Sources and licensing
What AquariumHQ will and will not do with somebody else's work, stated per source rather than in general terms.
The rule that decides everything else
AquariumHQ is intended to be commercially supported. A licence class that forbids commercial reuse therefore cannot supply machine-ingested content to a published page — it is blocked at the type level, checked by an audit, and the build fails if it appears. FishBase, for instance, is licensed for non-commercial use and is registered here as reference-only for exactly that reason.
The second rule is subtler. A fact is not copyrightable; a database and a piece of prose are. AquariumHQ may independently establish that a species occurs in the Rio Negro. It may not lift a paragraph describing it, and it may not reconstruct somebody else’s compatibility chart edge by edge. That is what the “citation only” class exists to enforce.
The registry
| Source | Type | Licence | Access | What it is authoritative for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Catalogue of Life | taxonomic authority | CC BY | May be fetched and parsed by the collector. | Accepted scientific names, synonymy and higher classification. Authoritative for nomenclature; carries no husbandry information. |
| GBIF — Global Biodiversity Information Facility | biodiversity database | CC BY | May be fetched and parsed by the collector. | Aggregated occurrence records and taxonomic backbone. Authoritative for where a species has been recorded; occurrence data includes introduced populations and must not be read as native range without checking the record basis. |
| Wikidata | biodiversity database | CC0 / public-domain dedication | May be fetched and parsed by the collector. | Cross-identifier reconciliation — linking a scientific name to identifiers in other databases. Used for identity resolution only, never as an evidence source for husbandry. |
| Plants of the World Online | taxonomic authority | CC BY | May be fetched and parsed by the collector. | Accepted plant names, synonymy and native distribution. |
| WoRMS — World Register of Marine Species | taxonomic authority | CC BY | May be fetched and parsed by the collector. | Marine and brackish taxonomy. Registered now for the brackish and marine domain packs; unused by the freshwater catalogue. |
| IUCN Red List of Threatened Species | conservation authority | Citation only — read and cite, do not ingest | A human editor may read and cite it. Nothing is transcribed. | Global conservation assessments and native range statements. |
| USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species database | government | Public domain (expired or never held) | May be fetched and parsed by the collector. | Introduced and established non-native aquatic populations in the United States, with collection records. The best available evidence that an aquarium species has established in the wild. |
| GB Non-native Species Secretariat | government | Government open data | May be fetched and parsed by the collector. | Non-native species established or of concern in Great Britain, and associated legislation. |
| EU list of invasive alien species of Union concern | government | Government open data | May be fetched and parsed by the collector. | Species subject to EU-wide restrictions on keeping, sale, transport and release. Directly relevant to several aquarium plants and one or two aquarium animals. |
| legislation.gov.uk | government | Government open data | May be fetched and parsed by the collector. | UK primary and secondary legislation, including the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 Schedule 9 provisions on release of non-native species. |
| US Fish and Wildlife Service — Injurious Wildlife listings | government | Public domain (expired or never held) | May be fetched and parsed by the collector. | Species whose import into, and transport between, US states is prohibited under the Lacey Act. Note that an injurious listing restricts import and interstate transport, and does not by itself make possession unlawful. |
| CITES appendices | government | Government open data | May be fetched and parsed by the collector. | International trade controls on listed species. Relevant to a small number of aquarium fish. |
| Emerson et al. (1975), Aqueous ammonia equilibrium calculations: effect of pH and temperature | scientific literature | Citation only — read and cite, do not ingest | A human editor may read and cite it. Nothing is transcribed. | The temperature-dependent ammonia dissociation relation used by AquariumHQ's free-ammonia calculation. Cited for the relation itself; no text is reproduced. |
| US EPA aquatic life ambient water quality criteria for ammonia (freshwater) | government | Public domain (expired or never held) | May be fetched and parsed by the collector. | Regulatory criteria for ammonia in fresh water, expressed as total ammonia nitrogen with pH and temperature dependence. Used to explain why a bare ammonia reading is not a verdict. |
