Ever Happened To You?

[Guest22583]

You pop into your LPS to maybe pick up a few new fishes but there are some new fish that you don't recognize? (or all of them if you're relatively new!)

Or how about you rely on the information the LPS explains on small cards on every tank. What if you came to a shop that didn't have these?

How would you know the preferred pH levels? The temperament? The preferred temperature levels? The rate/max growth? If they fish needs alot of space to swim or is perfectly happy in confined space?

Well I have such problems being new to the hobby so I had an idea for my programming side. A Java application for you mobile phone (or cell) that allows you to enter all sorts of search criteria for helping you find a suitable fish based on reference information my application would provide. For example a Atyopsis gabonensis. Now what the hell is one of those? Well we enter the name into the latin finder tool thingy and it would tell you it is a Cameroun Fan Shrimp. Whoa the thing in the tank is 15cm! that will never fit in my 60L tank! Well, my application would tell them that in fact you could.

Other ways of finding the information you need is to enter information such as:

• Tank size - the application would bring up a list of fish that you can have
• Colour of the fish - Yes! The colour and markings would narrow the search down
• Place of origin - Brazil, Japan, South Africa, South America, etc
• Tank residence - are you after a surface dweller? A burrower? Nocturnal?
• Water type - Freshwater, marine or Brackish

The list would undoubtedly go on a bit, but before the design phase, I cannot state a specific list of search criteria. It is worth saying that I would like to have these search criteria used to not only find a list based on the keywords but also to define the search. There are undoubtly alot of fish available. We can cut these down by choosing only freshwater. We can narrow it down to say, a south american blue fish that can inhabit anything above 100L. I have no idea what fish this would be (hence the need for this application!) but you get the gist.

Now I don't know if you all understood that but I hope you get the idea. Now would you guys, beginner and experienced alike, find a mobile phone reference application like this useful?

It is worth mentioning that this won't be on WAP. It won't require the user to be 'online' at the time of use. It would cost nothing to download and use. Maybe I might require the user to connect to update but that's another thing I haven't explored in the research phase yet.

Opinions please

 

[jarmado]

brilliant idea!!

 

[annka5]

Good idea, but... I don't understand how you could make a profit out of it, particularly given that there aren't many people (in terms of % of poulation) who keep tropical fish and regularly visit LFS, and use decent mobile phones.
I would've thought that mobile phone providers or network providers wouldn't be too interested as is not mainstream enough, therefore too limited a market.

 

[Guest22583]

Thanks iJay. Also I would like to hear if anyone has any ideas to add or critisism to certain parts in particular.

I would also like to point out something about the last bit about it not costing anything to download. This is right in so far as you won't need to pay me anything extra on top of the connection to the download page. Alternatively I might have the download cost a few £s using WAP but free to desktop downloaders (they can transfer the app using datacable/bluetooth/ir)

 

[Griz]

This would be a very interesting project, both from a programming and a fishkeeping point of view. It would be a huge undertaking however in order to end up with a useable database.

 

[Guest22583]

Good idea, but... I don't understand how you could make a profit out of it, particularly given that there aren't many people (in terms of % of poulation) who keep tropical fish and regularly visit LFS, and use decent mobile phones.
I would've thought that mobile phone providers or network providers wouldn't be too interested as is not mainstream enough, therefore too limited a market.

I just enjoy programming. Or at least I used to. I used to do alot of web programming - freelance mostly. I've never done anything like this, though. Even the language to use is new to me!

I don't want to make a profit, just maybe have enough from paypal donations and google adsense to pay for the server that hosts it.

Mostly, I need the application myself!

This would be a very interesting project, both from a programming and a fishkeeping point of view. It would be a huge undertaking however in order to end up with a useable database.

Now that's where my web authoring skills come in. I would make a quick little script that does basically the same as your basic 'shopping price comparison' website. It would go to the website as source (with permission) and systematically pull all the data and sort it into the relevant 'columns'. A site that uses XML would be ideal.

 

[vis]

Great idea. But not worth the trouble, rather make a computer programme!. it will be alot more useful.

 

[Guest22583]

So how do I look up stuff while walking around my LPS? That's the whole point of the project =P I want to be able to get all the info I need while away from my computer, in the actual pet outlet.

 

[PaulEbs]

I think it's an excellent idea, although as annka5 said, it isn't mainstream. But don't let that stop you, you never know what may take off and become something big.

If you want any help with the graphics side of it then let me know, and good luck, nice one.

 

[vis]

I meant, you could sell it to LPS. Then anyone can get the information they want. And they dont need a fancy cellphone