examples.

If there is a common name in English, use that (following Wikipedia:Naming conventions (common names) and Wikipedia:Naming conventions (use English)). ... If the article is about an animal belonging to a group where Wikipedia editors have agreed on a standard for choosing a common name, follow that standard: ... If there is no common name, or if the only common name would be taken by a higher-ranked group, or if the only common name is needed for another article or a disambiguation page, use the scientific name:

Drosophila melanogaster has no common name.
Monocentris japonica is commonly known as the "pinecone fish", but so are all the other species in the family Monocentridae, so that name is not available.
Fish in Sciaenidae are known as "drums", but drum is used for the musical instrument. (In cases like this, the article can be placed either at the scientific name or at a disambiguated common name like drum (fish).)

You see that there are situations that require scientific names, but those are situational, and common names are preferred first anyway. --Melanochromis 04:50, 21 March 2007 (UTC).[reply]

Melanochromis - I understand your point re: google but disagree. Regarding the Mayan cichlid, no one in the UK or Australia knows the fish by this name. How exactly then do we other english speakers (whether we are 10 or not) go about "googling it" :-) . Furthermore, it's not the fishbase common name. Also re: the above example, I work in a biology department and I can assure you that Drosophila melanogaster do have a common name! Using my Julidochromis example from above - I've never heard anyone in the fishkeeping hobby search discuss the fish using the name "convict julie" they certainly would not know to google using that name. The usage of common names for fauna in Wikipedia, in my opinion - has arisen for species that are better known by their common names: yaks, cheetahs, goldfish and the like.... it makes no sense to me to use scientific names for those species (yaks, cheetahs, goldfish) with better known common names.... but for most fish these names simply dont exist. They arent in universal, common usage. MidgleyDJ 08:12, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I cannot begin to describe my regret that the Wikipedia:WikiProject_Birds situation has been taked to be valid for other animal groups as well. Without being snobby about it, I think it is a deeply misguided attempt by non-experts to try and simplify things, but in doing so they actually make things more complex and more subjective than they need to be. Biology has settled on the fact that Latin names are the ideal. They are language-neutral and (in theory at least) apply to single entities so won't get muddled up with other entities. If I talk about Lepisosteus oculatus everyone knows exactly what I am talking about. But if I talk about "gar", that could mean a lepisosteid, a needlefish, a halfbeak, a characin, etc. The name "gar" was originally coined for a European marine fish, but most Americans assume it belongs solely to their freshwater fish -- who's right? If you search "gar" on Wikipedia, you get the American freshwater fish, not the European marine fish, which comes under "needlefish". In short, common names create confusion; Latin names do not.

With birds, you have two key things that set them apart from all other organisms. Firstly, there are birdwatchers all over the world recording their sightings. The majority of species of bird are observed on a regular basis. In other words, most birds are familiar to a substantial number of amateurs, and these amateurs spread information via books, magazines, and TV shows. Fish are different. The vast majority of fish are unknown to amateurs and only seen by fishermen and/or scientists, and in many, many cases things like deep sea fish are hardly ever seen by anyone. New fishes are discovered all the time, and even in the aquarium trade there are new species that don't even have Latin names they are so new. Secondly, there is no "official common name" as there is for birds. So "House Sparrow" or "Barn Owl" means something just as specific as a Latin name because ornithologists have agreed to it. Fishbase, while a worthy project, is a compilation of published data and performs no original research and has no mandate to fix or otherwise recommend common names. In many cases their common names will not match those in certain regions or industries. For example, the page for Danio rerio uses the common name "Zebra danio" [10], which is hardly used in the aquarium hobby any more (they're usually just plain "danios") and never used in the scientific literature, where "zebrafish" is more common, and indeed "zebrafish" is what is used on Wikipedia.[11]

In short, applying the bird rules to fish is silly, and even with things are clearcut as danios Wikipedia isn't matching Fishbase, so the argument Fishbase trumps everything else falls flat. Ultimately a common sense approach has to prevail: where the common name is so universal such that no-one could reasonably argue with it, then the common name is fine. Guppies, oscars, angelfish, goldfish, Atlantic cod, largemouth bass, etc. probably fall into that category. But where things have a variety of common names, as with Mayan cichlid, then the Latin name should be favoured as the least troublesome, most neutral, approach. Another example would be Gymnocorymbus ternetzi, usually called the "black widow tetra" in English aquarium shops and "petticoat tetra" in American aquarium shops but added as the "black tetra" in Wikipedia despite the fact Fishbase lists at least three different species that can go by that name![12]

