# Who Here Doesn't Name Their Fish? Who Does?



## xFishAreFriends (Jan 27, 2011)

Nice to see you once again, Fish Friends.

I'm curious as to how many of you actually name your fish.
As for me, I don't think I'd grow anywhere near close with my fish if I hadn't given them names. 
Once named, they seam part of the family.
Of course it makes it much harder for them to "go"..
But nonetheless, it is the cycle of life.
Born, live, die.
So who names their fish? Who doesn't? And why?
What are the names of your fish?

I personally prefer giving my pets people names.
[No Scruffy for dogs, No Mr.Wiggles for cats, No Goldy for goldfish.. etc.]
How about you?


----------



## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

I named fish long ago. I cried when Goldy, an gold angel, died. But I don't anymore. Too many and my names were never creative. I would just call my cat, Cat, if my sister hadn't named her.


----------



## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

I used to name them, but no more. There are just too many of them!


----------



## blindkiller85 (Jan 8, 2011)

I've never cared to name fish personally. It's not a lack of care or motivation to take care of them. I just go up to the tank, say " hi fishies glad you're alive " and that's good enough for me. My girlfriend on the other hand...named one fish in my 125, and named the puffer and pleco in the 10g tank. If I didn't abide by them and post their names and happened to show her the post, she'd have something to say about it.

Doesn't help either that when I stock my 125, there's generally 10+ fish and atleast 2 of each species. So sometimes it's hard to tell which is which.


----------



## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

i have never named my fish..my child , yes...but not my fish...besides..there are just not that many names out there..


----------



## grfury (Feb 2, 2011)

I personally don't my fiance loves to name my fish, but there are generally to many to name successfully. I did have a powder blue dwarf Gourami that was nick named BAMF by the guys. Many a night after the pub, we'd head back to my house and watch BAMF bully anyone who came to close to "his java fern", that is about the extent to of my fish naming.


----------



## xFishAreFriends (Jan 27, 2011)

TheOldSalt said:


> I used to name them, but no more. There are just too many of them!





blindkiller85 said:


> I've never cared to name fish personally. It's not a lack of care or motivation to take care of them. I just go up to the tank, say " hi fishies glad you're alive " and that's good enough for me. My girlfriend on the other hand...named one fish in my 125, and named the puffer and pleco in the 10g tank. If I didn't abide by them and post their names and happened to show her the post, she'd have something to say about it.
> 
> Doesn't help either that when I stock my 125, there's generally 10+ fish and atleast 2 of each species. So sometimes it's hard to tell which is which.





lohachata said:


> i have never named my fish..my child , yes...but not my fish...besides..there are just not that many names out there..



I guess that isn't a problem for me since I only have two fish, haha. But I'd probably be the same way if I had as many fish as you guys. It'll be that way sometime in the near future[;


----------



## xFishAreFriends (Jan 27, 2011)

grfury said:


> I personally don't my fiance loves to name my fish, but there are generally to many to name successfully. I did have a powder blue dwarf Gourami that was nick named BAMF by the guys. Many a night after the pub, we'd head back to my house and watch BAMF bully anyone who came to close to "his java fern", that is about the extent to of my fish naming.


Hahah, nice.


----------



## grogan (Jan 23, 2011)

I don't name mine just because hard to tell them apart just like most people. So does that mean when your prego fish has babies you are going to name all the fry? Haha you are going to have your work cut out for you!


----------



## cossie (Dec 19, 2010)

i dont tend to name them i name a couple like the fish in my signiture.

my mum called the botia DIME.

but theres only 1 i really named which i think is tank leader and thats one of the xx-rays.

he is slighlty crippled keeps himself upright by just using his front fins.

he has got alot better since i got him. his name is cripple lol


----------



## xFishAreFriends (Jan 27, 2011)

grogan said:


> I don't name mine just because hard to tell them apart just like most people. So does that mean when your prego fish has babies you are going to name all the fry? Haha you are going to have your work cut out for you!



I was thinking what I was going to do about that.. Hahah.
Maybe I'll just name the batch of fry as a whole [ex. The Red Team].
Actually, that kind of seams corny.. lol.
Hm, well I guess after some die off, I give away some, and I sell some others, I'll have probably two left to keep for myself. 
They shouldn't be too hard to keep track of, haha.


----------



## xFishAreFriends (Jan 27, 2011)

cossie said:


> i dont tend to name them i name a couple like the fish in my signiture.
> 
> my mum called the botia DIME.
> 
> ...


Hah, creative ;D


----------



## PostShawn (Dec 22, 2009)

I don't name them but my fiance does. I just call them by their color and type. Like the blue gourami.


----------



## toddnbecka (Jun 30, 2006)

When you have 14 tanks and literally hundreds of fish it simply isn't possible to keep track of them all. I do name a few, like Stubby, the unfortunate BN who was hiding in the drain tap when I opened the valve to change water. He lost his tail completely, but I figured I'd see if he remained healthy otherwise before freezing him. No infection or fungus, he healed up and grew out, and continues to keep a 29 clear of algae today.


----------



## Corwin (May 23, 2010)

I prefer not to name mine, however I did name my Betta Onesicritus after one of the pilots in Alexander the Great's navy...


