common names of fish

[zax]

i am new to cichlids and it would be nice to add the common names of fish in the titles so i know what topics are about. for example, adding yellow lab instead of just L. caeruleus.

[Philippe Burnel]

The common name is only common in your country often different in Europe or Asia.
CichildRoom Companion is a worlwide forum (I'm french) so the best (IMO) is to use the only name understood all over the world : the scientific name.
It's not so difficult to learn scientific names.

[Bas Pels]

Indeed

It's much easier to know 1 scientific name - even though the name might change in the next 5 years - than to learn the so called common names for this species

As Phelipes stated, each language has its common name, and in case a language is large, such as English, or Spanish, a fish might have a dozen names in just that language

Besides, what if there are two common names -'the black and red darter' and 'the red and black darter'wouldn't that mess things up? In some cases so called common names are even worse

[Daniel Smith]

Your post actually shows the perfect example of why it is more confusing using common names . If you asked me the scientific name for a yellow lab I would say Herichthys Labridens a large cichlid from cental america wich has a yellow and blue variety . We would then both be talking about totally different fish that are both yellow labs
dan smith

[zax]

that makes sense, guess i'll start learning the scientific names