No comments about Baensch Catfish Atlas, Volume 1.

No comments about Tropical Fish (Nature's Children).

No comments about Aquarium Fish of the World (Natural Sciences of the World Series).

5 comments about Aquariums for Dummies.

1. Excellent resource on aquariums and how to get started. I stiff refer back to this book when any issue comes up.



2. Great at telling you what to what to watch out for--look out for temperature. PH is important, etc. But your next question is of course, what is the right temperature? What PH should it be? It's not in this book. If you're a new person to this you need a more informative resource. This is only good at telling you what to look for, but not good at telling you what it should be, and certainly not how to fix things that go wrong.



3. I picked up this book at a local bookstore and paid full price. This was a mistake. I would have felt ripped off even if it was in the bargain bin for a buck. About the only thing I would use this book for is a firestarter.
   
   I as of yet own no aquarium, and even I could see that this book was sorely lacking in useful information. As others have pointed out, the most important topic of all, aquarium maintenance, receives scant coverage. Their coverage of fish species overall is spotty, and there is little to no information on acceptable Ph values, temperature, compatibility with other species, diets, common diseases, or suitability for beginners. IMHO, a book for beginners should contain pretty much everything a beginner needs to know to get started. This book is woefully lacking. I have no ability to know how accurate the information in this book is, but I can say that I would not rely on it for a second.
   
   The copy I have was the 12th printing of the book, yet the quality of the text is something I would expect from a rough draft. Most glaring are the same sentences or facts repeated in two separate close-together sections. In one case, I saw the same thing phrased two different ways in successive paragraphs. Even the most blind and incompetent editor would have spotted this in a casual reading.
   
   Given the major style issues, I have absolutely no confidence in the accuracy of the information presented in this book. If this book never went through a copy-editor, I doubt it was reviewed properly for factual content either. If you have the misfortune of owning this book, try and get your money back.



4. I felt like a dummy after I read this book ( ripped off $$ ! ). Its like they had a one day deadline to write and published this book.



5. I have a B.S. in marine science, and I decided I wanted to bring my work home with me. Someone bought me this book and I read through most of the sections. I was very disappointed. The author doesn't discuss cleaning of the tank in any detail, such as how often you need to clean the gravel, plants and other decorations; they also missed out on describing common problems such as bacterial or algal blooms and what to do. I found some of the information very helpful, but overall, this is far from a complete reference book for the beginner aquarist.

No comments about A Practical Guide to Setting Up Your Coldwater Aquarium: How to Create a Beautiful And Successful Environment for Your Fish (Tankmaster S.).

2 comments about The Atlas of Discus of the World.

1. That's the question you've got to be asking if you've never seen this book. This is another one of Axelrod's big picture books. There's not much text, but there is a very valuable commentary on discus taxonomy written by Warren Burgess. There are also some good pointers in the captions to the photos. The photos are the usual TFH quality photos and the captions generally give information about the picture. The book is organized by wild caught species, strains that can be directly attributed to specific wild types (hybrids) and several other strains. Unfortunately it pre-dates the emergence of the red strains such as pigeon blood, marlboro red, etc. so these popular and important strains are not represented in this book.

   The really valuable aspect of this book is that it gives a view of what discus are supposed to look like, which is generally quite different from what is seen in the tanks of retailers. It does not give much in the way of specific information about keeping, breeding and diseases. If that is what you want then you are better off buying some of the less expensive books out there by someone such as Degen, Wattley or Quarles.

   So is it worth the money? If you think you really need a lot of help with discus, then no it isn't. However if you are fairly experienced, have maybe bred some discus and are interested in comparing what you've got vs. some of the other strains out there, this book can be well worth the investment.




2. This is a great book. Ok it is expensive, but it is a very large book. It is packed full of many great photos. It covers a lot of areas from all of the different spieces to breeding. Allthough not a wealth of information, the many, many wonderful photos must be seen to appreciate. They are bright, clear, and very large. Truely a great book. Well worth the money.

4 comments about Tropical Fish (A Golden Guide from St. Martin's Press).

1. I bought this book for my father who received a 29 gallon aquarium for Christmas last year. He was very excited to get this book and has read it cover to cover several times. He found the information very helpful in balancing his aquarium community.



2. This short, illustrated book provides a compact and useful introduction to tropical fish commonly kept in aquarium tanks. The book goes into detail of how to set up a tank, how to maintain it, and what fish to put into it. The book comes complete with color pictures of the various fish, their characteristics and the challenges of keeping them in an aquarium tank. The book itself is quite inexpensive, and worth the cost and time to read it.



3. I can't recommenf this book. It only introduces very common fish. It tells very little about the fishes and the pictures are bad too because they are not photographs but drawings. This book doesn't even look good in bookself because it's so small.



4. I am a newbie at fish and aquariums. I checked this book out at the library and looked at it and it was wonderful. Then I ordered 2 other books....I was GREATLY disappointed in them. This little books shows you pictures of all different fish and tells you if they are aggressive or not. Most books I have found dont tell enough about what kind of roomies your fish should have or what they eat. I think if you are a newbie you need this book. It is a nice reference! The best and the cheapest that I have bought so far! You wont be sorry if you buy it!Just gives you a sence of some place to start to by fish for a community tank.

No comments about Extremely Weird Fishes (Extremely Weird).

2 comments about The Completely Illustrated Guide to Koi for Your Pond.

1. this book contains little useful information regarding koi keeping...
   only a lot of big low resolution (some seem like taken with a cell phone) pics of koi. And of course the price...when I got this book I tought I was beeing scammed...for this money one could buy 5 other realy good books on koi! I realy don't know for whom is this book written. It has little information for begginers and no useful information for pros, only big pics! But you can find better ones on the net...and more information in the wikipedia section on koi...
   
   The only good thing in this book is the paper quality!



2. This book is a work of art, replete with what seems like thousands of gorgeous full-page photos and art prints, as well as essays on a broad range of topics. It's definitely koi-centric, so don't expect a book on pond-building, but for the true aficionado this is a must-have.

No comments about Breeding Aquarium Fishes, Book 1.