David --
I'm not sure whether I'm thrilled or embarrassed you saw the book up already. Why embarrassed? Because the cover art shown isn't what's being used, it's merely a mock-up and for some reason features two fishes (cichlids) that aren't particularly brackish water fish!
Perhaps of interest to people on this forum is the fact this book is directly a result of over ten years of correspondence between members of a brackish water fishkeeping mailing list. In other words, there's no practical reason why a group of people here couldn't go out and write their own book on, say, oddball fish. In fact there are several very experienced aquarists whose posts I always enjoy reading (even when I don't agree!) and would love to see set about writing down their thoughts and observations. But that's perhaps a topic for another day...
Anyway, yep, the book is out sometime in May. My role was as editor, and while I did write some of the chapters, most were done by experts in those fields. The mudskipper chapter is done by an Australian who has been collecting and keeping them for decades, and probably knows more about them as pet animals than anyone else alive. Similarly, the goby chapter was done by a scientist who breeds various species as part of her research, and so can be relied upon to give the state of the art when it comes to identifying gobies, what salinities they need (if any), how to breed them, and so on. Livebearers are handled by someone who regularly breeds new strains of them, and then there's another excellent chapter on "coldwater" brackish and marine fish by another long-time collector and keeper. Australian fish get a fantastic chapter, again by an expert collector, which will be appreciated by those either in Australia or lucky enough to live close to suppliers who regularly import them.
There are also chapters on puffers, cichlids, "eels" of various types (morays, spiny eels, etc.), the South East Asian perches (monos, scats, etc.), catfish, mangroves, a huge chapter on oddballs, etc...
It's something like 17 chapters long, with almost 400 pages of stuff written by people with experience of these fishes. This alone sets it apart from the usual pot-boiler freshwater aquarium books that sling in a few comments about brackish stuff at the end. It isn't derivative but original, with new information and real experiences.
I have (and enjoy) the Aqualog book, but the book we've put together for TFH is different. The Aqualog book works on the premise that brackish water fish are those species that live happily at half to full strength seawater. Our book runs the full spectrum, from slightly brackish (e.g. kribs, spiny eels) through to coastal marine fish tolerant of brackish water (e.g. dog-faced puffers, bullrouts). We've also written the book so that each species has a detailed maintenance table, listing optimal salinity, preferred foods, social behaviour, specific problems, and so on. This should make it easier for readers to decide whether or not a species will slot into their community tank.
While there is one chapter about setting up a brackish water tank, covering a few key topics like salt and measuring SG, the book is written for intermediate to advanced hobbyists. There isn't anything on the absolute basics like what a filter is for or how to cure whitespot. This book is firmly designed to be a companion to those sorts of beginner's books. More experienced aquarists will, I hope, like the fact the book is detailed and doesn't shy away from the science. The focus is on community tanks where possible, with ideas in most chapters about how to set up themed aquaria based around a certain type or species of fish.
I hope this helps!
Cheers,
Neale
PS. You can also get this book, a bit more cheaply, on Amazon, as well as read a bit more about it:
http
/www.amazon.com/gp/product/079380564...glance&n=283155
