Title pretty much says it all. There is a local fish store near my school that I frequently drop by to get photos for my photography class. They have some pretty rare species (one that comes to mind is Mikrogeophagus maculicauda, which was only described in 2022 and doesn’t even have a wikipedia pag…

This is completely fine, and is helpful for providing reference images when other users end up uploading observations of them in the wild

[image] onefishyboi: They have some pretty rare species (one that comes to mind is Mikrogeophagus maculicauda Question, not meant to sound argumentative: how can one be sure their identifications are accurate? I ask because I have seen multiple discussions about how mongers of plants and ani…

Identify the same way as any other observation - identifiers should use their own expertise based on the evidence provided in the observation.

I’ve done just that with cultivated plants. E.g. a picture I took at an orchid show was for a while the only picture of that species on iNat, thus providing a taxon photo where previously there was none. By now, that species has gained at least two wild observations in its native range but neither o…

Thank you. I do not have taxon photo experience (nor fish!), I am just curious, and again, do not wish to sound argumentative. I am just trying to understand all the discussion threads cumulatively. [image] onefishyboi: am I no better PD: @onefishyboi I think you are splendid for thinking of…

This is a fair point, I do have several reference texts to fall back on as some of these IDs between species comes down to counting dorsal rays and such. That can obviously be hard with 2-3 inch fish though. Admittedly I’d mainly be going off of the word of our wholesaler and my boss, though both ar…

[image] annkatrinrose: E.g. plant labels in botanical garden/arboretum settings may be wrong if plant tags were moved by accident or by less knowledgeable gardeners during maintenance Yes it’s extremely common for there to be a mismatch between the sign and the plant because either the sign o…

Is there anything special I should do with the observations that I wouldn’t do otherwise? I’m assuming I’d immediately mark them as casual but I was under the impression you can’t add casual observation photos to a taxa?

[image] onefishyboi: I was under the impression you can’t add casual observation photos to a taxa? You definitely can. I have done it before.

Thank you for bringing this up. I’m much less familiar with aquarium plants than I am the fish. Not to mention how many captive bred varieties there are of many plants (e.g. Rotala). Would it be helpful to do the same with plant taxa? We definitely have some rarer species in our store that I’d be ha…

Just ID to your expertise (don’t rely on label/hearsay that you can’t confirm yourself, those as the observer you have a little more leeway here to take a guess). And yes, mark as captive. One caveat I would add is that, for many organisms that are kept in captivity, the captive specimens diverge f…

Is it helpful to post captive observations of rare/unobserved species?

General

Topic		Replies	Views
"rare" captive species General question	14	1463	December 30, 2021
Posting species that can’t be photographed in the wild General question	23	1573	January 5, 2021
House plants and zoo animals? General	4	1083	June 9, 2020
Why won’t anyone help identify my specimens I find? General	112	2573	June 19, 2026
Roles of taxonomic experts on iNat General	17	1953	June 19, 2020

Is it helpful to post captive observations of rare/unobserved species?

Related topics