| World Aquatic Veterinary Medical Association | veterinary | Citation only — read and cite, do not ingest | A human editor may read and cite it. Nothing is transcribed. | Professional aquatic veterinary guidance, and the basis for AquariumHQ's position that health pages route to a veterinarian rather than prescribing. |
| UF/IFAS Extension — fish health and aquaculture publications | university extension | Citation only — read and cite, do not ingest | A human editor may read and cite it. Nothing is transcribed. | Peer-reviewed extension publications on ornamental fish health, water quality and common freshwater diseases. |
| Ornamental Aquatic Trade Association | aquarium organisation | Citation only — read and cite, do not ingest | A human editor may read and cite it. Nothing is transcribed. | Trade guidance on water quality standards, biosecurity and species handling in the UK and EU. |
| MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual — fish chapters | veterinary | Citation only — read and cite, do not ingest | A human editor may read and cite it. Nothing is transcribed. | Veterinary reference covering the major infectious and non-infectious diseases of fish, written for clinicians. AquariumHQ's baseline authority for what a condition is, how it is distinguished, and where a diagnosis genuinely requires laboratory work. Authoritative for clinical description; its therapeutic content is written for veterinary supervision and is not reproduced. |
| Noga, E.J. — Fish Disease: Diagnosis and Treatment (2nd edn, 2010) | scientific literature | Citation only — read and cite, do not ingest | A human editor may read and cite it. Nothing is transcribed. | The standard clinical text on fish disease diagnosis, including the wet-mount and skin-scrape methods that separate conditions AquariumHQ marks as requiring microscopy. Cited for the diagnostic distinctions; no text or figure is reproduced. |
| AFS-FHS Blue Book — Suggested Procedures for the Detection and Identification of Certain Finfish and Shellfish Pathogens | standards body | Citation only — read and cite, do not ingest | A human editor may read and cite it. Nothing is transcribed. | Standardised detection and identification procedures for finfish pathogens. Used as the authority for what confirming a pathogen actually involves — which is the basis for AquariumHQ's position that several commonly named aquarium diseases cannot be identified by eye. |
| WOAH Aquatic Animal Health Code and Manual of Diagnostic Tests for Aquatic Animals | standards body | Citation only — read and cite, do not ingest | A human editor may read and cite it. Nothing is transcribed. | International standards for aquatic animal health, listed diseases, biosecurity and diagnostic methods. Relevant to AquariumHQ mainly for notifiable-disease status and for the biosecurity rationale behind quarantine guidance. |
| Cefas Fish Health Inspectorate guidance | government | Government open data | May be fetched and parsed by the collector. | UK statutory fish-health guidance, notifiable disease listings and biosecurity requirements for ornamental aquatic businesses. Jurisdictionally specific to the UK. |
| Diseases of Aquatic Organisms (journal) | scientific literature | Citation only — read and cite, do not ingest | A human editor may read and cite it. Nothing is transcribed. | Peer-reviewed primary literature on diseases of aquatic organisms, including the parasitology and bacteriology underlying several conditions AquariumHQ records. |
| FAO fisheries and aquaculture health publications | government | Citation only — read and cite, do not ingest | A human editor may read and cite it. Nothing is transcribed. | International guidance on aquaculture health management and water quality. Applicable to aquarium species with care: aquaculture criteria are production criteria, and a value that is acceptable for a food-fish crop is not automatically a welfare target for an ornamental animal kept for a decade. |
| Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes | museum | Citation only — read and cite, do not ingest | A human editor may read and cite it. Nothing is transcribed. | The authoritative catalogue of fish nomenclature: valid names, authorities, original descriptions and synonymy. Used to resolve which scientific name is currently accepted where the aquarium trade still uses an older one. |
| EPBC Act List of Specimens taken to be Suitable for Live Import | government | Government open data | May be fetched and parsed by the collector. | Australia operates a permitted list: a live specimen may be imported only if it appears on this list. That inverts the usual question — the absence of a species from the list is itself the restriction, which is the opposite of how prohibited-list jurisdictions work. |
