AQUATIC SCIENCE Naming fish

You don’t need to be a professional to name a fish, but it helps. Amateur ichthyologist Steve Grant explains how a fish goes from being unidentified to having a formal moniker.

STEVE GRANT

An amateur ichthyologist with a fish named after him, Steve is editor of the Journal of the Catfish Study Group.

ACROSS THE pages of this magazine you will see numerous scientific names mentioned. These are extremely useful, even invaluable, when communicating with other aquarists and scientists, about purchasing, breeding, and keeping fishes.

Scientific names (when used correctly) are more accurate than common names. But have you ever wondered how a species is named, or as some call it, ‘described’? You might not be aware, but the rules that govern the naming of new species don’t restrict this activity to professional scientists. As long as the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is followed, then anyone can describe a species.

But to paraphrase a famous movie character, some aquarists are so preoccupied with whether or not they could describe a species, they haven’t stopped to think if they should. Describing a species should never be done for the sake of it, as with that power comes responsibility — the responsiblity not to create useless and confusing names.

Generally speaking, these descriptions should be left to professionals, but as an amateur ichthyologist who has described species, I would be a hypocrite if in this article I told readers they should never try. My recommendation is to correspond with the ichthyologist who is working with whichever group of fishes it is you’re hoping to name, and follow their advice.