# If 'poison dart frogs' were instead called...



## ecichlid (Dec 26, 2012)

If 'poison dart frogs' were instead called 'leaf litter frogs', would that save a lot of discussion for newbies?


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## rigel10 (Jun 1, 2012)

Yes - as long as some newbie not starts to lick them thinking they are candy.


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## Enlightened Rogue (Mar 21, 2006)

We`ve got enough people changing their names already


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## Broseph (Dec 5, 2011)

I prefer to call them 'live moss substrate frogs.' 

'Will this moss from outside work in my tank?' frogs is also acceptable.


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## Dartkart21 (Feb 18, 2014)

lol I expect enlightened rogue is referring to dartfrogwarehouse..


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## aspidites73 (Oct 2, 2012)

Dartkart21 said:


> lol I expect enlightened rogue is referring to dartfrogwarehouse..



And, everyone else who decides the binomial is a waste of time.


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## poison123 (Jul 10, 2012)

"Leaf Litter poison dart frogs" It's copyrighted so don't use it


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## Exasperatus2002 (Jan 21, 2014)

I like "do I really have to culture those" frogs since a lot of people (like my wife and ex g/f's don't like the idea of growing fruit flies.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD


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## ecichlid (Dec 26, 2012)

I beat 'em to the punch! 

Leaf Litter FrogsTM

I will make millions! Mwahahahaahhaha!


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## Enlightened Rogue (Mar 21, 2006)

Pretty sure one thread of that insanity is more than enough


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## aspidites73 (Oct 2, 2012)

Enlightened Rogue said:


> Pretty sure one thread of that insanity is more than enough



I concur! (and 15 characters)


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## Pubfiction (Feb 3, 2013)

On a more serious note people have made multiple attempts to rename poison dart frogs, poison arrow frogs, poison frogs etc.... I have also seen this attempted multiple times in my own line of work to clarify something or make it more true or market it better. And all that really happens is the newbies you are trying to reach only get more disconnected and confused since they are lay people they don't keep up with renaming's. And now days with the internet all it does is makes it even harder to search for something.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

aspidites73 said:


> And, everyone else who decides the binomial is a waste of time.


Well that pretty much covers the entire hobby given the way the names are butchered as slang.... "bennies", "leucs", "tincts", "pums", "histro" to name just a few.... It's kind of hard to point a finger when the hobby is one of the greatest abusers for failing to use anything even close to the binomial system.. to the point where some "slang words" include letters that don't occur at that point in the actual name of the animal..... 

some comments 

Ed


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## Groundhog (Dec 17, 2006)

And this is why I tried to pursue my quixotic fight against "brom..."



Ed said:


> Well that pretty much covers the entire hobby given the way the names are butchered as slang.... "bennies", "leucs", "tincts", "pums", "histro" to name just a few.... It's kind of hard to point a finger when the hobby is one of the greatest abusers for failing to use anything even close to the binomial system.. to the point where some "slang words" include letters that don't occur at that point in the actual name of the animal.....
> 
> some comments
> 
> Ed


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## ZenMonkey (Sep 17, 2013)

As a newbie, I would support some sort of "slang dictionary" for new froggers. Over the past year I've picked up on the major ones (leucs, tincs, pums, like that) but outside of that it's not exactly easy reading. Of course the terms are easy enough to Google -- as long as you add "dart frog" to the search or else something like "bennies" can lead you some interesting places -- and the folks in the know shouldn't have to avoid abbreviations. 

Unfortunately I don't have the ability to get this going myself, but it might be a good way to welcome people to the hobby.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Groundhog said:


> And this is why I tried to pursue my quixotic fight against "brom..."


Another new one for the list... pod for isopod. For some reason 6 letters is just too many for people to bother using.... And this is even more confusing considering that vendors sell various actual pods from plants for use in the cages as decorations or tadpole deposition sites.... Which is also a further issue since a number of the plants used by the hobby form "pods" to contain seeds. 

Some comments 

Ed


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

ZenMonkey said:


> As a newbie, I would support some sort of "slang dictionary" for new froggers. Over the past year I've picked up on the major ones (leucs, tincs, pums, like that) but outside of that it's not exactly easy reading. Of course the terms are easy enough to Google -- as long as you add "dart frog" to the search or else something like "bennies" can lead you some interesting places -- and the folks in the know shouldn't have to avoid abbreviations.
> 
> Unfortunately I don't have the ability to get this going myself, but it might be a good way to welcome people to the hobby.


