[Killietalk] Common names vs. scientific names

[Kyle Osterholt <snakeskinnerkyle at yahoo_com>]

First of all, I'd like to point out that the majority of fish shops get the common names from the distributors/wholesalers, they don't "just make up a name as they go".  I have seen the fish lists in the LFS's I'm friendly with and see how they are labeled.  This all starts from the suppliers/breeders oversees in most cases.  As was touched on a couple times in this discussion, scientific names in an LFS cause confusion and overlooked fish to the average fish shopper.  The industry recognizes this and therefore creates a fitting name.  I think the killifish suffer in popularity largely in part due to the lack of common names.  Just a couple months ago our local aquarium association had a discussion on soil spawning killies led by fellow AKA member Earl Blewett.  The question "what is the common name for that fish" came up numerous times and those of us in the know simply had to explain there wasn't one.  I honestly think this prevented many of the attendants to not consider !
 the fish.
  Other than us psycho's that keep and breed all the wierd, odd and confusing named fish, most of the other people want something cute.  Do you really think the Cardinal Tetra would be so popular if it were called Paracheirodon Axelrodi?   As mentioned earlier, Petsmart seems to do pretty well labeling the fish and eventhough we may not like the common name, they usually have the scientific name listed right below the common name on their normally stocked fish.  I have bought fish from them before that had an odd common name but was able to research them using the scientific name labeled below.  Another comment was made about the catfish and cichlids using the scientific names, most of the high volume cichlids and catfish also have common names.  Red empress, yellow lab, Krib, Blue Ram, Discus, Angelfish, Pleco, Panda Cory, Peppered Cory, etc.  From time to time you will see a fish such as many of the synodontis or lamprologus species that won't have a common name and those !
 again are
 bought by us die-hards that like the tongue-twisters.  I am 100% in support of giving these fish common names, right or wrong, doesn't make me any difference, it's purpose is to entice interest in the fish.  If you havn't been paying attention, almost every single new member I've seen pop up over the last year (including myself) cut their teeth on this killifish sold as "golden wonder" or some variation close to that.  I didn't know what they were, just knew they looked cool and would likely play well with my rainbows.  Then I was told they were a Panchax, then I started reading about those and found they were killies and the rest is history.  I probably have 20+ types of killies now.  Maybe we ourselves can establish a common name for these fish and start our own section in the LFS's.  Why not establish a name now before some breeder in Asia labels them something we don't like.  That's the way I view this anyway, Kyle in Oklahoma

		
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