No comments about TROPICAL FISHKEEPING (Pet Owner's Guide).

1 comments about Aquariums: The Complete Guide to Freshwater and Saltwater Aquariums.

1. My favorite librarian saved this book for me when it first came in! I must say I was a little disappointed. The pictures seem to have a cast over them, as though they are older pictures that were re-integrated into this newish book. I can prove it - on pg. 38 on the bottom left is an aquarium stand with an ANCIENT sound system below it! (Who would put a sound system below their aquarium anyhow?) The sectional furniture is telling too.
   
   In spite of this, the book is fine for an all purpose intro to aquariums. It has basic information and outlines common species with specifications and requirements. The section on breeding would probably be helpful, as it uses some older but tried and tested techniques. (I'm not a breeder, btw.)
   
   The translations are a little strained sometimes, e.g. "Impatience and urgency are two words that are utterly incompatible with the set up of an aquarium!" The book is originally in French. But what I find most jarring are the "An aquarium of..." sections which are these two page spreads...
   
   Basically, they're photomontages of different species over 2D backgrounds. It looks like someone literally "cut" the pictures of the livestock out and "pasted" them onto a background, with a rather incongruous effect. Cardinal tetras next to an Australian blue crayfish in "A Freshwater Invertebrate Aquarium"? I don't think so.
   
   For a list price of $39.95, you can find a better book. My recommendation is "Encyclopedia of Aquarium & Pond Fish" by David Alderton, which lists $5 cheaper. Much better photography (looks like they actually used editing, Photoshop-type software!) and denser information. It is a reference book I have referred to again and again, and it's a pleasure to browse, too.
   
   My personal suggestion, with any of these books, is to either choose a Freshwater or Marine book and go with that. Each deserves its own encyclopedia. But if you must have the best of both worlds, this book is okay...but the book I mentioned is better. How much better? Well...lots!

No comments about An Essential Guide to Choosing Your Pond Fish And Aquatic Plants (Tankmaster S.).

3 comments about Baensch Marine Atlas, Vol. 3 (Baensch Marine Atlas).

1. A good book if you are a diver and collect your own specimens and need to identify them, Pictures are well done and in color and makes for good and enjoyable reading. The chart at the bottom shows a nice table for suggesting watermovement, temperature range, difficulty factor for raising, availability in the trade.

   I give it one star because although nicely done 90% of the speciments pictures are listed as unavailable to the trade or protected species and unavailable. 90% are also recommended for people with at least two years of marine experience. It was written at a college level as to a lot of the terms. To be fair I believe two items were listed as a difficulty level of one (snails) and maybe three or four in the level three catagory. Level 4 being the highest degree of difficulty.

   There is not very much for a beginner or intermediate aquarist looking for things to add to their aquarium since they are listed as unavailable. It would of been much better if it had listed more items readily available and in the easy to moderate range of difficulty. I would not recommend this book to anyone trying to find, identify, or purchase items for an aquarium, especially beginners. For the advanced marine aquarist it has some beautiful pictures and info.

   However this was an atlas and not necessarily intended for aquarium buffs.




2. Well,I own the german original edition of this book,which I got before it was released in english,but it`s the same book. I can still read some german - it`s an easy language to understand.
   Anyway,I prefer to write a review in english.
   When I got the first book about two or three years ago,I thought there was something missing. There was only fishes of the order Perciformes,and the only invertebrates included were crustaceans and some anemones. I thought that was very strange. As there was some trouble when making this massive seven-book series,the second volume should have included other fish,but instead,here comes the missed invertebrates. It begins with a lot of sponges.
   Although care advices are beeing given,sponges are NOT recommended as aquarium animals,due to their feeding habits. Therefore,all of them has a high difficult grade. But if you shall go diving in the caribbean or something,it could be valueable as a marine life identification guide.
   The next chapter are treating the missing cnidarians from the first book,with stony corals and soft corals,and even some jellyfish!This section is taking up almost the half of the book,but as the corals is a rather dominating group of marine animals,that is completley understandable. Practical advice are beeing given for all of them. After reading it,I would mostly recommend the leather corals as suitable aquarium animals. Forget the jellyfish. The stony corals often have beautifull shapes but they`re not very colourfull. After this huge chapter,the next animal group dealt with are the flatworms. We often think of worms as disgusting animals,but these are very beutifull,but difficult too keep in an aquarium as they eat sponges. They are often mistaken for sea snails,but they have no gills on their back. Also included are the comb jellyfishes,a rare group of pelagic sea animals related to jellyfishes.
   The final chapter are dealing with the molluscs,a very diverse group of marine animals. Here,we can see mostly shells of different kinds,and they are very beautifull and varied. Especially the small,but incredible section for nudibranchs. Some of these shells,altough not the cowries,can be kept in a marine aquarium very easily. So far,this book has been a valueable resource for me,as it has so many species included. Do not forget to buy the first and third volume,while volume 4-7 are additional species introduced. I do not own volume 5,but I`ll get that some time too. But so far,volume 1,2,3,4,6 & 7 are the BEST marine life identification guides available!



