The Aquarium Fishes WikiProject is planning to set up The Aquarium Fishes Portal in the near future. At this moment, please use The Fish Portal which has many interesting features and useful links. The fish portal shotcut is P:FISH
Please do not hesitate to join Aquarium Fishes WikiProject. Just add your name to the list below. It's ok if you're new to the aquarium fishes. Everyone was a newbie once !! And it's ok too if you are new to Wikipedia. We all can help guide you with article writing/editing.
Identify articles, lists, and categories that are related to fishkeeping and aquarium fishes. There are at least 24,600 known species of fishes, but a small proportion of these are commonly kept aquarium fishes. When you do find them, please place {{Template:WikiProject aquarium fishes}} in the talk page of those article. In doing this, you are not only directing our members to those articles, but also directing potential members from those articles to us !! The template you posted will appear like this:
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Aquarium Fishes, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Aquarium Fish articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Aquarium FishesWikipedia:WikiProject Aquarium FishesTemplate:WikiProject Aquarium FishesAquarium Fishes articles
Categorize the articles taxonomically. It will make it easier for editors to find a particular fish. Here's an excerpt of the guideline from WikiProject Fishes:
Wikipedia categories should be created for well-known families, using the plural of
the common name of the family ([[Category:Sunfishes]] or [[Category:Cyprinids]]),
and for orders, using the common name (e.g., [[Category:Catfishes]]) or the scientific
epithet (e.g., [[Category:Cyprinodontiformes]]). For very small families (e.g., the
[[pygmy sunfish]]es), only the order category may be used, but usage must be consistent
among members of a family.
Note that some of the category examples in the excerpt are no longer used. You can see the more up-to-date list of taxonomical categories here.
For articles that is not taxonomical (articles that are not about a particular species, genus, family, or group of fish) you might want to put those articles in one of these categories:
Stubs are very short articles. Most fish articles, unfortunately, are still stubs at this point. They need to be marked up with the appropriate stub template at the bottom of the article. This will identify articles that need to be expanded. Currently there are five stub templates for you to use:
You might also want to take a look at stubs in each of the categories above and see if there are any articles you are interested to expand.
Again, there are at least 24,600 known species of fishes. We can't possibly put every fish in the list. Don't put a fish in the list just because it can fit a tank. Focus on more well-known fishes that are available in the aquarium trade.
Add pictures of aquarium fishes. The articles in general are seriously in needs of good pictures. Use Wikimedia common. Find an appropriate taxonimical category there then add the fish picture with caption that identifies the common name and scientific name. You might want to to start at the category Actinopterygii or ray-finned fish (see link in the box). Sometimes, you will find that you have the picture, but you don't know what exactly the fish is or cannot find the appropriate category. Then you can post it in the discussion section of this page, other members can help you identify the fish.
Keep in mind that Wikipedia is very strict about copyright and/or the license. Your own pictures are the best. If the picture is from a public domain or is a U.S. government work, it's also useable. When uploading, declare where the picture is from, and/or copyright status and/or the license.
Identify pictures when requested. Or just browse wikimedia common for unidentified, wrongly-identified or uncategorized images. Give common name and scientific name, and place the picture in the appropriate category. You can also help putting up pictures in the articles too. This Actinopterygii article has a helpful taxonomical list that can be a good tool.
Create articles. You can create an article about any fish but the more well-known aquarium fishes should be given prority over the rare ones. Before creating, make sure the article doesn't already exist under a different name (another common name, scientific name, or included in the genus article, etc.). You can also request other members to create an article about a particular fish or topic.
Copyedit articles that are badly written. Fix grammer, convert to "wikipedia" style of writing, and reformat according the guidelines provided in the format guidelines section.
Collaborate on the designated article of the week/month. The Aquarium Fishes WikiProject will ask all members to collaborate on expanding and polishing one particular article at a time. This is to brainstorm and make the best out of our combined strengths and ability. You are encouraged to suggest an article for the next collaboration in the discussion section. The suggestion that gets most supports from the members will become the collabaration of the next month.
