Hello Everyone!

Selyna · Post by **Selyna** » 03 Aug 2007, 12:21

Hi! I just joined the sight. I've got two lovely Plecos that I *believe* are an L137 and an L200.

I think I've decided to start a rare pleco collection

I've got four tanks; 2 30 gallon; 1 five gallon *for my blue crayfish*; and one as yet to be set up 175 gallon one!

I'm hoping to find a lot of good resources about my new favorite fish here!

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 03 Aug 2007, 12:24

Welcome to Planet Catfish,

I think you can find most of what you want to know here.

--
Mats

Post by **Marc van Arc** » 03 Aug 2007, 12:36

Hi Selyna & welcome to PC.

Selyna · Post by **Selyna** » 03 Aug 2007, 12:42

Thank you guys for the welcome. Just starting to poke around here. A dizzying amount of information..and some very very cool cats.

*note to self: More tanks*

DAWN · Post by **DAWN** » 03 Aug 2007, 12:45

Hi, I'm also a newbie and finding this site a very cool and useful place!

Selyna · Post by **Selyna** » 03 Aug 2007, 12:51

Hi Dawn.

Question for the mods. Can we post pics of our guys in these threads? *yeah..I want to show of some blurry pics

*

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 03 Aug 2007, 12:57

Sure, there's no general rule AGAINST posting photos. Of course, you may want to consider the NUMBER of pictures you post, as if everyone starts posting LOTS of pictures, it can be a bit overwhelming.

It is perhaps also better to have a separate thread for your pictures, rather than posting them in the "I've just arrived here" thread.

Note that PlanetCatfish itself isn't able to host your pictures, so you need your pictures on a different website, such as photobucket.com, imageshack.com or such.

--
Mats

Selyna · Post by **Selyna** » 03 Aug 2007, 13:05

Ok..well I've only got a picture of one of my guys..I've had the Green Phantom only since yesterday!

I'll post a link here..when I get more of these guys I'll just start my own gallery!

[Mod edit: I took the liberty to use image tags, so the pictures show up directly in the post -- Mats]

DAWN · Post by **DAWN** » 03 Aug 2007, 13:09

Hi Mats, I would also like to post some pics of my plecs! Is there an easy way of doing so, as I'm not much of an wiz on these matters

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 03 Aug 2007, 13:25

The first thing you have to do is to find a website (as mentioned above) that you can put your pictures on. Those above give you a "link" that points to your photo. Put that link here, with [img] and [/img] around it, and it should show up.

For example [img]http://www.somesite.com/pictures/mypict ... 771218.jpg[/img]

[Note: the [img] and [/img] don't usually show in the post, but I've turned off "bbcode" here so that you can see exactly what it looks like]

--
Mats

Post by **Marc van Arc** » 03 Aug 2007, 13:28

Selyna wrote:I've had the Green Phantom only since yesterday!

Fwiw: I think this one is .
How did you come up with the common name Green Phantom? Was that the name the LFS gave it?

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 03 Aug 2007, 13:33

Marc,

I think Selyna meant that this was "L137", which is indeed a Hypostomus in the cochliodon group.

Green phantom is often used in conjunction with L200 - one L-number for two species:

--
Mats

Post by **Marc van Arc** » 03 Aug 2007, 16:08

MatsP wrote:I think Selyna meant that this was "L137", which is indeed a Hypostomus in the cochliodon group.

Even worse, L137 is Cochliodon cochliodon according to Wels Atlas 2 (they still regard the genus Cochliodon as valid). But, after seeing several lookalikes of the above fish in this book, I'm not so sure any more of my previous statement

MatsP wrote: Green phantom is often used in conjunction with L200

If so, could it be added to the common names?

Richard B · Post by **Richard B** » 03 Aug 2007, 21:46

welcome to the site

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 03 Aug 2007, 22:26

Marc van Arc wrote:
MatsP wrote: Green phantom is often used in conjunction with L200
If so, could it be added to the common names?

After verifying that I got a lot of hits for L200 by googling "Green Phantom Pleco", I've added that to the common name list for that species.

Post by **Marc van Arc** » 03 Aug 2007, 22:44

I take it you just did that, so it's not yet visible. Will that name automatically enter the common names list too?

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 03 Aug 2007, 23:37

Should do, and yes, it's not visible yet, since Jools hasn't "approved" my change - I expect that to happen tomorrow, but it's been known that Jools spends the day doing other things than approving my changes...

As to your other comment, the Hypostomus cochliodon group, at least in my eyes, is not the easiest to identify. There are several described fish that look almost identical (I haven't been studying the scientific papers on them, so I don't know if there are any good keys to go by there), and there are several L-numbers that could possible be variaitons or geographical extensions to currently described species. In short, I'm not very good at identifying these...

--
Mats

Selyna · Post by **Selyna** » 03 Aug 2007, 23:52

I appologize for the confusion..yes. the L200 was the new one that I don't have a picture of yet. I ONLY know a few common names; and still learning the scientific names of them.

I hope that I am right in saying Green Phantom.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 04 Aug 2007, 00:10

Common names are easier to learn than sicentific names, but on the other hand, scientific names have several advantages:
1. They are the same all over the world. No matter if you are in the US, England, China or Australia, the name for a Hypancistrus zebra is the same - and it means the same species of fish in all places too!!
2. There is only ONE (valid) scientific name for a particular species. [Now, let's not get into a discussion about who decides which ones are valid and which aren't, please

]. Older names are kept on record as "synonyms", so if you find your fish in an older book, using an old name, it can still be "traced" to the new name now. [Names change because of further research - for example what was previously considered two different species will become one species, and the oldest name should then be used, with the "newer" one being a synonym. Or a genus (small group of fish with similar traits) may either split into multiple new genera, or be merged with another genera (e.g. the genus Cochliodon is, at least by some, considered a synonym with Hypostomus, so your L137 belongs, if we follow this, to the genus Hypostomus, whilst older literature will call it Cochliodon).

Sorry, that became quite long and complex - feel free to accept the shorter version:

Scientific names are more precise and internationally accepted. Common names are often used for more than one species of fish, and sometimes not the same in different parts of the world. '

--
Mats

Selyna · Post by **Selyna** » 04 Aug 2007, 00:17

Thank you Mats; I was wondering about the Hypostomus/ Cochilodon names; now I understand it. And I can clearly see how much easier it is to refer to them by scientific names.

I get the L 137 on accident and spend a lot time trying to figure out what it was. Most people were telling me it was a blue eyed Red Bruno, not to mention several other names which I've found aren't correct, or at least not precise.

I imagine with some time here, I'll be able to use *and even understand!* the scientific names.

All this was meant to say thanks:D

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 04 Aug 2007, 00:28

It takes a while to understand the "binominal nomenclature" (which is the fancy way of saying "Scientific names"). The "binominal" means that ALL species described has a name made up of two parts (genus and species name) that describe exactly which species it is, and there's NEVER two binominals that are the same within all mammals, fishes, plants, bacteria or insects.

In fact, all genus names are unique as such, but specific names are not, e.g. there are several fish called "pictus", but combined with the unique genus "pimelodus", it can only mean one living thing,

--
Mats

Bas Pels · Post by **Bas Pels** » 04 Aug 2007, 09:12

Selyna wrote:*and even understand!*

I think that is exactly the point: One can understand scientifec names.

If I get a Hypostomus something, I know at least something about feeding it. If I get an Lxxx I don't

Hello Everyone!

Hello Everyone!

thanks!

Just a qustion on posting pics!