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NFC: Flag Fish
Hi folks,
There's a very unfortunate tendency, just in the last year or two, to try to
change the common name of *Jordanella floridae* from the one used in the
hobby and the trade for over 100 years. Doing this has caused a lot of
confusion that could be avoided by sticking to the more familiar one.
The sides of the colored-up male look a bit like the stars and stripes of
the American flag. This earned this fish the name American-Flag Fish a long,
long time ago.
It does not look anything like the flag of FL, so why insist on calling it
the Florida Flag Fish? It ranges well outside that state, so location isn't
a good reason for the renaming, either.
Bear with me folks. It's a pet peeve of mine. We need communication and
understanding, not confusion and misdirection.
I was appalled to discover that this abortion of a name had even made it
into Bob Goldstein's new book. [He can count on hearing from me, too, when
we next get together!] A few more such publications, and the confusion level
at the local stores will kill trade in this wonderful fish. [Fortunately,
his book is so expensive no store will ever use it as a reference. :-)]
Unlike the guys in the SE and gulf coast, I can't go out and collect them,
so I'm delighted when my local PetsMart turns up nice healthy juveniles.
Please don't muddy things up by making up a new common name every year or
two. OK? Since that's all the LFS will use, we have an obligation to help
keep the market alive and stable by giving them stable names -- particularly
for such nice fish.
[All you FL chauvinists can just aim your flame throwers at the left-over
chads, OK?]
Cheers from wet (again) Fremont,
Wright
--
Wright Huntley, Fremont CA, USA, 510 494-8679 huntleyone at home dot com
Quit bashing Microsoft. They do very good things. They
hire the handicapped -- for example, utter morons
to compose all error messages.
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