Tropical Fish Information You Need to Know - All About Classification

In this report covering tropical fish information the origins of tropical fish keeping are covered along with its background and the scientific naming formula that classifies the fish.

Background

As it becomes more popular there are a growing number of people who keep tropical fish in an aquarium. The age of these aquarists varies from youngsters to the more elderly. Why tropical fish? Well, cold water fish are easier to look after then tropical fish and I believe it is this extra care that is needed that draws people to keep tropical fish.

Because tropical fish are usally smaller you can have more of them in your aquarium and they are generally more colorful. There are more tropical fish species around so you have a great choice and can purchase the fish quite easily from local pet stores. This removes the need to import them from their original habitat as they are now mostly bred in captivity.But where breeding in captivity has been unsuccessful then you can have the authentic wild stock imported.

Because of the particular rearing that has been carried out regularly over years, the aquarium fish you have will probably not be the same coloration, size and shape of the original fish.

The Naming System

Practically every fish species has a common name (even several), which pet shops and aquarium keepers may employ on a regular basis, but if a correct description and identification is needed then common names are not adequate.

Carl Linnaeus was from Swedish and a physician, botanist and zoologist. He was known as the father of modern taxonomy and considered to be one of the leading lights of modern ecology. He laid the building blocks for the naming of species system called binomial nomenclature.

A relationship amongst groups of animals & plants has been used for over 350 years and is identified and established by this binomial nomenclature system. Finding, describing and ordering organisms is known as Taxonomy and has seven main sectors. These are; Kingdom and Phylum, followed by Division and Class, then Order and Family, and lastly Genus and Species.

The binomial part of the binomial nomenclature is a clue as to what constitutes a name for the fish. From the above Taxonomy list, the last two sectors, Genus and Species, make up the name. Although each term in the name is in Latin and it could be known as a 'Latin name', biologists have a preference for calling the description a 'scientific name'.

Due to the re-classification of a specific fish, that happens now and again, a fish can end up with 2 scientific names. This is as a result of advances in Ichthyology (the study of fish) and the fact that this new name is not universally taken up by all concerned.

In the event that there is no specific descriptor for the fish of a known genus, the scientific name would be the generic name (the genus) with species added on. In January 2010 information from a major fish database showed that fish species numbered over 31,000 and that 250 new species are registered annually. In fact, the total number of species of fish is greater than the rest of the vertebrates put together. That is, amphibians, birds, mammals and reptiles.

Paul Curran is webmaster at Fresh-Water-Aquariums-Guide.com and provides a care information system for fresh water aquariums. Get your FREE E-Course on how to set up and maintain a beautiful aquarium, have the healthiest, happiest fish around AND get more tropical fish information.