How do you measure fish?

[tebstan]

How do you measure fish? Do you include the tail or not?

I’ve been told that in sport fishing, you certainly do measure every bit of the fish, from the nose to the tip of the tail. (I suppose this helps with those tall fishing tales. )

When measuring fish for aquarium purposes, I would assume you do not include the tail, because you are referencing body mass for bio load.

What do you think?

[Europhyllia]

I include the tail or the tail bone sorta.

With clownfish that means the whole tail. With fish that have long forked tails like anthias I measure to the fork.

That's theoretical of course since I don't really measure the fish ;)

[justahobby]

I include nose to tail. On a tang it could make for a pretty big difference. I would think the only time you exclude a part of an animal is in cases like dogs and horses where the head would be difficult to get an accurate measurement (you measure withers instead).

[tebstan]

The anthias is a good example. I was thinking of long tailed fish, where it could make a drastic difference. Not a reef example... but consider veil tailed mollys or swordfish. The tail can be as long as the body!

I have a bellus angel, also with a forked tail. The skinny little tendrils on her tail, if I include them, make her a 6 or 7 inch fish. I can't tell for sure, they're always dangling about in the current. (Justin's point comes in handy there.) If I measure just her body, she's only about 3.5 inches. That's quite a difference.