Wikipedia:WikiProject Fishes

Wikimedia subject-area collaboration From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

WikiProject Fishes aims to help organise our rapidly growing collection of articles about fish taxa. Issues outside the scope of this WikiProject include fishkeeping (fish aquarium topics), fishing, fisheries, fish cuisine topics, fish farm topics, fish market topics, fish processing topics, fish product sales topics, fish products topics, and fish trap topics.

At the end of October 2021, there were 33,888 articles within the project's scope. During October 2021, the most popular 500 articles received 7,931,480 views, averaging 255,854 views per day.

Related WikiProjects

This WikiProject is an offshoot of WikiProject Tree of Life:

WikiProject Science.
WikiProject Biology
WikiProject Tree of Life
WikiProject Animals
WikiProject Fishes

It is the parent project of:

WikiProject Aquarium Fishes
WikiProject Fisheries and Fishing (co-parent with WikiProject Sports)
WikiProject Sharks

It is worth keeping one eye on several Wikiprojects that overlap with this one, including:

Associated Portal

The Fish Portal is the associated portal of WikiProject Fishes.

Participants

For recruiting additional members, see users associating themselves with fish.
  1. Alextejthompson (talk · contribs)
  2. Antarctic-adventurer (talk · contribs) - any but has a fondness for tropical reef fish
  3. ArkadenBoden (talk · contribs) - Any and all species, but fond of freshwater species, especially Acipenseridae
  4. Atsme (talk · contribs) - all species but with some level of expertise in tropical reef fishes, and the largest freshwater ancestral species.
  5. Bruinfan12 (talk · contribs) - Seahorses and pipefish, et al.
  6. Clumpus (talk · contribs) - Fish biologist expanding and updating articles on north Atlantic fishes.
  7. Cwmhiraeth (talk · contribs)
  8. Dan Koehl (talk · contribs)
  9. Daniel Mietchen (talk · contribs) - mainly images and references
  10. Enlil Ninlil (talk · contribs)
  11. Epipelagic (talk · contribs) – I've developed many articles for this project, mostly about fish types, habitats and ecology or related to fisheries.
  12. Esoxid (talk · contribs) (Created 2 fish articles before signing up here. Black scabbardfish and Amphiprion akallopisos)
  13. Fastily (talk · contribs)
  14. Gasmasque (talk · contribs) Mainly editing articles relating to extinct fishes, with a strong interest in Antarctic and deep-sea extant fishes as well.
  15. Ginkgo100 (talk · contribs)
  16. GunnarBonk (talk · contribs) Lover of fishes, specifically wrasses and salmonids. Not active much, but would love to help in any way I can.
  17. History person 2 (talk · contribs) I am interested in fish
  18. HolyCrocsEmperor (talk · contribs) Hiii I just created articles for most grayling species and now start working on other freshwater species in Russia and East Asia! Have a good day!
  19. Hyperik (talk · contribs)
  20. InfamousArgyle (talk · contribs) I do a lot of work with marine fish of the North Pacific and I want to elevate our wider knowledge of them!
  21. Innotata (talk · contribs)
  22. jj1691 (talk · contribs)
  23. Jokrez (talk · contribs) I hate fish stubs, so I make them bigger
  24. Kelubact (talk · contribs) Freshwater fish
  25. Kodiak Blackjack (talk · contribs)
  26. Knight of Gloucestershire (talk · contribs) I like fish. They're fascinating and it's lovely to know more about them init?
  27. Kraftlos (talk · contribs)
  28. Lerdsuwa (talk · contribs)
  29. lfstevens (talk · contribs)
  30. MChGilbert (talk · contribs) Fish biologist/anatomist studying a variety of fish taxa, from pupfishes to cichlids to bramids. Editing when I have the time.
  31. Micromesistius (talk · contribs)
  32. Mike Cline (talk · contribs) Interested in expanding and improving all articles on North American Salmonidae
  33. Mitternacht90 (talk · contribs)
  34. Naiadpress (talk · contribs) I LOVE sharks
  35. Nick Thorne (talk · contribs)
  36. OceanGunfish (talk · contribs) Lifelong fish enthusiast with particular interest in Centrarchidae family
  37. operculum_ben (talk · contribs) - iNaturalist to Wikipedia pipeline.
  38. Pbsouthwood (talk · contribs) Sporadic editor on marine organisms of Southern Africa, including fishes.
  39. Plantdrew (talk · contribs)
  40. popcorned (talk · contribs) Pupfish. Lots of Pupfish. Main Goal: Make ichthyology better.
  41. Primium (talk · contribs)
  42. Pteronura brasiliensis (talk · contribs) I got interested in this sort of thing for the Fish Quiz itself I am willing and ready to help!
  43. Quetzal1964 (talk · contribs)
  44. Rickie Elizabeth (talk · contribs) I try to add more to fish articles that are stubs
  45. Rlendog (talk · contribs)
  46. Ryan shell (talk · contribs) (ive created 12 articles for this project, but i just realised i didnot sign the project page)
  47. Snugglyaggron (talk · contribs) Autopatrolled user with more than 50 pages under my belt. Largely focused on neotropocal characiformes.
  48. Stan Shebs (talk · contribs)
  49. Stefan (talk · contribs)
  50. TeaDrinker (talk · contribs)
  51. Vihaking277 (talk · contribs) Editing or creating drafts for articles, especially of Sri Lankan fish.
  52. Wilhelmina Will (talk · contribs) I've recently created many fish species articles, and a genus article, and am interested in creating many more.
  53. Wolverine XI (talk · contribs) I love sharks
  54. Ykvach (talk · contribs) - Yuriy Kvach

