Fish Selector Wizard?

[LetterJ]

There's no reason it couldn't include crustaceans, if the "deciding" data is entered. It basically comes down to "what are the 10-20 bits of information that would help an expert decide" and making sure that those bits are entered. After that, it's just a matter of making the computer do the grunt work of digging through the possibilities.

 

[talloulou]

Oh, it would be awesome if it profiled and included aquatic crabs, crayfish, lobster, shrimp, frogs, snails.....what have you.

But if you are talking freshwater/brakish/and marine fish. Good lord that's alot of profiles to sort through. How amazing it would be though to have all that information in one place!

How will you handle those species where information is apparently highly debatable. For example if you look up the adonis catfish you will find people can absolutely not agree on how big that fish grows or whether it is nice or aggressive.

 

[FMJnaX]

LetterJ - if you need help, hit me up with a PM.

 

[LetterJ]

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[LetterJ]

How will you handle those species where information is apparently highly debatable.

This isn't a terribly difficult problem (though lots of sites seem to think it is). There are several approaches (though I'm not sure exactly which I'll use). One is to make the debatables (ie not Latin species name) completely flexible and open to some form of restricted voting (you don't want a zealot voting 3000 times a day). Another is to set an initial number, but allow the field to be marked as "disputed" and let users enter an alternate value along with the dispute. These can then be analyzed. So, for instance if a fish is listed as reaching 4 inches in length, but 50 people dispute that number with full sizes ranging from 2.5 inches to 6 inches, you can do the calculations to figure out the statistical consensus and change the stored value.

I'm not saying this stuff will be present from the beginning, but if these things are taken into consideration from the beginning, they can be added afterward fairly easily (where easily is defined as a solvable problem, while still possibly taking a great deal of effort).

 

[ripvanrina]

you're my hero

 

[greenmaji]

hmm.. I wonder whats going on with this??? I missed it.. :?

 

[FMJnaX]

I've been working in my free time (which is limited) on a client/server type app along the same lines as this. It's nearly ready for a test, but I need to get a small hard drive so that I can fire up the data server. It works kind of like FishProfiles.com, but in a non-web/ASP/etc environment. It will allow you to save your searches locally so that you can go off-line with it and still be able to see the data. A lot more to it of course, but too much to list. When I get home this evening (if I don't go out of town), I'll post a screenshot of the search criteria screen and what-not.

 

[odobenus]

Tim's Tropicals has has a very limited version of what you are describing. It allows you to enter one fish, and returns a list of compatable species. You can also enter two fish, and it tells you if they are compatable. Being able to enter several fish at once and find species compatable with all of them (and compatable with each other) would be a definite improvement and super nice.

 

[talloulou]

Tim's Tropicals has many of my fish that are living peacefully together listed as incompatible 8O

 

[FMJnaX]

Guess I've got something else to add in. The problem (nice thing?) with my app/design is that it's user based. Instead of gathering data myself (that could be inaccurate), it will be up to the users to add the data (passed through an admin approval type system). As a result, it will be interesting to see how I will build in compat. charts. I'll probably use the standard template we all know and use from LiveAquaria and then allow the end users to fill in anything else. It's a pretty massive system by design. I haven't really put much time in to it because I'm not sure if it will even benefit the community.