Scientific Names and Nomenclature (Basics Part 1)

Binomial nomenclature is a system that was first proposed by Gaspard Bauhin in 1622 and more formally described by Carl Linneaus in 1753. The reason for formally naming species in science is to ensure that each scientist no matter what area of the world they were from or culture they belonged to could refer to a specific organism and be understood internationally. This contrasted with cultural names which not only could vary with different cultures within a country but could also have very different words referring to them in various languages.

In the hobby, the scientific name is the binomial name. The first word is capitalized and that is the Genera (Genus) that the organism belongs to. the second name is normally not capitalized and that is its species name. So in the case of the malawi trout, its scientific name is Champsochromis Caeruleus. Champsochromis is the genus that the malawi trout belongs to. Caeruleus is the species name. In scientific journals you will often see once the organism has been referred to by its scientific name with an abbreviation. By convention the abbreviation is the first initial of the Genus capitalized, a period and then the species name separated by a space. In the case of the malawi trout it would be referred to as C. Caeruleus.

In the hobby you may wonder why it is that we really need to know the scientific name of the stock we purchase. To answer this you need to understand that often times there are more then one species that share a given geographical location. In the case of Lake Malawi, there is another species that very closely resembles C. Caeruleus and is also sometimes called the Malawi trout. That species is Champsochromis spilorhynchus. If the two were introduced together, sadly there is a very good chance that hybridization could occur. Organisms within a genera usually can hybridize with each other. An example of this is the Dantum Angelfish. Dantum angelfish are hybridized angels from the parental species lines of Pterophyllum altum and Pterophyllum scalare. When hybridized this organism has traits of both parental lineages. This angelfish though it remains in the Genera is not really a member of either species.

Hybridization is a very controversial topic in the hobby. As a hobbyist myself I take no position on the existence of hybrids in the hobby except to state this, if your going to hybridize animals, then its incumbent upon you to make certain everyone is aware when they acquire the animals from you what those animals are and what they are not. That way pure lines of organisms are not jeopardized which is the main risk in the hobby as people further breed the animals they have to produce new strains and it becomes harder to tell what the animal actually is.