LFS rant

[Somonas]

I need to vent about something. just talked to a friend of mine who does the ordering for one of the lfs's around here. he says they ordered mainganoes, "electric blue johanni". I said no, electric blue johannis aren't mainganoes they are johanni. He says the ones with same coloured males and females are mainganoes, the ones with yellow females are johannis. he is correct.
but the naming system floors me. we have electric blue johannis, which are actually melanochromis cyanerhabos maingano, and regular johannis, which are melanochromis johanni.

Big deal you say.
Not so.
Newbie fish keeper goes in and gets some. ahem. electric blue johannis. 2 months later he wants more. he sees "johannis" on sale and they happen to have yellow females. well since he bought johannis 2 months ago, they must be the same fish right!

Ugh !!!!! *crazysmil

 

[fishydude22]

Which LFS is it?. Superpet or Petsmart?. Superpet got a new Fish Manager, he's always looking serious!. He knows my dad.

For anyone not canadian,
Superpet is basically a Canadian version of Petsmart for anyone who needs a reference.

 

[geKo]

Coo heh youall live next to each other

Do you know each other personaly?

 

[SoulFish]

the mainganos are called maingano electric blues, there are also eletric blue johanni and regular johanni, the regular johanni have the yellow females, the M&F eletric blue johanni are electric blue and the maingano are both electric blue but they have a much brighter electric blue, dont ask me about the naming system, its what all the florida fish farms do for some reason, but the maingano are a whole different species and it can easily lead to confusion

 

[Somonas]

no we do not, hehe
there is over 750,000 people in Ottawa, over 1 million if you include Gatineau Quebec and the outlying areas of Ottawa

soulfish you wonder why there is crossbreeding. I personally would rather have the regular johannis. with the yellow females.

 

[Twinbot]

I would never cross-breed Canadians with Americans. They'd become greedy socialists (aka San Franciscans!).

 

[fishydude22]

Originally posted by Twinbot
I would never cross-breed Canadians with Americans. They'd become greedy socialists (aka San Franciscans!).

What's wrong with you Twinbot!!!

 

[Somonas]

the fact that fish as complex as african cichlids even have common names should motivate even the newbiest aquarist to learn the real names and learn what fish they really did just buy.

...and not all Canadians are socialist. I take offense to that. I am very right wing just ask Froggy *ducking*

 

[Twinbot]

And, not all Americans are greedy ... just the ones who run the show.

 

[pamcat]

Im a newbie to cichlids and the first thing ive done is to find the scientific names for each fish im looking at coz each LFS calls them a different name..why Ive no idea .. but least they post the scientific names on little cards underneath..or else I'd be a fish out of water

 

[Lotus]

You're lucky, pamcat. Most of the LFS I've been to only have a common name on the tanks. The other day the LFS had "balloon rams" and I am still trying to figure out if they just mis-heard Bolivian or made the name up. I don't even think they were Bolivian rams

 

[yslexdia]

At the fish store I used to work at, the guy who did all the ordering used to complain about all the taxonomic revisions. He used to say, "Nobody cares about all the scientific names anyway." ...Course by nobobdy, he must mean hobbyists looking for info, the scientific community, and of course the importers.

 

[HanshaSuro]

I think yslexdia brings up an important point:

It's not just the fish chains that are guilty of furthering the jumble of common names that plagues the hobby. As long as the hobbyists themselves don't get away from referring to fish that way, how can we expect those who provide our services to do any better?

 

[Somonas]

this is true but the scientific name should always be available as an option.
like "Yellow Lab" (labidochromis caerelus).
God forbid they might have to do some extra work and pay for someone to write more text on a label