FishDataBase Idea

[mvigor]

I do PHP programming and made all the application on this web site, but honestly that program sounds very, very difficult to do. I say this mainly in regards to species compatibility in a mixed show tank.

KAS- If you are interested in learning a C-like language that works VERY well online, buy a big book oh PHP. It's included on almost all Unix web servers for free.

 

[Larissa]

what if you removed the species compatibility part?

 

[Kasakato]

And just have what fish will work in the tank? That may be pretty easy. Just enter the tank size, and it will pull up a list of fish that will work. The user can than pick a few fish they like, and post their names on AC. That would clean up some of the confusing with stocking.

 

[mvigor]

As far as setting up a database or chart in the application that would simply say (purely hypothetical numbers, for example),

"Ok, you've got a 40 gallon tank that is kind of tall. Given those dimensions you could fit in

* 50 Neon Tetras (1.25 fish per gallon)
or
* 3 Comet Goldfish (20 gallons first fish, 10 gallons for each additional)
or
* 4 Angelfish (10 gallons per fish)
or
* 20 Corydoras Catfish (2 gallons per fish)

Mix and match at will but be sure to check for compatibility problems."



I would guess that something like THAT could be done fairly easily...and I suspect it probably already has.

 

[Larissa]

I think that sounds good. Regardless if it's been done before, I think that it would be very helpful to have a database like that.

 

[sivic]

I found my old source code to my fish stocking program. Its written in php with a mysql backend.

As far as the specie compatability issues go i think it could work out.

TFish
	intFishID
	intSpecieID
	strCommonName
	strScientificName

TSpecies
	intSpecieID
	strName

TSpecieCompatabilities
	intSpecieID
	intCompatibleSpecieID

Basically that is my shorthand for the database idea. Lets say this now, we have 3 entries for species. Lets say for the sake of argument the species were goldfish, tetra, and corys (i know these really aint species). Goldfish will be 1, tetra 2, corys 3. Tetra will be compatible with corys so in the TSpecieCompatabilities you would have an entry with 2 and 3. When the program finds a connection between the 2 species it knows those are compatible. Now with goldfish the program would look for intSpecieID in TSpecieCompatabilities with a value of 1 and since it couldnt find it, it assumes the species is not compatible with any others.

I hope this makes sense and i apologize for misspellings im in a rush to leave and wanted to clarify this idea.

Im sure we can work compatability into the program. Even if we had a max size for fish we can calculate roughly the inch/gallon rule even though it aint always true.

If people with no clue of programming would like to contribute i would be more than happy to come up with this program since i already have a very brief prototype working. Let me know and i can work on it whenever im not doing my other projects

 

[Kasakato]

pHp. Lol, not exactly what I was studying but thats ok. Some of it is like C++. Maybe in the first version we can havw just what fish will work in the tank. Then after we get that working we can start the whole compatability thing.

 

[mvigor]

Kas, PHP is pretty awesome, especially with mySQL and considering the price. I don't remember much of C++ as it was just half of a 1-semester course, but I think they are fairly similar.

Sivic-

Yes! Excellent plan and I can totally visualize that working. For each type of fish there would have to be a db entry with the fish id number of every type it can be kept with, perhaps even with a success rate score of keeping those kind of fish together. Like compatibility between a Betta and a Guppy could be rated at 10% since some claim that it works for them but most time the Guppy dies. Or compatibility between a number of Angelfish could be listed as 75% since some like to pick on others.

 

[Kasakato]

Ok we have 2 programmes. Il just try to help where ever I can. All in??

 

[OrionGirl]

For ease, rather than assigning serial numbers for compatibility, you'd be better off grouping fish, and then assigning a number to the group. From the example above, instead of listing a 1 for all fish that are compatible with goldfish, you'd establish a group that is compatible, and they'd all get the same group number. So, rather than a table with a record for each individual pairing, you'd have one column in the species information table with either single numbers or pairs*, and then a table defining the groups (ie, group 1: tetras including neons, serpae, harlequins, cories, bristlenose etc, group 2: top minnows including red tail sharks, albino sharks, rainbow sharks, common pleco, group 3: African cichlids including brichardi but excluding Lake Malawi cichlids, common plecos, bristlenose). This gives you a more compact structure, and species can be included into mulitple groups within one record. You get a better return as well--the whole list of compatible fish would be generated automatically, rather than from a grouping query.

*I would establish 10 basic groups, 0-9, and then allow for 027 to indicate that a species is compatible with groups 0, 2, and 7. Easier for the system to handle.