'bullnoses' and other questions

["Scott Olson" <olson7@hotmail.com>]

There are a couple of questions that have haunted me for some years now.  
Perhaps someone can help.

The first is the matter of 'bull-nosed' fish.  I have seen entire spawns 
(not from my own fish) grow out to have a strange condition that I can only 
describe as bull-nosed, or perhaps bus-nosed.  The fish end up with a 
curiously truncated head.  The lips and everything are there.  It's as if 
the fish have run repeatedly into some immovable object without causing any 
real damage, other than to the general form of the fish.  Otherwise, the 
animals seem perfectly healthy.  I have observed this condition not only in 
apistogramma (especially in A. hippolytae, though I doubt that species has 
anything to do with it) but also in one male of a reverse trio of young 
Psuedocrenilabrus - as they were then known - nicholsi that I picked up from 
a LFS.  Can anyone tell me what causes this condition?  Has anyone else 
observed it?  If we understand the cause, perhaps we can undertake to 
prevent its occurence.  I believe I have only observed the condition in 
domestically bred specimens.

The second is the proper spelling of two specific names: agassizi and 
borellii.  I have spelled them as I think they should be spelled.  While I 
can't claim to be other than the rankest neophyte in either Latin or 
taxonomy, it seems that possession in Latin, at least as it relates to 
scientific nomenclature, is normally denoted by the addition of the letter 
'i' to someone's name, just as apostrophe 's' is added in English.  If this 
is so, and a fish is named after someone named Geisler, then the correct 
spelling of the specific name would be Apistogramma geisleri, or geisler's 
Apistogramma, in English.  Since A. agassizi and A. borellii were named 
after individuals named Agassiz and Borelli, respectively, it seems that the 
correct spelling of these species' names is as shown above.  It seems that 
in the hobby, these fish are consistently spelled agassizii and borelli, 
however.  This seems to be especially true in the case of agassizi.  Am I 
all wet?  Which is the better spelling for each species?

It may be evidence of some deep personal flaw, but I've pondered these two 
questions a number of times over the years, and would appreciate any 
elightenment!

Thanks in advance,

Scott

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