1 comments about Freshwater Aquarium Problem Solver (Animal Planet Pet Care Library).

1. Every aquarium will have a problem at some point, so any aquarium owner and many a library catering to them needs Freshwater Aquarium Problem Solver. It provides detailed information on everything from balancing water chemistry and understanding equipment problems to fish health and diseases. Chapters pair color photos with sidebars of at-a-glance information and plenty of easy tips.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch

5 comments about Dr Burgess's Atlas of Marine Aquarium Fishes (Guide to Owning A...).

1. This book was probably designed for intermediate to advanced marine hobbyists. However, I bought it just getting into the hobby and it was invaluable for one reason. It shows every known fish, and as another reviewer says, talks about sociability, smallest tank size (big one), and diet. What was most useful for me was to help me design my ultimate tank as far as colors, types, compatability, etc without ever spending a dime. Well worth the money just for the comprehensiveness.



2. This book has endless pictures and drawings of fish. Many pictures are good, although there are plenty that appear as taken long ago with inferior film and recently scanned. It is a great to find a particular fish, especially if coloration is different. Here, many times there are many different pictures for a single fish to show differences which is very nice.
   
   The book has icons regarding lighting, salinity, foods, etc., for each picture. The icons could o a better job showing compatibility or aggressiveness.
   
   What this book does not have is a description that is very helpful to the aquariust such as "this fish will eat your hermit crabs", "this fish becomes a bully to conspecifics", "this fish may nibble corals" on either the family or species level. The short rundown on each family is not enough.
   
   By all means buy this book to increase your collection, but if it is your first fish book to make selection choices, I suggest you look elsewhere and that is not even considering the price.



3. This book is not for lazy people , have a lot of fishes and information about fishes on it, but you must learn to read this book, because the info is on simbols and the reference is in the index.
   
   Once you know how to use this book, it can be of great help identifying fish ,their origins, foods, care, and needs.
   
   All i have to say is, if you want a book about fishes, and want to learn a lot about them, this is the book that you are looking for.



4. most of the photos are old and not very nice - missing are common names and explanation for each genus of common features - behaviour...
   I don't reco.



5. This book is great for a wholesaler or store, or someone who is doing field research. But as someone who is trying to create a catalog of up-to-date species listings, it is lacking updates from older editions. Pictures of preserved specimens are used, that were used in older editions, and living specimens are readily available. But the index is well written in three forms that may need updates of the common names in the next edition maybe?

1 comments about Koi (Complete Pet Owner's Manual).

1. This is a great concise introduction to koi fish and ponds. It includes pics and descriptions of different classifications of koi. Types of water plants and construction of different types of ponds are addressed. Basic, but still very informative.

3 comments about Seahorses: Everything About History, Care, Nutrition, Handling, and Behavior (Barron's Complete Pet Owner's Manuals).

1. I've always thought seahorses were unique and would like to learn to care for them and set up my own aquarium. I never realized how many different breeds there are! This book gives a lot of information about how to care for seahorses and equipment you need. It also talks about their different habits and how to get the most out of your pet. It doesn't give a whole lot of information on caring for your salt water acquarium. It seems it's for people who already know the basics, even though it gives you good information on how to care for your seahorses in the saltwater tank. If you don't know a lot about saltwater acquariums (like me) I would suggest buying this book along with Saltwater Acquariums for Dummies. But all in all it is a good book!



2. This book is very small. It gives a brief description of each of the major breeds of seahorses. I was hoping for more specific and detailed information for those of us who want to learn to raise them. You also definately need an additional saltwater aquarium book.



3. ... in under 100 pages!
   I wish it had gotten more in depth on variously commonly kept species, and gotten more in depth about breeding...
   This is a great introductory book on how to set up your aquarium for seahorses and gives a decent overview of feeding and nutrition. Supplement this book with more species specific information, which can be found online in the various forums about seahorse keeping.

5 comments about The Complete Idiot's Guide to Freshwater Aquariums (Complete Idiot's Guide to).

1. WOW! This book was ESSENTIAL to our successful (and fun) entry into the world of fish and aquariums. Great tips, easy to follow directions and explanations of "what, why, when and why NOT", written in a funny (if somewhat corny) manner, this book is easy and fun to read. I actually found myself taking it on a trip - and trust me, I have NEVER taken a reference book on vacation unless I was expecting to work on vacation. So, this book gets five stars. Buy it used if you have to do so (we did). We bought five different aquarium books, and this one was the best, and we refer back to it often.



