I Need A Really Good Freshwater Aquarium Book

[Starfishpower]

as much as i love this forum and have gotten excellent advice from so many of you ~thanks~ i am wanting to get an exhaustive technical level freshwater aquarium book. money isnt really an issue here (so long as its not like $300 or so... and even then i would consider it for future reference if such money were to become available - what can i say, im really getting into this hobby ) im looking for very high quality work and understand that such books are expensive. i want an authoritative work written on -at least- a college level. I'd like it to cover everything from setting up the aquarium to picking out just the right filter, heater decor, ect. as well as in-depth articles on a wide range of freshwater fish; i want biology info too. it should be similar to an encyclopedia with information on a vast number of individual species in regards to general care, appropriate tank mates, natural habitat, ect.. i have absolutely no problem what-so-ever with it having an uncanny resemblance to a college biology book specializing in fish in the aquarium. if i cant find a book like this i might resort to buying an actual text book... but id really rather not, i stare (i mean study ) at those enough. i know that Neal Monks has written a very good brackish water book. Neal, if you've got a freshwater book out like what im looking for please let me know cause im sure it's good if you've written it. any suggestions are appreciated and i can order them through local bookstores so anything you can think of should be available. I am also aware that the amount of information i am asking for might be a bit much if bound into one book, so im open to a multi-volumn series of books covering this material... a "freshwater aquarium encyclopedia" if you will. thanks much; and if such a work doesnt yet exsist, maybe some of you who are in a postion to write one should start it

 

[Colin_T]

there are plenty of books around but most give general information only. Baensch Atlas is pretty good but it was written a while ago and some of the info isn't 100%, mainly fish sizes but that could be a typo. Also some of the pages in my copy are in German so I have no idea what they are saying, (another typo). There are freshwater and saltwater editions available and several volumes in each. The first edition in freshwater has the info about filters, plants, lights, etc, likewise the first volume in the marine has that info for marine tanks.
Freshwater hardcover ISBN: 3-88244-050-3

Another good book is called the Biology of Fishes by Bond, and is available from some universities that deal with aquaculture. As the title suggests it tells you all about the biology of fish. ISBN: 0-03-070342-5

Aquarium Corals, selection, husbandry, & natural history. By Eric H Borneman.
A good read for coral info and marine set ups. ISBN: 1-890087-47-5

Invertebrate Zoology by Ruppert & Barnes.
ISBN: 0-03-026668-8
A very informative read on invertebrates with a huge section on aquatic inverts.

You did say price was no problem right You may find those books are a bit expensive for some people.

 

[Starfishpower]

ISBN numbers, thanks Colin, that makes it so much easier to look these up. ill check those out and see if they are what im looking for; and no, money is not an issue so feel free to recomend anybook you can think of... so long as it is not literally gold plated and hand written in silver ink so if you've got any more suggestiongs ill be glad to check them out

 

[Colin_T]

well now you mention it I do have a copy of Joseph Banks book that he made when he first came to Australia. It is written in squid ink and has gold edging to the pages

Most of my books are specialty books that deal with one subject, eg: Rainbowfish, Rift Lake Cichlids, Plants, etc. I have found that the majority of books that cover everything just don't have enough info in them. Hence I get specialty books and pick out the info I need.

 

[Starfishpower]

i was afraid that might be the case with large reference books. im still gona look those ISBN's up though. and im also gona keep an eye out for quality speciality books. Sir Joseph Banks, oh i would have loved to have been a scientist back then like that, descovering new things and new worlds. sounds kinda fun.

 

[Colin_T]

Yeah I recon it would have been such a buzz coming to Australia or New Guinea for the first time. All the weird and wonderful creatures hopping around, so many new plants and insects. I get a buzz when I go collecting in a new creek and I know what is in it before I even go there. I could only imagine the excitement they felt when they first saw a kangaroo or a banksia flower.
Mind you it would have to be pretty good to make up for spending 6 months aboard a boat bobbing around the ocean

 

[Starfishpower]

oh goodness yes, i cant imagine being stuck on a boat for that long. i mean its one thing if you set off on a cruise knowing ahead of time you are choosing that over faster transit; but then if you choose that its cause you want the atmosphere of being on that sort of ship. that would be interesting come to think of it... a vacation company that chartered old sailing ships like that. sounds expensive but fun. that might be something to look into some day if i ever have the time and the money. wow, the more i think about that the more that sounds like it might be a good bussiness to start. have a company build replica ships, like say the Beagle - Darwin's ship - and retro fit them with comfortable acomodations for the guests, and take their patrons out on trips traveling along the old courses that they once sailed. they can start from the original port and retrace all their steps along the way - making it entertaining for the ppl at the same time. man that would be fun! and im not even a history fanatic that might actually work too, i mean think about it... all the places around the world they would stop. that'd be good bussiness for all those countries in terms of revenue from vactioners. and the ppl wouldnt simply be restriced to the tour, when they put in at anchorage they could have other things to do like scuba diving and jet skies and all the usual things regular cruise ships do. man i hope somebody starts a company like that. id love to go on one of those some time.

 

[Colin_T]

I don't want to burst your bubble starfish but they already do that here. sorry
A company built a replica of the Endeavour, Captain Cook's ship. They take it up and down the coast of Australia and use young people (late teens and early 20s) to do all the work.
They have to climb up and down rope ladders and hoist the main sail and all that stuff. The boat looks really cumbersome too. It doesn't look like it should float but apparently it handles pretty well, for a boat.
However I am sure if the money was available and someone had the initiative they could take it further like you suggested and do longer voyages in different types of old fashioned sailing ship. In fact we might even be going back that way when we run out of oil. Either sailing ships or nuclear powered vessel. I prefer the wind power personally.

 

[ALW]

The Concise Encycolpedia Of Popular Freshwater Tropical Fish by John Dawes

ISBN: 0-75252-497-6

I found that this is a good book for beginers and experienced fish keepers, it has over 200 tropical fish described in detail with colour photographs

 

[Starfishpower]

thanks andy ill check it out.

talk abut a summer job "ya i flipped bugers part time, what did you do?" "well i helped man an 18th century scooner take people around the coast" actually i do like to sail, i wonder what that would be like to sail a ship so large.

 

[Bignose]

Since you are looking for something on at least the college level, why not go straight to the heart of the matter and get an ichthyology textbooks. Moyle and Cech's Fishes: An Introduction to Ichthyology is in it's 5th edition and excellent. You can probably find some previous editions -- with much of the same information because a lot of what is known about fish has been known for a fairly long time now -- for significantly cheaper than a new 5th edition.

Otherwise just search Amazon.com for "ichthyology" and you'll find several university level texts.