I had two sources of information when I began researching to set up my first tank. One was the internet which was still in its first few years of being easily browsable. But, I also bought a hard cover copy of he Baensch Aquarium Atlas which is 2 inches thick and over 991 pages. It covered a lot of ground and had pictures and great information on many species of FW fish and plants. It is how I created my fish wish list. If the picture of a fish attracted me I would read all the info to see if I could keep it in the size tanks I had etc.
I had a list on which zebra plecos and Betta imbellis were two species at the top of the list. It took me longer to get the imbellis than the zebras. I set up my first tank at the end of Jan 2001. I went online on the net as opposed to dial-up where I dialed into a hosting computer of one things like a bank or a game one could play. To change sites, you hung up and then dialed into another computer. I got windows 98 at the end of 98 and a new PC and was online for real. So, I did a ton of searching and reading in the back half of 2000 getting educated to keeping fish. Or so I thought.
I do not have a many books added since then. I have Ingo Seidel's book
Back to Nature Guide to L-Catfishes and have been lucky to have met and talked with him several times at events. I have
The 101 Best Freshwater Nano Species by Mark Denaro (whom I know) and Rachel O'Leary who is a friend for many years. I have two books I do not remember getting- Lee Finley's
Catfishes The complete guide to the successful care and breeding of more than 100 catfish species and
An INTERPET Guide to Community Fishes by Dick Mills: "A splendid introduction to the care and breeding of 60 freshwater tropical fishes for the community tank."
Finally, I have this final book which is not only excellent and unique, but was a gift from Jools of Planetcatfish.com. What makes it unique is that is is written in both English and German. For every species of fish it covers it has a map showing where it lives in the wild, a picture of the fish and, for many species, a picture of an actual place it can typically be found in the wild. At the the 2022 Catfish convention I had the chance to meet and talk with Leandro Sousa who is one of the 4 authors of this book.
https://www.seriouslyfish.com/loricariids-of-the-middle-xingu-river-2nd-edition/
I have worked with a number of the B&W Hypancistrus from the Volta Grande (Big Bend) of the Rio Xingu which began with zebras in Apr.2006. I also have a small conglomerate rock from the Xingu which was also a gift from Jools. I have always had it in a one of the Hypancistrus breeding tanks and is now in the only one I still have.
I have been very lucky in the fish folks whom I have met in the past 25 years. The Baensch Atlas, without doubt. was a big help early on. But I stumbled onto a fish forum back in late 01 or early 02 which had some really experienced fish people on it who put up up will a real novice like me. The reason I got my breeding group of zebras was due to a woman I met there.