2. This is an informative, clear, funny, and brilliant book.
   If you are just starting an aquarium, this is the book to get.
   The beginning is all about the tanks, lights, and everything before the fish.
   There is a section about fish but the photos are black & white so if you want to know more about the actual fish you probably want another book too.
   Overall, a great book for beginners!



3. This is a very good quide for the beginner. Mike walks through all the steps required for setup and maintaince of an aquarium. Gives good suggestions on fish & plants selections. If the steps in this book are followed the aquarist will have minimal problems to deal with.
   
   Not much here for the experienced aquarist.



4. Are you starting an aquarium? Well, I've been running one for a while, and my dad used to keep one, and I can definitely tell you that it is absolutely critical to have at least one fish book on hand in order to set up your fish tank properly.
   
   To the book. So why is this so hyped and high rated? First of all, it doesn't lie. You will learn why water changes are important, what pH is, and why you don't keep oscars with neon tetras. You will learn how to position and set up your tank, and you will learn the difference between a canister and undergravel filter. And most importantly, you will learn how to keep fish. Like some others have said, this book does mainly focus on the care and setting up on the aquarium, so for the fish and plants it would help a lot to get a separate book that specializes in those, because his descriptions are not that detailed. However, I can nearly guarantee you that you will not fail in your aquatic endeavor with this guide at hand. Good luck, and may your filter never crash when you are on vacation.



5. Reading this book is like having an aquarium-expert friend to take shopping with you. The author tells you which fish are best for beginners, what fish shouldn't even be sold, what qualities a dealer should have, what equipment you should buy, what equipment is a waste of your money, what products are dangerous, what plants are no good but are sold for aquariums anyway, etc. I finally found answers to a lot of questions that other books didn't cover. The book discusses cleaning schedules, necessary floor strength, and moving concerns. It explains water chemistry as simply as possible. There is list of the author's favorite aquarium books and other info sources. He even tells you how you can reach him.
   
   The reasons why I didn't give this book 5 stars are trivial: Hard to make out black + white photos and substandard proofreading. Still, everyone who has or wants an aquarium needs this book.

5 comments about Your First Marine Aquarium (Barron's Complete Pet Owner's Manuals).

1. I purchased this book as a "first exposure" to keeping a saltwater fish and reef tank.
   It presented a bit wordy for someone unfamiliar to saltwater--and that turned me off right away. There didn't seem enough information to really get started, but too much for a beginner, if that makes sense. His other book "Natural Reef Aquariums: Simplified Approaches to Creating Living Saltwater Microcosms" (while it did have a very long introduction story) was much better in this respect (it had a Step-by-Step Starter Reef section that I think would have belonged in this book instead.) While "Your First Marine Aquarium" may look like a typical beginners book that you might take home with a tank and equipment, I don't think it covers enough slowly, basically, and simply to serve in this capacity.
   Let me interject here that it is full of good pictures and has some useful reference tables.
   After reading both of these books, I still don't understand the exact mechanism or technique of feeding either corals or marine fish--something I think is very basic and always simply covered in freshwater literature. If I had picked it up and looked this book over in the store, I would have put it back and bought his other book "Natural Reef Aquariums..." instead.



2. Once I started reading this book I couldn't stop until I was done. I have fairly good experience keeping a fresh water tank but I never had a marine one, or for that matter I never read anything about it. This was my first book on the subject and I found it to have
   all necessary information to get me familiar with what is required to start a marine tank and how involved is the process of maintaining it. The step-by-step guide on who to setup a mini-reef tank is also very helpful. I also liked the explanation of different filtration systems (Berlin, Smithsonian, Monaco).
   The book has more text than photos so it might appear a little bit overwhelming. But that is good because the text gives good information and is well written. Not that this book doesn't have any pictures, it does have good ones, but there are some pages that are just text.
   All in all I would recommend this book to anyone thinking about starting a marine aquarium. This book will tell you if that is something you can commit to or not. And if you choose to do it, this book would definitely be valuable as a reference.



3. Strengths: Good beginners' guide, including a 30 gallon tank setup, start-to-finish. Reasonable "fish compatibility" guide.
   Weaknesses: Brief; the description of fishes/invertebrates for stocking your tank is pretty short. The salinity calculation is more complex than it needs to be, and lighting advice is dated.

   John Tullock advocates a setup with lots of live rock, and with a protein skimmer. This is the preferred saltwater setup nowadays, as it sets up a mini-environment for your fish. He closes the book with a walk-through of a 30 gallon "mini-reef" setup, including curing live rock yourself (if you don't live where a local fish store stocks pre-cured live rock), which also includes fish recommendations.




