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I've recently have got a chance to get some more difficult to get tetras or so I think. I have a list of all the ones I can get, but if someone can help me sort out the scientific names to common it would help.

Chilodus Chilopues punctatus
Hatchet levis Carneguiella myersi
Hatchet marthae Carneguiella marthae
Hatchet strigata Carneguiella strigata
Nanostomus red pencil I Nannostomus sp.
Tetra black point Hyphessobricon copeland
Tetragonopterus sp. chalseus Tetragonopterus chalseus
Tetra azulino/Bristle mouth tet. Tyttocharax var. Peru
Tetra bleeding heart Hyphessobricon erytrostigma
Tetra GEORGIAE Pititella georgiae
Tetra adiposa Hemmigramus sp.
Tetra blue Boelckea fredcohui
Tetra blue false, RED TAIL Bohelkea sp.
Tetra castell Hermmigrammus hanuary
Tetra cola negra Hemigrammus levis
Tetra GOLD, Putumayo Hemigrammus sp.
Tetra JUNIOR Hyphessobricon sp.
Tetra limón S42625-3 Iguanodectes spilurus
Tetra Loreto Hyphessobricon loretoensis
Tetra neón Paracheirodon innesi
Tetra oblicuas Trayeria oblicua
Tetra ocelifer Hermmigrammus ocelifer
Tetra ojo rojo/Diamond Moenkhausia pittieri - S52595
Tetra palta MOJARA Hemigrammus sp.
Tetra metae red line Hyphesobrycon sp.var.metae
Tetra roberty Hyphessobricon robertsi
Tetra rodosthomus Hemmigramus rodosthomus
Tetra Zoila Verde Tetra sp.
Tetra Sailfin Crenuchus sp
Tetra tricolor flag Moenkhausia hemigramoides
Tetra ulrrey negro Hyphessobrycon peruvianus
Tetra Linterna Nanay Tetra sp.
Tetra Glass Masusa Leptagoniatus steindachneri
Tetra Glass Red tail Tetra sp. NEW
Tetra Glass Yellow NEW! Tetra sp. NEW
Tetra yellow line Hemigrammus sp.

The correctly-spelled scientific names are as followed, in the same order as on your list:

Chilodus punctatus- spotted headstander
Carnegiella marthae- blackwing hatchetfish
Carnegiella myersi- pygmy hatchetfish, dwarf hatchet
Carnegiella striata- marbled hatchetfish
Nannostomus sp., could be N. mortenthaleri (coral red pencilfish).
Hyphessobrycon copelandi- black point tetra (may not be in common useage)
Tetragonopterus chalceus
Tyttocharax var. Peru
Hyphessobrycon erythrostigma- bleeding heart tetra
Petitella georgiae- false rummynose tetra
Hemigrammus sp.- get more information before ordering.
Boehlkea fredcochui- blue tetra
Boehlkea sp., the only other listed Boehlkea species is now called Hemibrycon orcesi.
Hemigrammus hyanuary- January tetra
Hemigrammus levis
Hemigrammus sp., could mean the gold tetra Hemigrammus rodwayi.
Hyphessobrycon sp.- get more information before ordering.
Iguanodectes spilurus
Hyphessobrycon loretoensis- loreto tetra
Paracheirodon innesi- neon tetra
Thayeria obliqua- false penguin tetra, penguin fish
Hemigrammus ocellifer- head and tail light tetra
Moenkhausia pittieri- diamond tetra
Hemigrammus sp.- two Mojarra fish are Cheirodon interruptus and Pseudocorynopoma doriae, look into this before ordering.
Hemigrammus metae- just a variant of the species.
Hyphessobrycon robertsi, is now Hyphessobrycon bentosi, the white tip tetra.
Hemigrammus rhodostomus- false rummynose tetra
???- get more information before ordering.
Crenuchus spilurus
Moenkhausia hemigrammoides
Hyphessobrycon peruvianus- Peruvian tetra
???- get more information before ordering.
Leptagoniates steindachneri
???- maybe Hyphessobrycon columbianus?
???- get more information before ordering.
Hemigrammus sp.- Silver tip tetra has a yellow line on the body, look into before ordering.