Cheers, Neale Neale Monks 09:48, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Just some comments on the above posting..I've noticed you using the argument that the bird naming conventions shouldn't be used for fish. As a matter of fact, I think you brought it up way back in the discussion page for the Mayan cichlid, and a couple of times since. However, no one has ever once proposed establishing some sort of 'standardized common names' list for all fish, as exists for birds. You were the first person to bring that issue up. Maybe the mention of birder and ornithology on my user page led you to voice this concern? This is surely not my goal, and I fully accept the use of Latin names on wikipedia in certain, if not many cases, especially when it comes to fish. I've actually never edited one bird-related article; I'm not even a member of the bird wikiproject. I don't think I've even yet looked at the wikiproject:birds page. My point is there are no ulterior motives here, and no one is disputing the validity of the Linnaean system(!). As I stated above, I'm concerned about the reality of Wikipedia's demographic (the vast majority of whom will never, ever search for a fish using the scientific name), the maximization of the readership of fish and fish-related articles, and a relative amount of consistency with other species articles. Since this debate has started I've become much more accepting of the fact that the scientific name is appropriate as an article title for many fish, so please don't think I'm taking some sort of all-or-nothing stance! I think progress is being made on this issue, and I commend everyone for their contributions :) --Terrapin83 20:42, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hello Terrapin83. My reference to birding is that that seems to be the model used quite frequently. I've seen in specifically with the Wikipedia:WikiProject_Cephalopods, and if you go to the umbrella project Wikipedia:WikiProject_Tree_of_Life there is the tricky sentence "In cases where there is a formal common name (e.g. birds), or when common names are well-known and reasonably unique, they should be used for article titles". What seems to have happened is that this example has become a guideline, and it causes a specific problem unique to using birds because only birds (to the best of my knowledge) have agreed "official" common names. While the original drafter of that sentence may have meant to say something relatively simple, like many birds have common names, so use them, this has metamorphosed into the ridiculous situation where we have an article called Böttger's Argonaut, a name based on a common name no-one in cephalopod science uses and wouldn't have any value in the vernacular because no-one other than a ceph scientist would see these animals! So while I have nothing against common names if they're widely used, I'm very againts using them for the sake of using them simply because someone, somewhere thinks they are "easier" for the layperson to understand than the Latin names. Latin names have problems all their own, I hasten to add (e.g., synonyms) so simply switching to Latin names wholesale doesn't automatically make life easier. Cheers, Neale Neale Monks 21:49, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hi again Midgley, Terrapin, and everyone else, I can't believe I posted this much in one day. It is enlightening to participate in this intellectual argument but it's also very exhausting. So, what I'm gonna do is to stop talking about principles and start drafting a policy of title naming that compromises with everyone's idea and taggles different issues (country-specific, google factor, importance to humans, etc.). I'm trying not to radically change the current WP:Fishes policy, but to modify it to allow more uses of scientific names as well as providing some measureable methods (to avoid edit wars and disagreements). Here it is:

Titles of fish species articles (draft)

Articles on fish species should be titled using the FishBase preferred common name, if one exists.
If Fishbase does not list any common name, use the scientific name. (note that Fishbase doesn't provide common names for many fishes).
If the FishBase preferred common name is mostly an unknown name, measured by Google search that yields less than 500 results, use the common name listed in FishBase that yields the most google search results.
If no common names yield more than 500 google results, use the scientific name.
If the FishBase preferred common name is single-country specific, use a more internationally-known common name, as measured by references from governmental or respectable non-profit sources from at least three different countries.
If no common names are available (taken by another article, or disambiguation page), use the scientific name.
In the case that the fish is of very low importance to humans (no values for aquaculture, fisheries, sport fishing, aquarium, culture, etc.), the article may use scientific name even if there is a FishBase preferred common name.
In the case that is beyond or not described by this policy and consensus can't not be reached how to name the article, respect the choice of the first editor of the article.

--Melanochromis 09:33, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

So is this draft acceptable to everyone? --Melanochromis 09:33, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Melanochromis - no, I'm afraid I have some issues with it. But I appreciate the effort you've put into it! Using fishbase as a source of "commonsense" common names doesnt make sense. Here's an edited proposal of mine. I think common names should be used where they are sensible and I think this largely reflects that. The fishbase common name is frequently not sensible, universal or unambiguous and we (in my opinion) should not tie ourselves to the use of it. MidgleyDJ 10:32, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

FishBase common names aren't "commonsense". Each common name listed there has a reference and each name would be sorted methodologically into ranks (there're 6 ranks or something like that). It's a system of standardization of fish common names, probably the only one in this scale. Although not the perfect one (I don't think any system is), it's not bad at all. That's why I think FishBase is very useable. Besides, if we don't stick to FishBase, what else are you gonna use to decide which common names to use. There'll be tons of editing disputes, this I forsee. --Melanochromis 10:52, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Correction - I think there are 3 ranks of common names in FishBase. They also identify whether the common names are unique to a particular fish or not. So there's no worry that FishBase names would be ambiguous. --Melanochromis 11:36, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Proposal II (feel free to edit, dismember etc :D!)

