I usually don't ID cyanobacteria past Phylum (so nothing more specific than "these are cyanobacteria"). I'll sometimes point to similar looking genera or species that I learned about during my research, but I mark those clearly as unverified guesses, often with a question mark next to the name or careful wording that makes the uncertainty obvious.
To me there is a real difference between showing something and pondering about its identification, versus making claims about an organism's behavior, exact classification, role in the ecosystem, or if it could be used as a solution for the same problem in other tanks.
This thread hasn't gotten as bad as the last one imo, but I think people are more careful now after what happened. The last one ended in a locked thread and a bunch of unanswered questions that exposed the fragility of some made claims.
Criticism on overgeneralizations or basing observations on shaky facts isn't limited to you at all. As an example, I recently criticized the well known and respected dinoflagellate identification guide for generalizing toxicity and night migration behavior across entire genera. I've also said in several dino ID threads that I'm hesitant to assign a genus to a specimen without a disclaimer, since these organisms are so abundant that we might not even notice if a lookalike species or genus showed up in our tanks.
To go forward instead of looking at the history of how the involved parties came to the rather heated tone in the recent threads, I would love to hear how you came to the conclusion that you are dealing with Oscillatoria spp. and how you know you are dealing with more than two different ones?
To me there is a real difference between showing something and pondering about its identification, versus making claims about an organism's behavior, exact classification, role in the ecosystem, or if it could be used as a solution for the same problem in other tanks.
This thread hasn't gotten as bad as the last one imo, but I think people are more careful now after what happened. The last one ended in a locked thread and a bunch of unanswered questions that exposed the fragility of some made claims.
Criticism on overgeneralizations or basing observations on shaky facts isn't limited to you at all. As an example, I recently criticized the well known and respected dinoflagellate identification guide for generalizing toxicity and night migration behavior across entire genera. I've also said in several dino ID threads that I'm hesitant to assign a genus to a specimen without a disclaimer, since these organisms are so abundant that we might not even notice if a lookalike species or genus showed up in our tanks.
To go forward instead of looking at the history of how the involved parties came to the rather heated tone in the recent threads, I would love to hear how you came to the conclusion that you are dealing with Oscillatoria spp. and how you know you are dealing with more than two different ones?
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