Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Fishes

Plecos…

Plecostomus appears to be an aquarium related version of Hypostomus plecostomus, which is rather poor (note the number of references, random images of other species, lack of taxobox, etc). I propose that it is merged into Hypostomus plecostomus and Loricariidae. I would be happy to do the work myself, of course.

Also, pleco currently redirects to plecostomus, but it is used as common name for all Loricariidae (as is mentioned in the article), so I have proposed that the redirect is changed.

Comments and feedback would be appreciated for both.

Kat (talk) 10:54, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

Given that there has been only positive response, I will start merging the articles soon. Kat (talk) 20:41, 16 October 2011 (UTC)

The article is half-merged now, I'm lacking some references, so any help would be appreciated! Kat (talk) 14:08, 8 November 2011 (UTC)

Scorpaena scrofa

Dear friends! I would like to discuss the title of the article about the scorpionfish species Scorpaena scrofa. We have two propositions:

1. To use the vernacular name according to FishBase, Red scorpionfish, because this name is used more often in scientific literature, also used as official in FAO. Also, the rule of main of scientific journals is to use the vernacular names according to FishBase, www.fishbase.org (or any mirror) 2. To use scientific name as title, because there are also the other common names in English (you could check the list of common names).

We started the short discussion on the talk page of the article, but would like to discuss it here. We are waiting for your ideas. Sincerely Yours. Ykvach (talk) 13:42, 5 October 2011 (UTC)

I contend that renaming anything to Red Scorpionfish or the like will end up with confusion, hatnotes, and dab pages. As I posted at Ykvach's talk page: "...Scorpaena cardinalis and Pseudophycis bachus are also called the red rock cod.[1][2] Plus, Eastern Red Scorpionfish, is another name for Scorpaena cardinalis. Also, Scorpaena notata is also regionally called red scorpionfish. Actually, I would guess that lots of species are called red scorpionfish. So, I really think renaming such articles to red rock cod and Red Scorpionfish will cause confusion. ... Scientific names avoid all that...."

If it's a really unique common name, fine. If there's any chance of it being ambiguous, go with the scientific. Earth is big. There are lots of areas using different names, and times change. Anna Frodesiak (talk) 14:13, 5 October 2011 (UTC)

I was undecided on this issue, until I discovered that Pontinus furcirhinus is also called "red scorpionfish" by FishBase, ITIS and IUCN, among others. On that basis, I think "red scorpionfish" will have to be a disambiguation page, and the species dealt with under their scientific names, as Anna Frodesiak suggests. --Stemonitis (talk) 15:14, 5 October 2011 (UTC)

Please help fix disambiguation links to Chub, Sea bass, and Bullhead

Please help - we need your expertise to fix the large number of disambiguation links to Chub (41 links), Sea bass ((39 links), and Bullhead (38 links). Cheers! bd2412 T 20:16, 7 November 2011 (UTC)

Trichopodus gourami article naming

I propose that all Trichopodus species articles should be moved to their scientific names because all have multiple common names (see naming guidelines). Please add your views on this to the individual articles:

• Trichopodus leerii
• Trichopodus microlepis
• Trichopodus pectoralis
• Trichopodus trichopterus

Kat (talk) 12:21, 13 November 2011 (UTC)

Spring cavefish article

I'm not familiar with the subject matter but a "single-purpose account" seems to be converting the Spring cavefish article into a description of a plan for monitoring the fish population in Missouri (diff). Could someone check out the edits to see whether they are reasonable please? - Pointillist (talk) 23:48, 18 November 2011 (UTC)

Weird additions to fish stubs

I wonder if any of you all know what's going on here:

1. Popeye Shiner by Lmb213 (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · edit filter log · block user · block log)
2. Etheostoma neopterum by Jkaitchu (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · edit filter log · block user · block log)
3. Luxilus coccogenis by Jusabelle (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · edit filter log · block user · block log)

It seems to be a bunch of students pasting term papers into fish stubs. Probably it's a class project or something. Maybe there are more, but these are the ones I noticed. I'm just not sure what to do, or if anything should be done. Anyway, if it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter, but I wanted to let someone know.— alf.laylah.wa.laylah (talk) 02:00, 21 November 2011 (UTC)

There's this, too: Wikipedia:Administrators'_noticeboard/Incidents#Weird_activity_on_fish_stubs— alf.laylah.wa.laylah (talk) 02:11, 21 November 2011 (UTC)

