What is the proper ID for "albino bristlenose pleco's"? L... what? Also where can I learn these number ID's? It's all Greek to me!
:goodpost:Ok L Numbers
L Numbers are assigned to a fish that has not be classified, that is it has not been identified by the scientific community and given a place in the list of identified species.
All living things have a identification name composed of a genus name mainly a Greek word describing the organisms shape or features. ie Ancistrus means Hook, describing the small hook like protrusions at the edge of the mouth that all members of this genus have. Next is a species name usually based on a Latin interpretation of the person who first identified the spices. Those of you who remember Dr Axelrod also remember the shitty mess he made of identifying fish and giving several names to one species.
L numbers came about due to the massive increase in the importing of sucker mouth cat fish .
In under 20 years hundreds of new species were being discovered and not identified so a system was needed to aid identification .
A German company gave the sucker mouth L numbers as and when they felt it would help. The general feeling was that once a fish had a firm identification and was placed in a genus it could drop the L number and this could be resigned to a new fish.
Sadly it did not work that way and L numbers have become a bit of a nightmare.
For your basic information on this matter "Planet Catfish " is a good starting point.
What should be remembered is that any fish with a firm scientific classification before the L number system should not have a L number, having said that variants, hybrids and misidentification have all added to the mix-up.
Bring back the common made up names I say. Then every ruddy Hypan was either a scribble plec or a spotted plec.
I guess you could see the L Number system a bit like having a ID number for your house say like post codes, makes it easy to find some were better than saying the big house on the hill, saying BS14 8SP is easy to find