I matched up the common names as best I could, though they may not all be correct or widely known. Just for future reference, you can use Fishbase to help a lot with this. It helped me to correct the spellings on many of these scientific names.

Last edited by sirbooks at 27-Sep-2005 20:28

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

thanks I had trouble finding correct scientific and common names.

Greenmonkey, best thing you can do is get hold of your own copy of that well-thumbed book known to aquarists of my vintage as "The Venerable Innes Book". The correct title of this publication is Exotic Aquarium Fishes by William T. Innes (it was he after whom the Neon Tetra was named - Paracheirodon innesi). This book may be old, and namy of the taxonomic names may be out of date, but the book has two big advantages : [1] it gives you an insight into how the names were derived (and also contains information on unciation for those who did not enjoy the blessings of an education including Latin and Classical Greek) and [2] in the age of the Internet, you can probably find the correct species of interest even given an old taxonomic name, because many taxonomic databases (e.g., Fishbase) contain not only the latest accepted valid name for a fish, but older synonyms too. For example, take our old friend the Bronze Catfish, Corydoras aeneus. This will be listed in various places as follows:

Corydoras aeneus (Gill, 1858)
Synonyms:
Hoplostoma aeneum Gill, 1858
Corydoras microps Eigenmann & Kennedy, 1903
Corydoras venezuelanus R. von Ihering 1911
Corydoras macrosteus Regan, 1912
Corydoras schultzi Holly, 1940

In a full taxonomic listing, the name is always accompanied by details of the person responsible for the name. This will also be the person responsible for writing the scientific paper describing the species under that name, with one or two very unusual exceptions. In the above sequence, Gill described the fish as Hoplostoma aeneum way back in 1858, but it was later decided that the Genus was incorrect: thus when Lacepede created the Genus Corydoras, the Bronze Catfish was moved into that Genus, particularly when it became apparent that the fish much more closely resembled the fish for which the Genus Corydoras was first proposed (namely Corydoras punctatus, the so-called 'type species' of the Genus) than any other known catfish. The remaining synonyms were the result of different workers in the past finding the same species in different, far flung localities, and reporting them as different species, possibly because they didn't have access to the original paper by Gill (the most likely cause in the case of those synonyms pre-dating World War I) or possibly simple laziness on the author's part when checking (although given Holly's expertise in the Genus, I would suspect he would have tracked down the original paper by Gill if he could have found it). Nowadays of course, scientific papers are being transferred en masse to the Internet in various scholarly repositories, so that mistakes of this kind are much less likely to happen, and any 'new' Corydoras found is much more likely to be a genuine new species (i.e., all those C-numbers).

So, even if you're using a book such as the Innes tome with out-of-date taxonomic names, there will be some site somewhere that pops up with the requisite information, including the fact that your chosen seach name is out of date, and what the correct and accepted valid name for your desired species is. Of course, people in the wholesale import business tend to be pretty lazy about checking the validity of their names, and have a habit of slapping invalid names on fishes in order to make them sound more exciting an saleable! As for spelling, well, if I were given £5 for every occasion that I've seen wholesaler shipping lists withj truly atrocious spelling mistakes, by now I'd be a millionaire

Oh, and the Venerable Innes Book is educational in SO many other ways too. It gives you an insight into the history of the hobby too, and how we got from there to now. Remember, the first imprint of this book appeared in the days when the undergravel filter was a brand new invention, and some aquarists resorted to making their own out of wood in the tool shed because it was cheaper than plastic!

Even though it's getting on for 75 years old now, the Venerable Innes Book still has a lot to teach the fledgling aquarist. Including some of the reasons why fishes are classified the way they are!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

planetcatfish.com has good scientific name info

OH TOLEEDY!