4. Wonderful book as an "introduction" to the world of starting and maintaining a salt water aquarium. It is excellent in giving anyone who is think of starting a tank the basics of set-up and more importantly, what to expect as the tank matures. My 75 gallon tank is now 4 months old and has done great right from the start in large part due to the knowledge I gained from this book.



5. This book features plenty of details on which marine fish and invertebrates can coexist. This book also has material on successful marine aquarium management. If you are considering to begin keeping a saltwater aquarium, this book is a nice guide.

5 comments about Encyclopedia Of Exotic Tropical Fishes For Freshwater Aquariums.

1. Unlike many previous Tropical Fish books from the Tropical Fish Hobbyist publisher that were not much more that an unorganized child's picture book, this Encyclopedia is well oganized and has a great common name and scientific name index. A desciption of the fish is on the left page with two corresponding pictures on the right page which makes for easy reading. I would rate this book 5 stars if the descriptions were more detailed. It leaves out temperature range, PH range, sexing information, etc. even though there is sufficient room in the description area for about 40% more verbiage. I recommend this book to be used in conjunction with the 4 Volume set of the Baensch Aquarium Atlas which provides much greater detail of each fish species.



2. I wanted one great dictionary for reference as I just got started with my aquarium a few months ago. I found this to be badly indexed, and since it is alphabetical by Latin subspecies and then Latin name within it, they assume a great deal of knowledge right off the bat. Then you need to look up the common name in the index to find the latin name and my most common fish aren't even in there under common name (ie., Molly, Platy). Guppy is under "D" in the index, a typo for "G" - which makes me think this wasn't even proofread. I really didn't need information on freshwater fish like bass and pike, since those aren't aquarium fish, so don't understand who the audience is supposed to be. Many fish in here measure over a foot in length. I have an aquarium, I'm not going fishing.



3. The author doesn't even include the temperature to keep the fish.



4. I enjoyed the book immensly. I read it in one day cover to cover all 900+ pages. Very informative and great pictures of fish. I have been a hobbyist for 20 years and I still learned something from it.



5. I HAVE WANTED THIS BOOK SINCE IT WAS PUBLISHED, AND WHEN I COULD
   GET IT FROM YOU, I TOOK IT IMMEDIATELY. I FIND IT TO BE THE BEST
   OF REFERENCE BOOKS AROUND TO DATE. THANK YOU.

No comments about The Marine Reef Aquarium.

No comments about Wrasses & Parrotfishes: The Complete Illustrated Guide to Their Identification, Behaviors, and Captive Care (Reef Fishes).

4 comments about The Complete Book of the Freshwater Aquarium: A Comprehensive Reference Guide to More Than 600 Freshwater Fish and Plants.

1. Some good work has gone into the production of this book, and there are plenty of helpful hints for the beginning aquarist, especially on the simple to read section on setting up your aquarium. There is a section on plants as well as a large section on some common fish breeds. However, in order to make the fish and plant sections include more species, the detail becomes a little lacking, so for specifics, get another more specialised book. For generalities, get this one.



2. I haven't had the opportunity to read or look through this book, but the editorial review discourages me from buying it. The editorial review states that the book contains hundreds of photos of colorful SEA creatures. No sea creatures could survive in a freshwater aquarium: so why include them? In a book of 304 pages, that would not leave much room for photos and text about the freshwater fish and plants that one would expect to find. The book should be retitled or its contents changed.



3. ...for beginners and advanced alike. This book offers basic information on a wide variety of plant and fish species. Even has a small section about mormyrids which are rarely talked about in other books. The photographs are beautiful and very detailed.
   Previous poster may do well to actually take a look at the book instead of getting caught up in wording of other reviews.
   Highly recommend this book to anyone interested in freshwater aquariums.



4. First sentence on Page 31: "Carbon dioxide is the end product of photosynthesis."
   
   The above statement is WRONG; it points 180 degrees away from reality. Of course, photosynthesis consumes carbon dioxide, photosynthesis does not produce carbon dioxide. This is a glaring mistake that should have been swept away of the first edit - well before publication.
   
   A related discussion of Carbonate Hardness (page 30) has some very fuzzy chemistry. Not wrong, but not clear, not complete, not precise ... and not easy to follow. Since carbonate buffering can be a big deal in any aquarium, a much better discussion of this topic is needed.