Titles of fish species articles (draft II)

Common names should be used as article titles where:

The common name is in general, common usage in the majority of english speaking countries OR
The common name has economic, cultural, historical or other significance warranting the articles listing under the common name AND
The common name is unambiguous.

In all other cases the scientific name is preferred.
All articles should include the scientific name and all english common names in bold.

--MidgleyDJ 10:36, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Can you add some measureable criteria for 1,2,3 ? I'm afraid we'll need some kind of measurement otherwise it'll be too subjective and there'd be never-ending disagreements and discussions like this. --Melanochromis 10:44, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Melanochromis - perhaps Neale could offer some suggestions on how to measure criteria for usage. My guess is that the most sensible way is to use common sense and consensus building where disagreements arise. I do believe the common name of a fish is useful - particularly for aquarium species and economically important species. Where this common name is in general use I fully support it's use as a title - and I do see people's points re: Google searches - but I stress again, using a common name that no one (or a limited subset of english speakers) knows isnt helping either. MidgleyDJ 10:53, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, I know we all want to use common sense, but unfortunately in our case, common sense would do no good. Look at how long this discussion is and we can't even reach a compromise. If there's no clear procedure and solid methods to stick by, I think we'll end up like this again and again. --Melanochromis 10:58, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Would some kind of dictionary search for "common usage of common names" help? Just a thought? Is there an online dictionary we could use? Melanochromis, it's been a good length discussion I agree - but it's been useful! I think we will get to something that everyone can live with in the end! MidgleyDJ 11:17, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Commenting on the above proposals: (1) How do you decide "the majority of English-speaking countries"? Are Hong Kong and Singapore and India English-speaking? They certainly are in some ways, if not in others. Does a plurality of smaller countries outweigh usage in one larger country? So would usage in England and New Zealand and the Republic of Ireland outweight usage in the US? Even within one country, is there a standardised common name? I think not; Salmo trutta can be "brown trout" or "sea trout" in the UK depending on where it is found. (2) Certain species may have legally-respected common names, specifically where fisheries or conservation management are concerned. Hence EU fisheries managers will all mean a single thing with "Atlantic salmon" and politicians and conservationists will agree on what the "Devil's Hole pupfish" is and use that name in environmental protection laws and publicity. Those sorts of names can probably pass a 'common sense test'. (2b) Economic names are more difficult to justify if used in, for example, retail either as food or aquarium fish. To take an example, the meat of the dogfish Scyliorhinus stellaris can be sold as huss or rock salmon, though marine biologists would never use such a name for the living fish. To take another example, aquarists widely call Synodontis spp "upside-down catfish" but in their native habitat their common name in English is "squeaker", a name also used by biologists.

Measuring "ubiquity" is difficult, but one pragmatic approach would be simply to use the common name by default, but if someone raises an objection on the talk page, and can demonstrate an alternative name has at least some significant usage (e.g., on Fishbase or in some respected fish book like Smith's Sea Fishes) then the content should be moved to a Latin name entry and the original and newly-discovered common name become redirect pages.

I agree that this draft needs some more objective and clear measurement. In my draft (the one above this draft), there are 2 measurements. One is how well-known the name is (common name with less than 500 Google search results can't be used even if it's preferred by FishBase). Another is preference of a common name that is not single country-specific (you can change it to another common name if you have references of that name from at least 3 different countries). Maybe something like this can be applied to this proposal too. --Melanochromis 22:31, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Cheers, Neale — Preceding unsigned comment added by Neale Monks (talk • contribs)

Sounds like a good plan to me Neale (although sometimes it might be tricky to show a common name isnt in use in a particular country). Is there a way we could draft that into a proposal? Melanochromis - what do you think? Stan? Terrapin83? MidgleyDJ 18:18, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Why dictionary? I think some respected fish book, like Neale said, would be better. And even better is the FishBase. It's the best fish database online that anyone can access (unlike books which most wikipedians won't ever get to verify your choice of common name) and their common names have clear references where they are used and whether they are unique or not. --Melanochromis 22:31, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Deep sea frill shark

if it is not too much trouble, could someone find the binomial authority for the deep sea frill shark? i'd like to at least finish the info in the taxbox before i start to wrie in depth. -thank you Ryan shell 02:00, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

this could help with your article :-) --Melanochromis 02:31, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The Fish Quiz

I'm happy to announce that the Fish Portal has added a new feature - The Fish Quiz!! Come test your knowledge, interact with other fish editors, try to win the game and have your name honored in the Hall of Fame, and have a fun break from editing wikipedia. Cheers --Melanochromis 08:20, 21 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Copy-edit requests

Almost no info about wild guppies on Wikipedia!

Expand Article Request

Oncorhynchus (pacific salmon) article needs work

New images of Lethrinus spp. and Gymnocranius spp. (Lethrinidae)