Hello Catfishonians

aquatic-caves · Post by **aquatic-caves** » 01 Nov 2005, 11:06

Just wanted to introduce myself. I look forward to being a part of this great site and maybe learning some things about these fascinating fish.

racoll · Post by **racoll** » 01 Nov 2005, 15:57

Hi aquatic-caves. welcome to the site.

Owch · Post by **Owch** » 01 Nov 2005, 19:17

Ive just had a look at some of your caves, amazing!

aquatic-caves · Post by **aquatic-caves** » 02 Nov 2005, 01:49

Thank you for those kind compliments. I started doing this as a hobby about 6 months ago, it helps me to relax and take my mind off things, just as my aquariums always have. I also use these myself in my own tanks. If you get a chance check out my "PlecoCave" sometime. I have a common Pleco that is growing pretty fast now after learning how to feed it with Cichlids in the tank (took me while to realize they will get their share of Algae tablets NO MATTER WHAT), Catfish have always been a favorite of mine. I look forward.

PS, why is the * symbol being put in place of the certain letters for fish names? I'm guessing it's because it is improper naming.

Owch · Post by **Owch** » 02 Nov 2005, 02:29

The * is an urban myth, supposedly, if you type p l e c o one of your fish will die, or at least that's what I read somewhere.

Here in fact:

Pl*co?

With the advent of email, the internet and particularly newsgroups, aquarists at all levels began talking about their plecos with an interesting side effect. According to online lore, an incident occurred when someone discussed their pleco in a newsgroup and the fish promptly died. The discussion group surmised there was an online curse and the pl*co superstition was born. The belief is that if your star out the "e" in pleco when you write pleco, then your beloved suckermouth will be delivered from all aquatic evils.

Phathead6669 · Post by **Phathead6669** » 02 Nov 2005, 14:17

I can cosign Owch. I have heard of that urban myth aswell for pl*cos.

Im not sure about the chiclids though. Its probably the same urban myth but I haven't heard anything about that one.

Phathead6669 · Post by **Phathead6669** » 02 Nov 2005, 14:19

*cichlids. But I don't own any of them so I'm not worried.

Owch · Post by **Owch** » 02 Nov 2005, 14:20

All my plecs seem aOK this morning!

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 02 Nov 2005, 14:46

Phathead6669 wrote:I can cosign Owch. I have heard of that urban myth aswell for pl*cos.

Im not sure about the chiclids though. Its probably the same urban myth but I haven't heard anything about that one.

No, the reason sicklids are marked with stars is that it's a "dirty word" in Jools's dictionary. This is in return for some sicklid associations that do not acknowledge catfish in any other form than as "Scavengers". I think it's covered in the FAQ.

My personal opinion is that both are a bit silly [if someone WANTS to write p-l-star-c-o instead of p-l-e-c-o, then let them. But I'm not the web-master of this site, nor have I any aspirations of becoming one... [Although I'm happy to help out when possible] At the moment, Jools is paying, personally, for the hosting of this web-site, so if he wants to do things in a particular way, then I think we should let him...

--
Mats

aquatic-caves · Post by **aquatic-caves** » 03 Nov 2005, 01:01

I know folks have their superstitions, but I can attest to the fact that myths don't exist and myths are exactly that "myths", only truths really exist.
It is kind of a neat myth though. I will abide by the Catfish code and use the proper term "Plecostomus", after all the fish does deserve to be called by it's scientific name, the poor little guys don't ever bother any other fish, besides that, some consider them ugly, which is ashame really, because none of Gods creations are ugly to me.
As for Cichlids, I like using the term "Clids"

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 03 Nov 2005, 10:21

aquatic-caves wrote:I will abide by the Catfish code and use the proper term "Plecostomus", after all the fish does deserve to be called by it's scientific name, the poor little guys don't ever bother any other fish, besides that, some consider them ugly, which is ashame really, because none of Gods creations are ugly to me.

Amusing reply. I cut out the amusing bits just to comment on the fact that Plecostomus is no longer a valid genus... It was at one point, but the genus is now called Hypostomus. The formerly known Plecostomus plecostomus is now called Hypostomus Plecostomus... And this fish, nowadays, is fairly rarely traded. It's either Pterygoplichthys spp. or more exotic varieties in other genera.

--
Mats

racoll · Post by **racoll** » 04 Nov 2005, 09:56

I don't think anyone in their sane mind actually thinks their fish will die if they write pleco without the *.

It's just a bit of fun.

besides, in the UK we call them plecs and not plecos. Having spent too much time on this forum, i keep saying pleco in the LFS.

Imagine my embarassment!

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 04 Nov 2005, 11:06

racoll wrote:I don't think anyone in their sane mind actually thinks their fish will die if they write pl*co without the *.

It's just a bit of fun.

besides, in the UK we call them plecs and not pl*cos. Having spent too much time on this forum, i keep saying pl*co in the LFS.

Imagine my embarassment!

Carrying this thread even further in the tangential direction: I work for a US company, reading/writing on two international fora, and was born in Sweden, watching TV programs from both the US and England, so I'm utterly confused when it comes to which word to use where... Not just when it comes to pleco's/plec's, but lots of different words that are not the same in the two "similar" languages... When I first arrived in England, I went out to find a petrol station, except I used the american term: Gas Station. No-one knew what I was asking for, and I realized after a little bit that I was asking for the wrong thing, and after correcting myself I eventually managed to get there...

[Some would probably say that not much have changed, except that I've been known to tell my US collegues that I'm knackered, or "telling porkies", which of course means that you have to explain yourself...

]
--
Mats

racoll · Post by **racoll** » 04 Nov 2005, 12:05

I think think the funniest anglo-amercican translations are...

fag and fanny.

They both mean completly different things!!

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 04 Nov 2005, 12:49

racoll wrote:I think think the funniest anglo-amercican translations are...

fag and fanny.

They both mean completly different things!!

Yes, a former collegue of mine used to make a joke of "I'll go bum a fag" when in the US... The looks on the American's faces was quite confused...

--
Mats

natefrog · Post by **natefrog** » 05 Nov 2005, 07:35

Carry this thread one step further, I beleived that the asterix in pleco was intended to prevent massive search replies everytime someone used the p-l-e-c-o as a keyword. Just a thought, silly as it may be.

On another note...It's okay to pat your mate on the fanny in Canada but you would probably end up with a busted lip or worse in the UK.

Owch · Post by **Owch** » 05 Nov 2005, 13:42

natefrog wrote:It's okay to pat your mate on the fanny in Canada but you would probably end up with a busted lip or worse in the UK.

Oooo errrr Missus