Crazy Book

[Darkerwhite2]

The book is called:

The 19th edition Revised Exotic Aqaurium Fishes The Innes Book by Dr. William T. Innes

This book was about $20can at my lfs last copy final sale and i had heard good things about it from one of the better people who work there. This book is good and i have learned alot about different type of fish, plants, diseases and so on...
Well near the end of the book it has acertain section i thought was very shocking. It was community Tank comination suggestion. Now you must understand that this is an old book and the times when this book was written was before modern HOB filters, acually he only make a couple mentions of filters and speaks of them as if they were a new thing... so hopefully that give you an idea of fish keeping at that time.

Well here are a few of the suggetstion give in this book
(i am only going to list a few i think youll get the point)

5gal: normal temp
12 fish of larger size
~2 scalars (body size of half dollar)
~2 B. tetrazona or conchontius
~2 Dwarf Gourami
~2 Blu platys
~2 Platy variatus
~1 Male betta
~1 Corydoras (2-inches)

20gal: normal temp
60 fishes mostly smaller size
~6 scalars (dollar size)
~4 Brachydanio rerio
~2 Brachydanio Albolineatus
~4 Pristella riddei
~4 Hemigrammus ocellifer
~2 Hemigrammus Unilineatus
~3 Corydoras (medium size)
~1 Male Betta
~4 Hyphesso Brycon Flammeus
~2 Colisa latia
~2 B. tetrazona
~2 copeina arnoldi
~2 Esomus Danricus
~8 guppies
~4 Rasbora hetermorpha
~4 platy
~2 nannathiops unitaeniatus
~4 bloodfins

and finally the 40gal normal temperature
Im not going to list all 78 fish mostly medium size cause i think that this has given you the idea.
but other that this section the book has been a great help.

Now it makes you think y some people overstock their tanks soo much. Mabey its because they were misinformered by outdated information.

This book helped me the most with classifying fish and sexing fish as well as prouncing scientific names.
(Btw those are exact list of fish other than mabey spelling errors i changed nothing )

DarkerWhite

 

[kribensis12]

That book dosent know what it is talking about!!!!!! That is crazy. You dont even put that many fish in a holding tank!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Amunet]

Holy overstocked tanks Batman!

 

[Torrean]

Wow I'm gonna have to take a look at my copy. I hadn't seen that. It is a great book btw. Especially the fish index

EDIT: The book does indeed list those fish. However in it's defense (if such a position as 19 fish in a 5 gallon can be defended) The author calculates based on oxygen, also the tanks mentioned are cool 73 degrees and heavily planted. Earlier in the book he says that each fish the size of two guppies needs something like 3 square inches of surface area...I haven't done the math but I don't think that synchs up with the recommendations given. If anyone knows that adult size of each fish listed go for it.

Also I haven't read cover to cover but I can find no mention of a water change.

 

[Bignose]

Innes is very well respected, he does have the neon tetra named after him Paracheirodon innesi, and he has been dead for quite some time. I am not sure when the 19th edition was published, but Amazon.com says the 21st edition was published in 1994. But, Innes stopped being really hands on on the late '50s to early 60's, and while I am not 100% sure, I am pretty sure he passed on quote some years ago (I can't seem to find a biography online, though two different sources described Dr. Innes as "advanced" in age by the late 60's). The point is, the Innes books before then are of real high quality, the technology has certainly changed since the 50's, but the basics of fishkeeping have not. Some of the scientific names of the fish have been changed, but the blurb/info on the fish are still almost 100% accurate. I guess my point is, it is unfortunate that the current edition(s) of the book provide such poor info and still have Innes' name on them, his older work was in a word incredible.

So, I hope that this obviously poor advice does not in any way make you think less of the Innes name, because the man in many ways is the father of modern fishkeeping.

 

[Torrean]

bignose the most recent copyright I can find is 1966...19th edition

 

[Tolak]

What you are seeing is the advances in technology. The most commonly sold tanks in the US right now are 10 gallons, followed by 55 gallons. 50 years ago nobody had a 55 gallon tank, you were considered rich if you had anything like that.

Most old tanks were slate bottomed with metal frames, and not mass produced. This made them expensive, larger ones incredibly so. This is the reason most of the older metal framed tanks you will find are 10-20 gallons. That was the average tank, today it's a 55.

Research at the time was done using those smaller tanks, even a person well respected in their field didn't have a limitless budget. They try to apply their knowledge to what is most commonly available.

 

[Torrean]

yeah a real sign of when this book was written is that it talks about aquarium cement. It says that there is a new development called silicone that could one day revolutionize the hobby...=)

 

[tmack]

bignose the most recent copyright I can find is 1966...19th edition

I've got the 1966 print too - in fact I most likely bought it that year (giving away my age). The first edition looks like it was in 1938. In 66 this was the type of information that was available to aquarists. Obviously quite out of date now, but the species information is often still worthwhile. I just dug mine out a few weeks ago & was looking through it - things have really changed, for the better. I still have a few slate bottom, glass tanks up in the attic. I sure prefer the new acrylic ones - it didn't take much to crack the glass in those old tanks.

Edit - I agree - nothing on water changes & very little on water quality. But that was the way it was back then. Cycling wasn't a common practice and things like water test kits weren't even available. Amazingly, in spite of all, most folks had very little problems keeping their fish healthy, and fish losses were very minimal. We'd just fill a tank with tap water, throw in some dechlor, pop in a heater & filter, and soon after put in the fish. And they survived! I guess the fish didn't know they were in jeopardy of a being exposed to a few ppm of ammonia & nitrites and the fish (almost always) made it through the cycle without showing any illness. I guess the fish were as ignorant of proper techniques as the aquarists were. I sometimes wonder if the fish were hardier back then, and if that hardiness has now been removed from several species by generation after generation of inbreeding. Guppies? You were lucky to find anything at the lfs other than the common original guppy type - no long fins, and no awesome colors like we have today, but they were still a pretty little fish. We should be very appreciative of what we have today for equipment and fish available. And think about this - 50 years from now aquarists will look back at the way we're doing things today and wonder how we kept our fish alive!

 

[Darkerwhite2]

Yes i agree Inns is quite the man,i didnt post this in any attempt to say that Innes was any less of aqauriumists iconas he is. The book has taught me alot and i open it atleast once a week even if it is to just to check out some species ive never heard about. What i found most intresting is the way he talks about plants and plants lighting; using sunlight instead of flourencent and such. The plants section was the one section i was most intrested in when i purchased the book, and although ive read most of the pages about the plants, it definalty showed me how complicated fish care has become. And Fish breeding was another section that really intested me and then wholesale breeding showed me alot too. This bok has really taught me alot and one day im going to give it a cover to cover read through.