Fish articles have a specific format to follow. See Wikipedia:WikiProject Fishes for general guidelines on writing about a fish (species, genus, family, etc.). We provide additional guidelines specifically for the aquarium care of fish
All fish articles begin with a taxobox. On the left is an example of a species taxobox for ocellaris clownfish. You can easily modify this to another fish. The taxonomy information is provided by fishbase. See more information about references in the references section below.
Taxobox asides, ideally an aquarium fish article should be organized in the following format.
Introduction paragraph (mention of trade names, alternate names, etc.)
Range or geographic distribution
Physical description, including sexing, size, weight, and age
Habitat, diet, and related information
Aquarium care
Popularity, hardiness, availability, general introduction
Behavior in captivity, aggressiveness
Tank set-up, tankmates, temperature, pH, salinity, water requirements
Feeding
Breeding, more details on sexing
Diseases and treatments
Varieties, breeds, colorations (if different breeds have significantly different behaviors or require different care, you may want to move this topic up)
Mentions of related species, how they are different or similar
Other aquarium care information
Other importance to humans (game fish, fishing, etc.)
Conservation status or invasive species status
Other noteworthy information
Trivia
References
Gallery
Many of the current aquarium fish articles already follow this format to some degrees. Others have a messy format and need a serious revision.
Here are some examples of the better organized articles:
Family articles tend to have very broad contents. Aquarium care shouldn't go much in details here. Usually, it's good enough to have a medium-sized section that mentions members of the family that are popular aquarium fishes and some brief generalization of the fishes in aquarium.
Genus articles are usually short and should have generalized aquarium care of the fishes in that genus. Sometimes it can go in much details, and in situations that the genus has only one or very few similar species, the genus article may replace species articles completely. In such cases, aquarium care section should have as much details as possible as if it's a species article. Also mention the differences/similarities among species and if the hybridization across species is possible.
Species articles are usually the prime source of aquarium care information. Go into the most details here. Pictures are important and should have more than one.
Breed articles, at the present, exist only for goldfish. Most other fish breeds are not really qualified as seperate articles. The "gold severum" can be easily included in the severum article, just as the serpae tetra article can mention the long-finned stain.
Informal group articles. Sometimes, aquarists group fishes differently from taxonomists do. This results in "informal group" articles. They are very varied and tend to be unorganized. As an attempt to organize them, the informal group articles are listed here (if you know other articles, please add them here):
Most aquarium fish articles, especially at the species level, should use common names (preferably the ones used by Fishbase) as the titles of the article and redirect scientific names (the binomial name) and/or other alternative name to it. Some aquarium fishes, however, are known mostly by scientific names. Articles of the genus, family, or a higher taxa level often do not have equivalent common names. In those cases, use the scientific names as the titles. If you have questions which name to choose, you can discuss it with other members in the discussion section.
Common names are not capitalized unless it's named after a person or a place.
Examples:
"fantail orange filefish"
"black-spotted porcupinefish"
"Jack Dempsey cichlid" (Jack Dempsey is a person)
"Buenos Aires tetra" (Buenos Aires is a city name)
"White Cloud Mountain minnow" (White Cloud Mountain is name of a place in China)
Scientific names. Names of genus and higher taxa are capitalized but NOT italicized. Generic names (first half of the binomial names) are capitalized and italicized. Specific epithets (second half of the binomial names) are italicized but NOT capitalized.
Examples:
"The bluering angelfish Pomacanthus annularis is an angelfish of the family Pomacanthidae"
"The two species of the genus Symphysodon have different geographic distributions. S. aequifasciatus occurs in the Rio Solimões, Rio Amazonas and the Río Putumayo-Içá in Brazil, Columbia and Peru. In contrast the distribution of S. discus appears to be limited to the lower reaches of Rio Negro and Trombetas rivers."