3. I was quite pleased with the content of this volume. The information is very concise, informative, and accurate. The location information as to where you could locate the various species could not be surpassed. This is a must for any diver, or marine biologist.

2 comments about Gouramis and Other Labyrinth Fishes.

1. You could write much more extensive book about gouramies and bettas easily. I would have wanted to see much more pictures and more specific information about species. This book isn't bad but it could be much better too.



2. It is concise which is fine and in the beginning has general information that applies not only to Gouramies. Then it describes the various species but there is not enough data about the behavior of each of the species and also not enough information on how to breed.

3 comments about Marine Aquarium Keeping.

1. This is the book that I am looking to learn the know how of hatching brine shrimps. I haven't finished this book yet so i only can tell you what i felt before i purchased this book.

   Before i got this book I found this book is a bit old ( slightly out-dated or out-dated ) in every espect. The info that they given seems does not saying more about the filtering systems, tank setups, and so on in more details. So this is the most disadvantages of this book. The books does not have much details on the details of the Marine Fishes, reefs, lightings, and so on.

   This book does generally teaching or telling what is Marine Fish keeping and teaching those very basic things on the aspects of marine fish. They just telling you what is the important espects of taking care of Marine fishes. They are seems good in the Maintenance, foods & feeding sections only. The info's that they given is very good for peoples want to know what to do when he or she want to hatching brime shrimps. They even teach what, when, how to do in general language. Its a very straight forward explainations so it is good for people who does not know much about Marine Fish. If this book is for those people who want to use for referrences in details and i think this book is not be enought resources or info to make people to know about the technical know how about Marine Fishes. I am not saying that this book is not good. I am saying that this book is suitable for people who want to know what to do with hatching brime shrimps??? Feedings and Maintainance's. SO i would like to introduce people to know about this book is Good in these chapter 10 which is Maintenance and Chapter 11 which is Foods and Feeding.

   I noticed that most of the books do not cover well about the Hatching Brime Shrimps, and the collections of seawater. Teaching what to do with the Seawater that you collected from the Sea.

   OK I have to stop here, because I felt that this is the only things that i want to say.

   Before I wrap it this messaage, this is what i want to say.

   This is a Good Book for those people wanna to know how and what to do with Collections of sea-water from the Sea and the know how of Hatching brime shrimps.

   Thats all.




2. This book is great. I have found that in my time of marine fishkeeping that this book has become of great importance to me and my fish. I would recommend this book to anyone, beginner or avid, fishkeeper. If you purchase this book you will surely become an expert at the art of fishkeeping.



3. A great reference, but not the best book to start out on. The writer is set in his ways and does not talk about all the options, just what he thinks is best. The three pages on filtration only talk about a subgravel filter, with on mention of live sand and rock. However, it is otherwise very though and would be very helpfull. A good book to have, but you should plan on buying others.

No comments about Breeding Aquarium Fishes, Book 2.

No comments about Step by Step Book About Setting Up a Marine Aquarium (Step By Step Book About Series).

4 comments about Koi Breeding.

1. As fish breeder who travelled from Africa to where Dr. Shmuel Rothbarb and his collegues and are seriously doing wonders with koi breeding in Israel and witnessed the spawning I can say that I found the book excellent for serious breeders.



2. Excellent and extremly acurate scientific text with plenty of high quality photos. I have most of this info from many different sources most of which are University bulletins from research projects. Not only did the author contribute his own work but included the tried and true techniques of basic fish reproductive science all in this edition. Dr. Rothbard is a leader into the field. I would like to see an update with more on the genetics currently being researched. Only complaint is that any book on fish should be safe around water like the 'Petersons Field Guides' are,



3. I found the title of this book misleading. There is little to no relevant information on the breeding of koi from the hobbiest or small buisness owners perspective. The book provided information for large scale koi production using artificial fertilization and hatching methods.



4. this magazine quarterly is aimed at breeding and selling koi by the millions . we are talking about mega breeding, not what a hobbyist or small breeder is trying, or probably capable of doing.very slick with beautiful pictures of little use.

No comments about Breeding Aquarium Fishes, Book 1.