The first thing to do with an apparent class project is to request, or rather demand, that the students put you in touch with their instructor or professor or similar evil overlord. It is the path to enlightenment, since any problems are the result of the instructor not understanding some things about Wikipedia or about class projects, not anything the students are choosing to do of their own volition. (Of course, it may be the students are adding mistakes of their own to the misunderstandings, but if so then the instructor should be actively monitoring their efforts.) --Demiurge1000 (talk) 02:32, 21 November 2011 (UTC)

OK, I did ask at least one. I'll go back and ask the others. They're completely unresponsive, though. Thanks for your help!— alf.laylah.wa.laylah (talk) 02:37, 21 November 2011 (UTC)

The class is an upper-level undergraduate class at the University of Tennessee (I'm a graduate student of the professor). The articles aren't term papers, exactly. It's a multi-year project to get all the of 324 fishes of Tennessee onto Wikipedia - we like the fishes in our state a lot, and want to put the information out there. Once the semester is over it's extremely unlikely that any of the students are going to respond to information requests, unfortunately. I'd very much like to get these pages more in line with the standards of the Fishes project, and we never meant to step on any toes. I compiled a list of all the pages from this year here: User:Sclemm/Fishes of Tennessee (I'll get lists from previous years from my professor soon). Any advice on the first steps I could take to clean up the existing pages, and what I can do to coordinate better with the project, would be greatly appreciated. I haven't done a lot of editing in wiki before (and my professor has done even less), so I'm really sorry for the mistakes. -Sclemm —Preceding undated comment added 00:56, 25 December 2011 (UTC).

Improper signature, sorry Sclemm (talk) 01:01, 25 December 2011 (UTC)

The articles are all written as management plans, but Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, so no original research is allowed. The articles then need a good deal of work, most importantly: removing original research (especially the management suggestions), editing or removing text written in an unencyclopedic style, removing or tagging unreferenced statements, ensuring that basic formatting such as a lead section is used, and checking for copyright violations/plagiarism (I think I found text copied in an article written as a management plan some time ago, and a number of the articles you linked had copyright images). I've mostly done this with Noturus exilis and did this some time ago for other articles; I contacted the users who posted the articles earlier, but they never responded so I stopped doing so. The articles will need further work, with often poor writing (sometimes too many technical terms) and coverage (focussing on Tennessee for example). WikiProject standards in particular are mostly supposed to be sensible recommendations so I don't think much will come up in that regard.

As far as advice on improving the project in the future: ensure you know the basics of what Wikipedia is, get help from Wikipedia editors, arrange for students to learn basics of Wikipedia editing—see Wikipedia:School and university projects, which should answer many questions you may have about setting up projects. —innotata 00:19, 27 December 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for all the advice, I'll start talking to the instructor. Updates to the existing pages will likely be slow (sorry), but we can revamp the project requirements to prevent some of these errors next year. Sclemm (talk) 15:11, 30 December 2011 (UTC)

Taxonomy vs Classification vs Systematics vs.....

Debate on taxonomy sections listed at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Tree_of_life#Taxonomy_vs_Classification_vs_Systematics_vs..... It follows on from discussion at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Plants#General_structure_for_plant_articles_and_lists cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 10:44, 27 November 2011 (UTC)

Bluefin tuna article rename

I have proposed northern bluefin tuna is renamed to Atlantic bluefin tuna. Considering the importance of the species (B-Class), I'm also adding a note here. The main discussion is here. RN1970 (talk) 12:05, 6 December 2011 (UTC)

Identification of unkown fish

Hi guys,

I was hoping you could help me identify the fish in the following images:

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They were all taken at the Melbourne Aquarium in February 2009. Cheers! --Fir0002 12:01, 7 January 2012 (UTC)

rama/chandramara species

I find articles for Rama rama and Chandramara chandramara, with redirects to the latter from Pimelodus chandramara, Pimelodus rama, Leiocassis rama, and Rama chandramara. Scotcat[3] lists Rama chandramara as senior, with all the other names as synonyms. Fishbase[4] lists Chandramara chandramara as senior, with Pimelodus chandramara, Pimelodus rama, and Rama chandramara as synonyms. IUCNRedlist[5] says Chandramara chandramara may be a synonym of Batasio, with Rama rama likely a synonym of ''C. chandramara. It looks like the Rama rama and Chandramara chandramara articles should be merged, but I don't feel qualified to judge which name should be primary. Maybe someone who knows more about it can sort it out. -- Donald Albury 00:24, 9 January 2012 (UTC)