Here are my concerns so far
- First - plaigarism. Even if you cite it, I wouldn't recommend taking word for word something that somebody has written. When I recommended you write a care profile - I meant for YOU to write it, not copy and paste something from MFK and add one or two things to it. This might work for RTC, but what happens when you get to basically any other species? There isn't a clean write-up like this for every species out there. You'll have to get good at writing them on your own.
- My process will be gathering notes from wherever I can, experts tell me if it is correct or incorrect, then once the accurate information is presented that the majority agrees upon, I will write it in my OWN words.
- Second - the picture. Did you get permission from the owner to use that picture, or just cite it? If it's for something online, not a huge deal if it's cited properly. But if you start selling it, now you've got a legal issue going. My recommendation would be searching through MFK, finding a good picture, and PMing the member asking for permission to use it.
- I don't plan on selling it as I won't claim this to be mine. I want this MFKBook, video series, whatever it is as a community effort to be sold by the community to raise money for the community. Once the information is gathered and there is a consensus. That's when I'll concern with myself with legalities. But I first want to be correct.
- "Native Habitat" - you reference their range, but not their habitat. The Amazon, Essequibo, and Orinoco would be their range, their habitat would be something like "shallow, slow-moving pools, with soft bottom and heavy structure" or something along those lines. Not saying that's true for their habitat, just an example of what a habitat would look like. You could combine both of these parts into one
- I see that's my mistake, thanks for correcting me. This is actually what
H
haywood
stated. I agree that I don't know anything about this. And I wish that I wasn't the one pushing this knowledge. I want the actual experts to do it. However, it's unfair for me to ask others to do something that I am not willing to do myself. So I'm doing this the only way I can. I'll say this again, I don't know what I am talking about and if experts would like to help me please do! The reward is a solid virtual fistbump until I can thank you in person.
- Size, I wouldn't use IGFA, at least not solely. You'll find that for many species, angler's records are much smaller than the true size of the fish. And IGFA records are only given to people who follow very strict rules. Use a combination of FishBase (which can still report some sizes much smaller) and MFK reports. I would recommend listing several sizes - give the usual purchase size (so what you'd see in a LFS), average adult size, and maximum recorded sizes. If a species is commonly bred in captivity (like rays), include the size of sexual maturity. Be sure to differentiate between sexes on species that show sexual dimorphism.
- GREAT SUGGESTION! What is a LFS?
- Longevity - personally, I would skip this. Most monsters will live 10, 15, 20 years or more when properly cared for. If you notice something is consistently the same across all profiles - like lifespan - I would consider it better included once in a different section, rather than over and over again.
- What if I state if properly cared for 10-20 years, I counter this because those who are looking to take care of it should know the possible commitment. And then I can cite the actual specifics later.
- Tank size - 1,000 gallons means absolutely nothing. Dimensions are important with monsters - include footprint, a few different heights, and then gallons based on those heights (example - 8x3x2 is 375 gallons, 8x3x2.5 is 450 gallons, 8x3x3 is 540). For your minimum, set them as something that an average-sized adult fish could comfortably live in. That means they can comfortably turn around, they can swim a few lengths before reaching the other end, and they can have at least a bit of vertical movement within the tank.
- Darnet, another point that I excluded because of my ignorance. Thank god I have you. What is an averaged size adult? And what are the proportions? The length of the tank is 3 times the length of the fish? The depth and width are 1.5 the length of the fish?
- Diet - I wouldn't transition to a bulleted list randomly. Discuss briefly what they eat in the wild, and how they eat it. Then talk about common prey items in captivity. If there are special considerations (example - African Arowana generally need to eat several times a day, at least when young), this is the space to include it.
- Maybe I should make an editing line as I did not plan to finish this. What I'll do is create a horizontal line that represents all the information I have above is my first draft, anything below is Haven't "completed" yet.
- Temperature and Water Quality - all fish need good quality water, saying this over and over again is moot. You can include species that are particularly sensitive but don't repeat it over and over again. Include things like temp and pH in this section. I would also include flow rates - some species like very calm water, some species like thousands of GPH of flow.
- An excellent point will do. Maybe I can at least state what variets are hardier than others? For example, a goldfish is the hardiest thing on the planet while a shrimp is the least?
- Filtration - all monsters need heavy filtration. The heavier the better. Moot to include this in each profile, just have a section for it.
- I agreed, this is my fault for just copying and pasting while keeping the document visible by all until I finished the first draft of the notes. Bassically all of it as of right now is directly copied from
H
haywood
post.
- Substrate - they're pretty much the same across most fish, with special considerations for a few (like rays). Again, just make this a separate section and don't include it in each profile
- Tankmates - I would set this up to include qualities of what makes a good and bad tankmate for each species. For example - with rays, a good tankmate is something that hangs out in the upper water column, is big/strong enough not to be eaten, has a small enough mouth to not eat the ray, doesn't suck slime coats, and can tolerate similar water conditions. Include a few common examples of good tankmates, and some notorious bad ones.
- Strange behavior/deformities - the idea of this section is good, but it could use some tweaking. I just had a "notes" section to include anything special about the species. For you, this could include legality (going back to rays, several states make them illegal), sourcing (whether they're common or hard to come by), variants (albino, xanthic, melanistic, SB, pattern mutations, etc), and special considerations for a tank setup (no decor, no plants, secure lid, etc). I would also make sure to include special health considerations (like drop eye in arowana).
- Other notes -
- You're missing a description of the fish. This would be the place to include basic notes about the appearance of the fish, and differentiating features from similar species.
- Use a more formal dialogue when writing these. For example, in the habitat section you call them "these guys" - things like that take away from the sheet, IMO
- This will be a combination of formatting and writing, but make it fit onto a page COMFORTABLY. That's a picture big enough to see well, proper spacing, font size, etc. You're writing a book on several species, not one. You should be able to get all you need from a page per species. You can make this a bit easier by including similar information for a group of fish in a separate section.
- I'll use stingrays as an example. They're pretty much all from a few countries within South America, and most (with a few exceptions) reach around the same general size in captivity. They also can all eat the same things, and share the same water requirements. So before going into stingray profiles, give a generalization of all of the things that are the same. Then within the "notes" section of each profile, include things that differentiate from the first page's info (example, reticulated rays stay small and boesemani get big)
That's my advice based on what you've got. I don't think you realize quite how big what you're trying to do is. Even one profile, done properly, should take you a solid few hours. Especially being that you haven't kept the fish - you should be speaking to those who have, and reading reports of those who have. Viktor's reports are a great place to start, but make sure to ask permission before using stuff. People have put lots of work into their writings, and don't really appreciate them being taken and passed as someone else's notes.
I would humbly suggest to get the permission of MFK site Owner/Admin if they are OK for you to use MFK's trade name in a commercial (or other) project, and also get the permission of any Sticky (or other) authors if they are OK for their writing/work to be used in your future publication. These are standard practices. At the moment your new doc as linked above is essentially plagiarism.