| New Zealand import health standards for ornamental fish | government | Government open data | May be fetched and parsed by the collector. | New Zealand biosecurity import health standards, which likewise operate as a permitted list for ornamental aquatic species. |
| Leggatt et al. (2017) — Low-temperature tolerances of tropical fish, Canadian Journal of Zoology | scientific literature | Citation only — read and cite, do not ingest | A human editor may read and cite it. Nothing is transcribed. | A controlled laboratory study of chronic cold tolerance in zebrafish, black tetra and tiger barb, reporting loss-of-equilibrium temperatures under a ~1 degC/day decline. Authoritative for LETHAL COLD LIMITS and for nothing else — it measures where these fish capsize, not where they should be kept, and the two must never be conflated. The first genuinely independent primary source in this catalogue: not FishBase, not derived from it, and reporting its own measurements. |
| World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP) | biodiversity database | CC BY | May be fetched and parsed by the collector. | Accepted names, synonymy and native distribution for vascular plants, maintained by Kew and the authority behind Plants of the World Online. Read here through GBIF's distribution endpoint, because POWO's own site returns 403 to the fetcher available to this project — the data is Kew's, the delivery route is GBIF's, and both are recorded. Distribution is given at botanical-region level and includes introduced populations, so a locality list is NOT a native range unless establishment means has been read for each entry. |
| Aquatic Invasive Species Regulations (SOR/2015-121) | government | Government open data | May be fetched and parsed by the collector. | Canada's federal prohibited-list regime for aquatic invasive species, with most listings scoped to named provinces rather than the whole country. Federal only: the provinces legislate separately and a species absent from this schedule may still be restricted provincially, so this source can establish a federal restriction but never the absence of any restriction in Canada. |
| FishBase | biodiversity database | CC BY-NC | A human editor may read and cite it. Nothing is transcribed. | Comprehensive fish biology database. An editor may consult it to check a maximum recorded length or a distribution statement. |
| Specialist aquarium species databases (collective entry) | specialist husbandry | Proprietary — permission required | The collector must never request it. | The well-known independent aquarium species databases and care-sheet sites, recorded collectively so the prohibition is explicit rather than implied. |
| Retailer care sheets and stocking calculators (collective entry) | specialist husbandry | Prohibited | The collector must never request it. | Commercial care sheets and third-party stocking calculators. |
| AquariumHQ husbandry synthesis | editorial synthesis | CC0 / public-domain dedication | AquariumHQ's own editorial position. No external fetch. | AquariumHQ's own consolidated position on husbandry values that converge across decades of aquarium literature and practice without existing as a citable measurement in any single document — the temperature band a species is actually kept in, the group size below which a shoaling species becomes visibly stressed, and similar. Presented on the page as an editorial position, never as a sourced measurement. |
| AquariumHQ calculation | editorial synthesis | CC0 / public-domain dedication | AquariumHQ's own editorial position. No external fetch. | Values produced by AquariumHQ's own published formulas from stated inputs. Every such formula is shown on the tool page that uses it. |
Sources deliberately blocked
| Source | Why |
|---|---|
| IUCN Red List of Threatened Species | The Red List's terms of use restrict redistribution of its assessments. Individual conservation statuses may be looked up and cited by an editor; the dataset must not be ingested. |
| Emerson et al. (1975), Aqueous ammonia equilibrium calculations: effect of pH and temperature | A journal article under publisher copyright. Cited as the origin of a published equation, which is not itself copyrightable. |
| World Aquatic Veterinary Medical Association | Professional body publications under its own copyright. Cited, never ingested. |
| UF/IFAS Extension — fish health and aquaculture publications | Free to read but published under university copyright with no reuse licence. Editors may read and cite; nothing is transcribed. |
| Ornamental Aquatic Trade Association | Trade association publications under its own copyright. |
