Tropical Fish Information - The Scientific Naming Convention

In this article on tropical fish information you will see information on why folk keep tropical fish, the background to it and the fish classifying scientific naming formula.

Nowadays there an increasing number involved in keeping tropical fish at home in an aquarium and the ages of these aquarists ranges from the more mature down to young kids. Tropical fish need more looking after than cold water fish such as the goldfish and it is this additional caring factor that I believe attracts folk to tropical fish.

Due to tropical fish being more colorful than their cold water compatriots, the aquarist has more to select from and because they are not as big you can accomodate more in your tank, and usually you will not have to import the fish from its original habitat due to being bred in captivity just for you.

Due to regular breeding over the years it is unlikely the fish in your aquarium will show the same shape, coloration and size of your authentic fish from, as an example, Venezuela, the country in which the checkered dwarf cichlid came from, but in cases where captive breeding has been not been successful then the genuine wild stock must be imported.

Species of aquarium fish are called by common names with many having many names used daily by pet shop owners and aquarists each and every days, which although helpful are not a replacement for the true identification description of the fish of the fish provided by the binomial nomenclature system.

The basis for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature, the accepted system of naming species, was constituted by a zoologist from Sweden called Carl Linnaeus who was also a botanist and physician and one of those who led the field in modern ecology.

This system has been used since 1758 and separates plants and animals into groups in a way that their relationship to each other is easily established. The science of discovering, describing and sorting organisms into categories is called Taxonomy and consists of 7 main groups, in this order, Kingdom/Phylum/Division/Class/Order/Family/Genus/Species.

However, as its name suggests, the binomial nomenclature process only uses the last two identifiers, the genus and the species names. Although each identification is stated in Latin it could be described as the 'Latin name' of the species but biologists like to call it the 'scientific name'.

As Ichthyology (zoological term for studying fish) moves forward it has happened that now and again fish have been put in a different classification but because the new identification name is not used by everyone, you can sometimes end up with one fish having two scientific names.

For example, the Chanda lala and the Ambassis lala might be assumed to be different species, but they are not and you may have more than one genus with lots of species as in the Colisa labiosa and the Colisa fasciata. In cases where the fish has no specific description in a genus that is known then you would make a scientific name by adding the word species to the genus name.

Speaking of species, it appears that about two hundred and 50 new species are given scientific names every year and according to a thorough database of fish information by the beginning of January 2010 there were over thirty-one thousand species. Fish species outnumber all the remaining vertebrates (mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians).

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.