Re: 'bullnoses' and other questions

[Mike & Diane Wise <apistowise@bewellnet.com>]

Scot,

On the first question, I have no idea what causes this bull nose problem. I have
some A. sp. aff. meinkeni that were wild caught fish that have this symptom so it
isn't restricted to domestic fish. These fish are well over 2 years old and still
going strong so it doesn't seem to bother them.

On the second question, A. borellii was named by Regan in honor of Dr. A.
Borelli, who discovered the species. A. agassizii is named for the J. Louis R.
Agassiz, the geologist/biologist on the Thayer Expedition to the Amazon in
1865-66. I don't know why Steindachner, who described the species, spelled it
with 2 "i"s but he did. As. Fredrik wrote, it doesn't matter if the species name
is misspelled. Once it's published it stays that way. This kind of error is still
going on. Römer named a fish for Chico Mendes. The publisher, however, misspelled
the name with a "z" instead of an "s". Uwe didn't catch the error in the galley
proof, so now the name is A. mendezi instead of "A. mendesi" If you consider that
A. panduro was named for both J. V. Panduro Pinedo and N. J. L Panduro Pinedo,
the name of the fish should be "A. pandurorum", the possessive (genitive) plural
ending in Latin. Even the name of A. atahualpa might be more correct as "A.
atahualpai" or "A. atahualpi" or even "A. atahualpae" (Since the name ends in "a"
(a feminine suffix in Latin) some say the name is feminine and should have a
feminine possessive suffix - but don't let the Inca know or he would come out and
haunt us!) So it really doesn't matter if the name is spelled correctly or not.
What is important is that the name is consistantly spelled the same way all of
the time.

Mike Wise

Scott Olson wrote:

> 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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