It would be better to not get in the habit of using the slang as opposed to putting together a "dictionary"... I've even seen people shortening azureus to azure or azu which sounds like a certain company's rebranding tactics. I wonder if he would start trade marking "bennie" or "aurat" what the hobby would do....... hmmmm 

Some comments 

Ed


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## Dendrobait (May 29, 2005)

If you think about it....dendrobatid basically translates to a frog that walks on leaves....


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## Pubfiction (Feb 3, 2013)

I think mobile phones have made this worse, especially small ones where people have trouble typing. That said learn to use the autocomplete features on your phones it will learn the words if you take a few seconds of time to make sure you are adding words to the dictionary as they come up and double checking the spelling. And in a little while it will be no work at all. You can also download better keyboards if your keyboard is too hard to find certain characters on. 

I have been here for 1.5 years and I still run across short names that I cannot figure out. I see others ones where I am convinced almost no one knows how to actually spell the full name. 

I suggested that the forums create a word filter that would correct these things but it seemed to fall on deaf ears. And really that would be the one almost fool proof way to fix the problem.


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## Enlightened Rogue (Mar 21, 2006)

Doesn`t really relate to frogs but when someone types "prolly" instead of probably I usually stop reading.
Also, I think one ''lol" per response is more than enough.

Nothing personal. 
I am guilty of using Leuc instead of spelling it out, but I never call them "bumble bees"
Now that annoys me.


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## Broseph (Dec 5, 2011)

Dendrobait said:


> If you think about it....dendrobatid basically translates to a frog that walks on leaves....


mind=blown.gif


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Enlightened Rogue said:


> I am guilty of using Leuc instead of spelling it out, but I never call them "bumble bees"
> Now that annoys me.


Except that bumble bee is more correct than leucs as bumble bee is used to refer to the frogs going back quite a number of years including in the published literature. 

Some comments 

Ed


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Dendrobait said:


> If you think about it....dendrobatid basically translates to a frog that walks on leaves....


or Tree Walker.... 

some comments 

Ed


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## Pubfiction (Feb 3, 2013)

Leuc tree walker


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## Enlightened Rogue (Mar 21, 2006)

Pubfiction said:


> Leuc tree walker


I beg your pardon but that should read Leucomela tree walker.

or Bumble Bee


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## ecichlid (Dec 26, 2012)

I was a bit frustrated when I first started and the slang was being thrown around. Heck, just the other day I asked someone what a BH imitator was. That being said, I have to admit that using slang makes for quicker writing and sounds more natural in a conversation.

I agree, a sticky post with the translations is due! Will a moderator here help us make it happen?


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## hypostatic (Apr 25, 2011)

_Dendrobates leucomelas _translates to black and white tree walker


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## LoganR (Oct 25, 2013)

Ed said:


> Another new one for the list... pod for isopod. For some reason 6 letters is just too many for people to bother using.... And this is even more confusing considering that vendors sell various actual pods from plants for use in the cages as decorations or tadpole deposition sites.... Which is also a further issue since a number of the plants used by the hobby form "pods" to contain seeds.
> 
> To add to the confusion of common names vs scientific terminology, "pod" is merely a common name for a variety of plant fruit types (legumes, capsules, nuts, follicles, etc).
> 
> ...


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## Enlightened Rogue (Mar 21, 2006)

Mostly everyone does it.
I `ve seen it done by plenty of veteran members and sponsors as well.

Honestly, I`m not saying it`s right but will the hobby come to a grinding halt because someone types ''Leucs" or "iso`s"? We all know what the hell it means.

Now "pods" although I have yet to see that one is a different story


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## Enlightened Rogue (Mar 21, 2006)

Also, I would much rather do business with someone who want`s to sell me Leuc`s or iso`s
than someone selling Denim Blue Jean frogs.

Peace out


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Enlightened Rogue said:


> Also, I would much rather do business with someone who want`s to sell me Leuc`s or iso`s
> than someone selling Denim Blue Jean frogs.


As opposed to regular "blue jeans" tinctorius? From the tinctorius morph guide


> Ouanary '/' blue jeans' / 'Monts Bruyère'
> 
> This morph is the same size as 'Nominat'.
> 
> The habitat is located west of the mouth of the Oyapock flow between the river and the Oyapock Ouanary river in a small mountain called 'Montagne Bruyère'.


