Talk:Maylandia

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[edit] Metriaclima

The Maylandia or Metriaclima debate continues in aquarium related circleds. The alternative view of Konings ie: that Maylandia is nomen nudem and should be replaced by Metriaclima (which is contrary to the view of virtually all other taxonomists) should be discussed on this page.

69.232.73.33 removed the references and commentry on this issue from this page. I'd ask this user to please discuss this issue here so we can have an article with adopts the NPOV required at wikipedia. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by MidgleyDJ (talk • contribs) 2006 July 17 21:53 UTC.

• 69.232.73.33 has been asked, again, to discuss changes to the Maylandia article. He or she has ignored all requests to give reasons for edits or discuss his/her changes to cichlid and Maylandia. MidgleyDJ 21:34, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Maylandia not junior to Metriaclima

The article states (as of 2007/02/17) that Maylandia "is most often treated as a junior synonym of Metriaclima". However, I believe this is wrong. Nobody disputes that Maylandia is the OLDER name, not the JUNIOR name. The dispute regarding Maylandia vs Metriaclima is regarding the validity of the Maylandia decription, not its priority... Maylandia dates fom 1984, Metriaclima dates fom 1997. Specifically, the proposers of Metriaclima contend that the original Maylandia description lacks a set of criteria that can be used to determine exactly what a fish needs to have in order to be in the genus Maylandia, so the name means nothing.

I have other problems with the article as well, the "most often" part of the above quoted sentence is highly disputable. Who has counted the number? The quoted references give no support for the "most often" assertion.

And finally, the first and second paragraphs are highly redundant.

I propose a complete rewrite to 1) combine the two paragraphs 2) give a reference to the Meyer and Forester paper that names Maylandia 3) rid the article of the impression that Maylandia is junior to Metriaclima.

Grant Gussie 22:20, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

Nice work Grant, I think that sums it up nicely. I guess the "most often" refers to the hobbyist literature (rather than the scientific). My understanding is that even the validity of the name is fairly clear (ie: a diagnosis is a recommendation - not a requirement). Both Oliver and Kullander (see their views still in the reference section) seem to support this view. MidgleyDJ 01:14, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Created a Metriaclima article

There's no reason "sunk" genera can't have articles, since they're all artificial constructs created only for housekeeping purposes. I've made it clear in the Metriaclima what the current state of play is, and I'd suggest doing something similar here, explaining *why* Maylandia is the valid name, so the two articles balance one another allowing the reader to understand how the process works. Cheers, Neale Neale Monks 15:57, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

I agree... I have modified the Maylandia article to include a link to the new Metriaclima article. Grant Gussie 16:21, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

Sounds fine to me also. Good idea Neale. MidgleyDJ 18:42, 5 March 2007 (UTC)