How to measure fish?

[tunicate]

Hi all,

This may seem like a stupid question, but I found 2 kinds of fish measurement on the web (i.e. Total Length & Standard/Fork Length).

Would just like to know what is the accepted convention in SGreef.

Example:

When a fellow reefer post on the forum to sell a 3 inch Dispar Anthias, does it generally mean 3 inches from the :

a. "tip of the snout to the tip of the longer lobe of the caudal fin"(Total Length)?

OR

b. "tip of the snout to the center of the fork in the tail."(Standard/Fork Length)?

It does really make a substantial difference especially for fishes with longer tails.

Below are the reference sites to the fish measurement info I was trying to find out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_measurement

http://myfwc.com/RULESANDREGS/Saltwater_Regulations_Measurement.htm

[yikai]

usually snout to tail.

i won't worry because length of tail does not make much of a difference really. not to me actually.

the tail is not flesh and not much. it's just usually longer tail or filaments which doesn't really add much to total size.

just my opinion.

[tunicate]

I was trying to visualize how much difference it's going to be. Below is what I got with the help from LiveAquaria's pic.

I had the experience of visiting a reefer advertising a 2" fish which turned out to be 4" whooper .

He was sitting there describing how nice a specimen it was. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at that point.

[yikai]

the 2nd pic looks bigger abit lol.

i guess in a small tank it could make a difference.

but most of the time it's due to people's judge of size.

dont forget. some fish have high profiles like butterflies and angels. so 2 inch in length but it could also be 2 inch high. or some fishes may be higher than they are long!

so the overall appearance make it look v big,

[DUCADOS]

Anyway for us to sell or to describe a fish we normally will use the word approximately,estimate or roughly for the measurment.

We're not researcher or sciencetist thus we will not give a very exact diamension for fishes as we dun catch the fish out of water to measure...

[tunicate]

the 2nd pic looks bigger abit lol.

i guess in a small tank it could make a difference.

but most of the time it's due to people's judge of size.

dont forget. some fish have high profiles like butterflies and angels. so 2 inch in length but it could also be 2 inch high. or some fishes may be higher than they are long!

so the overall appearance make it look v big,