I recently got a tyre track eel, and as the title says I'm not sure if it's an armatus or a favus.
Favus or Armatus
- Thread starter k9plums
- Start date
Most likely a Mastacembelus armatus. If it has any hints of the "tire track" pattern on its belly, then it's Mastacembelus favus, but it doesn't appear to in the video.
Mastacembelus armatus and M. favus are both "tire track eels," so that isn't particularly useful...
they are both spiny eels not tire tracks a tiretrack eel IS NOT a zig zag eel
you have a Tire track and not the flower variety either in case anyone is confused
you have a Tire track and not the flower variety either in case anyone is confused
zig zag eels and tiretrack eels are both spiny eels, I just wanted to find out which type of tyretrack eel it was. I knew it was a tyre track to begin with, so I don't know why you've mentioned a zigzag eel at all?!
First of all, these are all common names, and common names suck. They do nothing good for this hobby and only serve to cause confusion and make IDing fish more difficult.
Second, "tire track eel" IS a common name that refers to both Mastacembelus armatus and Mastacembelus favus.
"Zig zag eel" generally refers to Macrognathus circumcinctus, which is very different from either of the species that we're talking about here. As per the usual when it comes to common names, "Zig zag eel" is occasionally used to refer to Mastacembelus armatus or M. favus, which only results in further confusion. Usually it's poorly informed fish stores that will do this, but sometimes the mistake makes its way into online care sheets, and then keepers start making the same mistake. Occasionally you'll even see people referring to Macrognathus circumcinctus as a "tire track eel."
In any case, these terms are useless in a discussion about whether a fish is "this species" or "that species," so let's just stick with real names.
And here's a fun fact for you: Even the term "spiny eel" is a crappy common name, because there are two different families of fish that are referred to as "spiny eels" and they are not related: Mastacembelidae and Notacanthidae. Luckily, Notacanthids are deep-sea fish that we don't encounter in the hobby.
when I order an armatus I'll always get a tire track
macrognathus circumcinctus was the half banded I thought
when I order a favus they come in as Zig Zag- is that still considered it's scientific name?
The flower eels always came in labeled as armatus (flower) and cost a dollar more
of course distributors aren't always reliable sources of fish classification
Common names suck so do scientific ones they seem to shuffle around a bit as well
macrognathus circumcinctus was the half banded I thought
when I order a favus they come in as Zig Zag- is that still considered it's scientific name?
The flower eels always came in labeled as armatus (flower) and cost a dollar more
of course distributors aren't always reliable sources of fish classification
Common names suck so do scientific ones they seem to shuffle around a bit as well
I'm confused, are you asking me if "Zig Zag" is a scientific name? Or are you asking me if "Mastacembelus favus" is the scientific name for a "Zig Zag eel?"
A scientific name is two words; the first word, which should be capitalized (and italicized or underlined, officially), is the genus name, and the second word is the species name.
These are scientific names:
Mastacembelus favus
Mastacembelus armatus
Macrognathus circumcinctus
Macrognathus siamensis
These are common names:
tire track eel
fire eel
flower eel
peacock eel
zig zag eel
Names in the first list are official correct names with which to identify and classify species. Names in the second list are arbitrary names that have been given to various fish by sellers and fish keepers. A common name is just whatever nickname happens to be commonly used to describe an animal. There are no rules or standards for common names, which is why you end up with one common name referring to 3 different species, or one person thinking a fish is called "this" and somebody else thinks it's called "that," and "this" is the name of something else. Common names really just aren't worth worrying about.
Scientific names do change sometimes, but at least when a scientific name changes, it is for the sake of taxonomical accuracy, and not just for the sake of popular opinion. Scientific names usually only change when a fish is assigned to a different genus, based on DNA testing or another method of classification. This is essentially just done to improve our understanding of how species are related to each other.