| MSD/Merck Veterinary Manual — fish chapters | A commercially published veterinary reference, free to read online under all-rights-reserved terms. Editors read and cite it; nothing is transcribed, and none of its treatment protocols are reproduced as consumer instructions. |
| Noga, E.J. — Fish Disease: Diagnosis and Treatment (2nd edn, 2010) | A copyrighted textbook. Cited as the origin of a diagnostic distinction, which is not itself copyrightable. |
| AFS-FHS Blue Book — Suggested Procedures for the Detection and Identification of Certain Finfish and Shellfish Pathogens | Published by a professional society under its own copyright. Cited for the existence and nature of a procedure, never transcribed. |
| WOAH Aquatic Animal Health Code and Manual of Diagnostic Tests for Aquatic Animals | Intergovernmental standards published under WOAH copyright. Cited; not ingested. |
| Diseases of Aquatic Organisms (journal) | A subscription journal under publisher copyright. Individual findings are cited; no article text is reproduced. |
| FAO fisheries and aquaculture health publications | FAO publications are licensed for non-commercial reuse. AquariumHQ is intended to carry advertising, so the material is cited rather than ingested. |
| Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes | Published by a museum under its own terms. Consulted and cited for nomenclature; not ingested. |
| Leggatt et al. (2017) — Low-temperature tolerances of tropical fish, Canadian Journal of Zoology | Accepted manuscript openly deposited in the University of Toronto institutional repository and read there. Registered reference-only: the figures and locators are recorded, the document is not redistributed. |
| FishBase | Licensed for non-commercial use. AquariumHQ is intended to carry advertising, so FishBase content is not ingestible and no part of it is reproduced or mirrored. Facts checked against it are independently established from a commercially usable source before publication. |
| Specialist aquarium species databases (collective entry) | These are compiled databases and original prose under all-rights-reserved terms. AquariumHQ does not fetch, transcribe, paraphrase or reconstruct them, and does not rebuild their compatibility matrices. The collector must never request them. |
| Retailer care sheets and stocking calculators (collective entry) | Proprietary content, and in the case of stocking calculators a methodology AquariumHQ actively disagrees with. Blocked on both copyright and editorial grounds. |
Licence classes
| Class | Ingestible | Commercial publication | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| CC0 / public-domain dedication | Yes | Yes | No restriction. Attribution is still rendered as a courtesy and for auditability. |
| CC BY | Yes | Yes | Commercial use permitted with attribution, which the source panel renders. |
| CC BY-SA | Yes | Yes | Commercial use permitted, but share-alike may attach to substantial adaptations. Used for individual factual look-ups (taxonomy, distribution), never for prose adaptation. |
| CC BY-NC | No | No | Non-commercial only. AquariumHQ is intended to carry advertising, so NC content is blocked from ingestion outright rather than filtered later. |
| Public domain (expired or never held) | Yes | Yes | No rights subsist. Cited anyway so readers can check the original. |
| Government open data | Yes | Yes | Published under an open government licence permitting commercial reuse with attribution. The exact instrument is recorded per source. |
| Proprietary — permission required | No | No | Content is under all-rights-reserved terms. Ingestion requires a written licence that does not exist. Blocked. |
| Citation only — read and cite, do not ingest | No | No | The source may be read by a human editor and cited as a reference. Its text, tables and compiled databases must not be copied, transcribed or reconstructed. This is the class most specialist aquarium databases fall into. |
| Licence unknown | No | No | Unknown is treated as prohibited until resolved. The default must fail closed, not open. |
| Prohibited | No | No | Explicitly disallowed by terms of service, robots policy, or an AquariumHQ editorial decision. Must never be fetched by the collector. |
On editorial synthesis
Much practical husbandry guidance is not a citable measurement in any single document. The temperature band a species is actually kept in, or the group size below which a shoaling fish becomes visibly stressed, is a convergence across decades of aquarium literature and practice.
Pretending such a figure came from a specific paper would be fabricating a citation. Presenting it as an unsourced fact would be worse. So it is attributed to the AquariumHQ husbandry synthesis, labelled on every page as an editorial position rather than a measurement, and an audit forbids it from ever being dressed up as anything else.