Other participants

See Category:WikiProject Fishes participants for participants who have associated themselves with the project using the {{User WPFishes}} or {{User WPFishes2}} userboxes.

Inactive

More information ⠀Former participants who haven't edited for over two years ...
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Structure and criteria for inclusion

Articles should normally be about particular taxa. For example:

If a family has only a single genus, the family name should redirect to the article on the genus (e.g., Elassomatidae). If a genus has only a single species, articles using the common name should redirect to the species (e.g., Centrarchus), whereas articles using the binomial should redirect to the genus (e.g., Boesemania microlepis). Exceptions are also made for articles where the genus name has a disambiguator in parentheses (e.g., Bullockia (fish)).

When a genus contains only a small number of similar species, the articles may be combined with the article on the genus (e.g., Crappie, which includes the white crappie, Pomoxis annularis, and the black crappie, P. nigromaculatus.)

Also see the lists at Tkinias/Fish, SpeciesFishes1, SpeciesFishes2, SpeciesFishes3, and MarineFishList

WikiProject Fishes categories

WikiProject Fishes
Fishes articles needing attention
WikiProject Fishes articles
WikiProject Fishes participants
WikiProject Aquarium Fishes
WikiProject Fisheries and Fishing
Lobe-Fins task force
WikiProject Sharks

Fish names and article titles

Common names

Common names should be written in sentence case rather than title case, following normal English usage and that of FishBase. Use, for example, "largemouth bass", not "Largemouth Bass". Place names or personal names that form part of a common name remain capitalized, hence "Guadalupe bass" (in reference to the Guadalupe River) or "White Cloud Mountain minnow" (in reference to White Cloud Mountain in China).

Systematic names

  • Use systematic or "scientific" names according to established biological usage.
  • Capitalize but do not italicize names of taxa higher than genus, e.g., the family Exocoetidae.
  • Capitalize and italicize generic names, e.g., Xiphophorus.
  • Italicize but do not capitalize specific epithets.
  • Refer to species using full names, e.g., Xiphophorus hellerii or X. hellerii but not hellerii.
  • Neither italicize nor capitalize anglicizations of systematic names, e.g., "the pumpkinseed is a perciform fish".

Article titles

Article naming for fishes differs, as detailed below, from Naming conventions (fauna).

Use the common name for any species that satisfies at least one of the following criteria:

  • 1(i) The species has a single common name that is widely used and never used for any other species. While the species in question may have additional common names, those names are rarely used. Example: Greenland halibut.
  • 1(ii) The species has a widely recognised common name that is so rarely applied to other species that confusion as to the subject of the article is unlikely to arise. Example: Guppy.
  • 1(iii) Within the area where the species is endemic and/or of commercial importance, only a single common name is used by the relevant legal, conservation, fisheries or local institutions, even though other common names may exist. Example: Atlantic salmon.
  • 1(iv) The species has a common name that is normally separated from similar common names by use of geographical, descriptive, or other modifications to those names. Once differentiated, these names satisfy criteria i, ii, or iii above. Examples: Shovelnose sturgeon, Little shovelnose sturgeon, False shovelnose sturgeon.

