Anyone here use Scubase as a dive log?

[Reeveseye]

Can you email me the fish database?
Thanks :10:

kaz@amcadd.com

Will do. Please post and let me know what you think of it. I'll send it when I get home tonight.

 

[Reeveseye]

...I've got mine set up a little weird (by Phylum, Class/Subclass, and Order/Family) ... I'm not sure if its intuitive to anyone but me the way its set up ...lol

I set mine up by dividing the fish into their habitat as described on www.fishbase.org. The "Type" classification is broken down by region. In the case of the database I'll be e-mailing to interested takers, the only entry will be "Pacific Coast", although I'm working on a "Hawaii" section to accomodate an upcoming trip to the islands. The "Category" section is divided into four habitats as described on Fishbase: Benthopelagic (living and/or feeding on or near the bottom, as well as in midwater), Demersal (living and/or feeding on or near the bottom), Pelagic (occurring mainly in the water column between 0 and 200 m), and Reef-associated (living and/or feeding on or near reefs). There are other habitats for fish, of course, but as divers we're really not concerned with deep-sea (below 200m) organisms that we'll never run across in a kelp forest or coral reef.

I also list inverts on my own copy of the program, but I didn't include that as part of the database I'll be sending out. The information I have on inverts is pretty much limited to what I can scrounge off random websites or my Audubon guide, so it isn't nearly as organized. I'm not likely to include that until I find an invert website as good as Fishbase.

 

[PnL]

I set mine up by dividing the fish into their habitat as described on www.fishbase.org. The "Type" classification is broken down by region. In the case of the database I'll be e-mailing to interested takers, the only entry will be "Pacific Coast", although I'm working on a "Hawaii" section to accomodate an upcoming trip to the islands. The "Category" section is divided into four habitats as described on Fishbase: Benthopelagic (living and/or feeding on or near the bottom, as well as in midwater), Demersal (living and/or feeding on or near the bottom), Pelagic (occurring mainly in the water column between 0 and 200 m), and Reef-associated (living and/or feeding on or near reefs). There are other habitats for fish, of course, but as divers we're really not concerned with deep-sea (below 200m) organisms that we'll never run across in a kelp forest or coral reef.

That's a pretty slick way to doing it. When I first started adding items to the organism list I quickly found that it got disorganized so I did it 'my way' What do you do when there are fish that seem to belong to two categories (i.e., sheephead can be found in the kelp, reefs, canyon; horn sharks are in the canyon, kelp, reefs, shallow, deep ..etc)? This is when I started re-organizing things. I have to admit, though, your way is probably a LOT easier in locating a specific critter - with mine you have to be familiar with their taxonomic designations (something I'm actually very poor at!). Word is that the next version of Scubase will actually have a sortable, searchable (?), explorer style organism window with the options of customizing the fields. Its gonna be fun redoing the organism packs when the new version comes out

 

[Reeveseye]

What do you do when there are fish that seem to belong to two categories (i.e., sheephead can be found in the kelp, reefs, canyon; horn sharks are in the canyon, kelp, reefs, shallow, deep ..etc)?

I let Fishbase decide. They'll have the fish listed as one thing or another (for example, Sheephead are simply listed as reef-associated). Another odd example would be for the blueband gobies seen all around Catalina. You'd think they would be listed as reef-associated as well, since you always find them on the rocks, but instead they're listed as demersal. I suppose that's true if you count the reef rocks as the bottom, but where do you draw the line? I always thought of the bottom as the place where the rocks end and the sand begins. It's not like you often find them on the sand, and they can be found on the reef at any depth. But I figure the people running Fishbase have more experience with taxonomy than I do, so I just go with their classifications. The marine biologists can decide what those classifications actually are.

I hope they don't change the Scubase organism sorting procees too much! Took me forever to get it this organized in the first place...

 

[PnL]

I hope they don't change the Scubase organism sorting procees too much! Took me forever to get it this organized in the first place...

LOL ... It took me a while too, although I'm still new to the whole taxonomy thing. I hope that the new implementation of the Organism Explorer allows for importing from the current version. I'll have to ask about this.