I think the distinction that is being drawn in this case about the name is drawing a very fine line that in and of itself is moot given the names already commonly in use for various populations of tinctorius such as sky blue etc. 
As I noted above I do not support the random trademarking of names nor the attempts at marketing that attempt to paint the frogs in the hobby as substandard but there are clear examples where the difference via naming is pretty hard to determine who actually has the worse behavior. 

One of the things people who think the slang is fine can be seen by some of the comments in this thread where newer people can't figure out what is actually under discussion. This is actually worse for people from countries where American English is not their first language. I suspect that if people didn't use text speak as much, there might be more overlap of participants on the forum from other countries. 

I note that D. melanogaster has been shortened to "melo" now as well.... 

Some more ranting comments 

Ed


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

LoganR said:


> Ed said:
> 
> 
> > It may be a losing battle to try to convince people to use correct terms. Every human group seems to develop its own distinctive language to separate the group from outsiders (a decade in state government certainly gave me quite a vocabulary of acronyms that only we understood). Learning that language (or slang) is always a challenge to newcomers.
> ...


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## Dendrobait (May 29, 2005)

One issue with slang is that the crossover from different animals hobbies. Are pods copepods or isopods?


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## ZenMonkey (Sep 17, 2013)

Ed said:


> It would be better to not get in the habit of using the slang as opposed to putting together a "dictionary"


One doesn't preclude the other. Since realistically no one's going to stop anytime soon, if you're adamant that slang not be used, one could compile a list of slang that lets newbies recognize what's being discussed AND implores them to use the full names. Educating is a lot more productive than just saying "Don't."

For example, at the beginning and end of dictionary: "As you can see, there's a lot of confusion with shortening names. We recommend using full names so as to better include everyone in the discussion."


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## aspidites73 (Oct 2, 2012)

I believe it is disrespectful to use slang. ie. Meet my friend CR, he prefers Christopher, doesn't mind Chris, but CR is just easier for ME. There is a reason science uses the names they do. Latin is a dead language. It is no longer dynamic, ie. it doesn't "change with the times". People aren't corrupting it, and it states exactly what is meant. Some of the common names, simply put, are silly! People want work to be done writing a dictionary for slang terms, but won't take a minute to learn the proper terms. Try to intelligently communicate what is meant 'Pod' to someone who studies Arthropods.


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## ZenMonkey (Sep 17, 2013)

aspidites73 said:


> People want work to be done writing a dictionary for slang terms, but won't take a minute to learn the proper terms.


Generally I use a dictionary to learn the proper term for something in any context. I suppose newbies could plow through a forum search every time they don't understand a shortening of a name, but from experience I can tell you that prospect doesn't appeal.

It's very interesting to me that people will complain about a problem but seem allergic to steps to alleviate the problem. Okay then, just tell the experienced members "don't use shortened names" and surely it'll just resolve itself. And newbies will remain confused instead of feeling that they're in a place where they are welcomed and guided towards good information and good habits instead of being slammed for something they had no idea was wrong.

(Also from experience.)

Funny thing, I was recently contemplating writing a "For a newbie from a newbie" type of post, since so many posts for "newbies" (not just on here) include very experienced people writing a whole list of nothing but don'ts and/or talking about things that are way too complicated and/or not remotely necessary for a brand new person to know. Also there's so many rules that are not explicit anywhere but if you fall afoul of them you get shredded. There is a really big information gap between "brand new person" and "experienced frogger" around dart frog forums and I've personally found it pretty difficult and sometimes off-putting to be in that middle zone. A lexicon and information on this particular hidden rule would be a great addition. Thanks for the idea and the impetus, if I'm ever physically able to get around to doing it.


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## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

Try googling "melo" and see how long it takes to point you at a fruit fly.... 

I can't figure out where they got the idea that o as the fourth letter from melanogaster is a suitable slang.... 

Some comments 

Ed


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## aspidites73 (Oct 2, 2012)

In the end, it comes down to continuity and ease of use. Anyone can Google Arthurdactylus conandoylensis and know exactly the animal it refers to, immediately. Although, there is something to be said about the common name of 
Halichoeres bivittatus!


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## Enlightened Rogue (Mar 21, 2006)

For sale:
Vents, Fants, Leucs, Micro Spots, Terribs, Galacts, Blue and Blacks, Pums, Histos, Imis, Grannies

Also have viv`s, broms, iso`s, springs, melos, giants and dwarfs, ff`s, tads

Anyone for a FTS or some RO water?

And btw those who prolly think this is funny...lol, lmao.

Ok, you guy`s are right.....and I always wanted to a mod.


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