Use the Latin name for any species that fails to satisfy criteria 1(i) to 1(iv), including such situations as the following:

  • 2(i) The same common name is regularly applied to multiple species. Example: Green spotted puffer.
  • 2(ii) There is no single common name used for the species. Example: Black widow tetra (a.k.a. Black tetra, Petticoat tetra).
  • 2(iii) The species has different common names in different English-speaking countries. Example: Plec (UK), pleco (US).
  • 2(iv) The species simply has no widely used common name. Example: Dermogenys sumatrana.

Guidelines

  • Regardless of the title used, articles should include the scientific name in bold and italics and all significant English common names in bold in the first paragraph (and preferably the first sentence).
  • The first paragraph should differentiate the fish from other species with which it might be confused. This may be done by explaining the ambiguity, with links to other fish (e.g., at tilapia), or by mentioning geographical distribution, for example:
The guppy (Poecilia reticulata), also known as the millionsfish, is a small fresh and brackish water fish from Central America.
This article is about the <put text>; for the <put text> see <put link>.
  • Create a disambiguation page when the ambiguity involves many fish and a hatnote would be too long. Example: Tigerfish.
  • Before renaming articles, discuss the reasons for doing so on the Talk page. In cases of disputed naming, where a consensus cannot be reached on the article's Talk page, the matter should be discussed at WikiProject Fishes to allow a consensus decision to be reached.

Regional lists of species

Lists of fish species should follow the form: List of fishes of <Region>. The definite article may be needed for the name of some regions. Note that "List of fish of ..." is incorrect when dealing with a list of the species.

Higher taxa

Articles on taxa above species should be titled using the common name, if one exists and is unambiguous. Otherwise, the scientific epithet should be used. When FishBase or other references give a common name of "xes and ys" or "xes or ys" for a higher taxon, the scientific epithet (possibly anglicized) should be used for the article title.

Articles on taxa above the generic level should be titled with the Latin form of the name and not the anglicization, e.g. Cyprinidae not cyprinid, and Perciformes not perciform. The anglicizations may be freely used in article text however.

Taxonomy

For taxa between species up to and including order articles should follow Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes (Ecof) https://www.calacademy.org/scientists/catalog-of-fishes-classification/ . The taxonomy used in taxoboxes for taxa up to and including order should be based on Ecof.

For extinct taxa, i,e, where that taxon is not included in Ecof, and for levels above that of order then editors should follow the the 5th edition of Fishes of the World. For example the for the placoderms we would follow Fishes of the World but for the genus Jefitchia, a sciaenid, we would use Ecof's taxonomy because that taxon is within an extant lineage. Editors should have access to a full copy of the 5th edition of Catalog of Fishes in the Wikipedia Library https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/doi/book/10.1002/9781119174844 . If the FotW taxonomy is shown to be outdated or contrary to the current expert consensus in recent scientific papers, alternative schemes may be followed instead.

Any Taxonomy section in an article should note different classification schemes, where relevant, particularly where Ecof differs from Fishes of the World, Deepfin https://bmcecolevol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12862-017-0958-3 and Near & Thacker's Phylogenetic Classification of Living and Fossil Ray-Finned Fishes (Actinopterygii) https://bioone.org/journals/bulletin-of-the-peabody-museum-of-natural-history/volume-65/issue-1/014.065.0101/Phylogenetic-Classification-of-Living-and-Fossil-Ray-Finned-Fishes-Actinopterygii/10.3374/014.065.0101.full

The taxonomy template should be referenced to Ecof for taxa at and below the level of order, and to Fishes of the World 5th ed for taxa above the level of order.

  • Note: When listing the species authority (the author(s) who originally named the species or subspecies of interest), in the taxobox or elsewhere, parentheses matter. For example, "Foogenus fishii Smith, 1900" has a subtly different meaning than "Foogenus fishii (Smith, 1900)". Parentheses indicate that Smith originally placed fishii in a different genus, and the species was subsequently placed in Foogenus. See more at Binomial nomenclature and Template:Taxobox#Authorities (Animalia usage).

Categorization

Main page: Wikipedia:WikiProject Fishes/Categories

Wikipedia categories should be created for well-known families, using the plural of the common name of the family (Category:Centrarchidae or Category:Cyprinidae), 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 sunfishes), only the order category may be used, but usage must be consistent among members of a family.

Article format

Fish-related templates and categories

Article assessment

Article alerts

Article traffic

Collaboration

Peer Review

Tasklist

Automated list of featured and good articles

Related Articles

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