----------



## tiggerbarb (Jan 17, 2011)

I only name a few.... my bettas I name them by their colour (couldn't agree on names). All the onther fish they all just look the same.


----------



## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

I only name my SW, not my FW.


Marine Betta = Piscis

Fox Faced Rabbit Fish = Vulpes

Snowflake Eel = Anguis.


All are Latin for a word related to them Google it!


----------



## chronoboy (Jan 17, 2011)

my ex used to name them but the only fish i have ever had that i named where my three oscars but i had them for 5 years so they ended up with names over time like "oscar de la hoya" he was the the badass of the three he ran the tank.


----------



## BettaFriend (Oct 14, 2010)

I don't name my school fish (e.g. tetra, corydoras), but I name my other fish. I am not going to name my Blue Devil Damsel, because I know that she is going to the lfs in a month or so (got the damsels with the sw tank I got).

Oh, I forgot, I haven't named any of my female guppies.


----------



## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Oh but you could call her Duke or Indigo Succubus


----------



## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

think of it this way...
you have 6 breeding pairs of angelfish and 3 breeding pairs of gold severums.(not to mention a bunch of africans and others..
the severums lay about 500 eggs twice a month...the angels lay between 300-400 eggs a week for each pair..fry were kept for about 12 weeks...given a 25% mortality rate ; how many fish does that give you in a 3-4 month period to name ?????....
now...just spread that out over a number of years...


----------



## funlad3 (Oct 9, 2010)

But I thought your tanks were empty and filled with assorted types of air!


----------



## grogan (Jan 23, 2011)

xFishAreFriends said:


> I was thinking what I was going to do about that.. Hahah.
> Maybe I'll just name the batch of fry as a whole [ex. The Red Team].
> Actually, that kind of seams corny.. lol.
> Hm, well I guess after some die off, I give away some, and I sell some others, I'll have probably two left to keep for myself.
> They shouldn't be too hard to keep track of, haha.



Nice! Oh and corny names is what makes it cheeky


----------



## kay-bee (Dec 6, 2006)

I don't name any of my fish but for records purposes I give them all designations to keep track of how long I've had them or who old they are if they were born in my tanks), track significant events (sickness, recoveries, birth, death, etc) in a notebook I have.

Normally a 2 or 3 letter code typically followed by a number. The designations either equate to individual fish (such as RZ2=Red Zebra, male number 2) or an entire brood of fish (RED2=a group of a twenty red zebras, offspring of RZ1 and RZ4), etc.

The fish in my avatar is "ZC1" (Chilumba Zebra, male 1).


----------



## AvocadoPuffDude (Jan 20, 2011)

Pfft....naming your fish.....a sure sign you have WAY too much free time on your hands!

As if they could hear you or come when called.....sheesh.....

I named my Avocado Puffer "Mulva" after the Seinfeld episode. But none of my other fish have names. She doesn't come when called at ALL.


----------



## SGT Z (Jul 7, 2010)

My oldest daughter names all my fish. She's not real creative with it lol -- the oscar is Oscar, the plecostomus is Sucky, the blood red parrot is Goldie, and the unknown female African cichlid is Girl. She asks about Cool Fish the betta all the time (she doesn't live with me) even though he died less than a week after I got him.


----------



## xFishAreFriends (Jan 27, 2011)

funlad3 said:


> But I thought your tanks were empty and filled with assorted types of air!


Not for long!



kay-bee said:


> Normally a 2 or 3 letter code typically followed by a number. The designations either equate to individual fish (such as RZ2=Red Zebra, male number 2) or an entire brood of fish (RED2=a group of a twenty red zebras, offspring of RZ1 and RZ4), etc.


Very scientific! I like it!



AvocadoPuffDude said:


> Pfft....naming your fish.....a sure sign you have WAY too much free time on your hands!
> 
> As if they could hear you or come when called.....sheesh.....


It doesn't take much time to name two fish. Probably five minutes TOPS. I'm sure if I had the money to maintain all of the different types of fish a lot of the people on FishForums had, I wouldn't be naming them either. As for now, two fish, two names.. not too hard.


----------



## burninrubber390 (Oct 25, 2010)

i'll name ones that aren't in schools that just gets hard to keep track of but i do name ones i only have a few of and can tell the difference


----------



## hXcChic22 (Dec 26, 2009)

We've named a couple fish. 

Atticus the Dragon Goby, Seabiscuit the Horseface Loach, Leonard and Leonard II the Golden Dojo Loaches, some mollies over the months (unoriginal things like Mama and Wally Molly), Pennywise the Clown Pleco, Boris the Bristlenose Pleco, and Lazarus the Betta. 
Out of those, only Seabiscuit, one molly, and the plecos are still alive.


----------



## LilSums (Aug 2, 2010)

Certain ones are named, but the ones I can easily idtentify. Masta Betta is my only Betta in his own little house, I have a white Play with a funny black mustache thing (he looks like Hilter!) so his name's Adolf. I have a Dalmation Molly that turned out almost all black he's Shaft, another has been freakishly huge since they were born ho he's Lenny. But I have some other fish who are either damn near identical or too little to see much differences between & they get identified by their type.


----------



## platies pwn (Nov 29, 2010)

my math teacher named her betta lazarus also


----------