References is one of the major weaknesses of many aquarium fish articles. Wikipedia is obsessive with references and citations. Articles will never receive Good Article or Featured Article status if they don't have a lot of good references. There are two kinds of references we should know:
Fishbase is THE source for fish taxonomy in wikipedia. Please use and cite it religiously. The following templates are developed by WikiProject Fishes and are easy to place in references section of the article.
For a FishBase entry on an order, use:
{{FishBase order | order = Bariformes | year = YYYY | month = Month}}
For a FishBase entry on a family, use:
{{FishBase family | family = Baridae | year = YYYY | month = Month}}
For a FishBase entry on a genus, use:
{{FishBase genus | genus = Barus | year = YYYY | month = Month}}
For most FishBase entries on species, use:
{{FishBase species | genus = Barus | species = foous | year = YYYY | month = Month}}
For most FishBase entries on subspecies, use:
{{FishBase subspecies | genus = Barus | species = foous | subspecies = subfoous | year = YYYY | month = Month}}
For FishBase entries that are problematic for the above templates, get the numeric ID from their URL and use:
{{FishBase species alt | ID = ???? | taxon = Barus foous foous | year = YYYY | month = Month}}
For all FishBase templates, year and month refer to the FishBase revision consulted, not the date on which you consulted FishBase; the revision can be found from the FishBase home page.
ITIS (the Integrated Taxonomic Information System) is another source for taxonomy. In the references section, use this WikiProject Fishes template:
{{ITIS | ID = ????? | taxon = Barus foous | year = YYYY | date = DD Month}}
For the ITIS template, year and date refer to the date on which ITIS was consulted. Date can be in either U.S. or international format, as it will be wikified.
So far we haven't had an utimate source for aquarium care. There are books and magazine articles that can be cited as well as other online sources. However, please remember that commercial websites are usually NOT appropriate. The citations or external links to commercial websites will be deleted quickly and the article will end up with no sources at all. To determine whether your source is citable, you might want to read this first.
If you know any excellent and citable non-commercial source, you may add it in the following list so that we all can use it as references. If you find that any website listed here is commercial or not citable, please remove it from the list.
Aquarticles.com - "An international collection of articles about fish and aquariums, available for free use in aquarium club newsletters and non- commercial web sites."
hardcoreaquatics.com - Hardocre Aquatics is a World Wide Community dedicated to the Aquatic Industry where quality information about the Freshwater, Marine and Reef Aquarium hobby can be exchanged among all levels of hobbyist.
Age of Aquariums Promotes responsible fishkeeping internationally since 1997.
General - Marine
AquariumDomain Complete Resource for the Marine Aquarium Hobbyist.
Reefs.org - Reefs.org is the oldest internet communitity solely dedicated to the hobby of reef aquarium. Reefs.org hosts an active online bulletin board, monthly magazine (www.advancedaquarist.com), college-style courses related to reef husbandry (www.aquaristcourses.org), a library of reefkeeping reference material, and the oldest, most active reef internet live chat (#reefs).
Reef Central - Reef Central is dedicated to the marine reef aquarium hobby. Learn about reef aquarium setup and maintenance, and view coral and marine fish photos.
The Marine Reef The complete community, for every aquarist. The Marine Reef offers live chat, forums, and a friendly online community.
Aquarium Pros - AP is dedicated to the Canadian reefkeeping community, but contains a wealth of information for any interested.
Advanced Aquarist's Online Magazine - An online marine aquarist magazine covering all topics relating to marine aquarium husbandry. Established in 2002.
Reef Aquarium Index - Saltwater & reef aquarium reference guide contains links to over 1500 articles on set-up, maintenance, and care of fish & coral species.
When refer to several different species, use "fishes." When refer to several individuals of the same species, use "fish."
This Aquarium Fishes WikiProject is not the absolute authority. It provides "guidelines" rather than "rules." However, if you have doubts about anything, you should discuss first before making any crucial changes.
