How do you properly post fish measurements?

[DiXoN]

i always measure in TL

 

[viking252200]

I would have to agree with TL...it just seems to me that it is the logical thing.

 

[balton777]

Agreed, I'd be pissed if someone measured me but didn't include my legs.


Take the tail off your fish and see how good it swims.

That's funny stuff.

 

[Sturgeon]

total length!

 

[Nova 8]

I refuse to be dragged kicking and screaming into the metric world thank you very much. they will bury me in a PINE box thats measured in inches and feet.... LOL

The imperial system sucks, there is no doubting it. But since being on the fourm I can't use the metric system for fish stuff no more. You guys are poluting my mind

You should look a peoples faces when the come into the store and I call their 4ft tank a 55. I get blank looks and told it holds more water then 55L.

 

[Bderick67]

I just list measurements that are the general shape of the fish including the tale. Things I would not include would be, long tail streamers, barbels on arowana, etc.

BTW my son have a friend that measures 6'6" tall with his hair in a mohawk, even though realisticly he is 5'11".

 

[Alistriwen]

Well, the caudal peduncle does the actual swimming, the fin is like flippers on a diver, they merely provide surface area. It would be like measuring the diver in the water including his flippers.

 

[Mystus Redtail]

I go with TL in inches or half inches. never held a ruler to a fish, I like to keep the fish in the water. and they rarely stop near the edge, so I wing it. If I over estimate, it just gives them something to grow into...

 

[twk1]

Total Length from tip of mouth to very end of tail, or vice versa.

 

[Cohazard]

Usually I just guesstimate at TL, but when I do take the time to try and measure them, I will record SL and TL.

As far as measuring technique, netting a fish is always stressful. Because of this, I usually ball park figure it, or reference it to my SB albino sen that has stopped growing at 6.5" TL

When I feel like something more accurate, I will using measuring tape along the edge of the tank and wait for fish to swim to that spot and snap a pic. It's easy with bichirs. Cichlids and such, not so much.


I have only once netted my fish to measure them and the stress caused my large endli to go on a hunger strike for a few weeks so that was the last time I tried it.