TROPICAL FISH ENCYCLOPAEDIA?

[sandywatt]

I can't for the life of me understand why there are sooo little comprehensive tropical fish encyclopaedias available. I have perused all bookstores (locally), and came to the conclusion that aquarium keeping is NOT a priority. I then turned my attention to the online book stores. Ok I got on slightly better there, but want some word of mouth recomendations:

Essentially lots of pictures, and details.

Thanks in advance...

 

[parker313]

I got Dr. Axelrod's mini-atlas at Barnes & Noble. It was only $8.99 b/c it had a loose spine.

Here's the link on Amazon.

 

[bogusmove]

I have the Baensch Aquarium Atlas. It is a very very good reference covering all the most common tropical fish and plants. It lists ideal temperatures, difficulty level for keeping them, min tank sizes, sexing information, food, natural habitat info, size, other useful information sometimes, etc. It also includes chapters concerning tank positioning, maintenance, disease, etc, although it is primarily a reference. It's also packed with pictures of all the fish covered.

I've found it to be very good, but it's not very cheap it must be said.

There are several volumes I think but I imagine few people need more than the first. I think they following volumes have the less common fish.

 

[canarsie11]

Complete Encyclopedia of the Freshwater Aquarium. John Dawes

Huge hard cover book, paid about 40 bucks Barnes and Noble.

Worth every penny IMO, hundreds of pics, lost of info. I dont think there is week that goes by that I dont look up some info or look in it.

 

[SirMinion]

We have the Baensch Aquarium Atlases one through three and will get number four soon.

Each atlas contains detailed info on 600 to 700 species, each with full colour photos.

Book one is not enough I'm afraid, books two three and (presumably) four still contain many, many commonly imported species from all the fishie families.

We were going to buy the Axelrod mini-atlas, but when we looked through it, we found it had been written in the 70's and hasn't been updated. Many of the species scientific names were out of date, and some showed entirely the wrong fish!

Example: a picture of a figure eight puffer labled as t. palembangensis which is now the name for the Dragon Puffer which looks very different.
The figure eight is now call t. biocellatus

 

[CFC]

Unless you want specific detailed information on one particular order of fish then you cant go wrong with the Baensch atlases, books one and two are enough for most people, though it is worth picking up the third and fourth volumes if money isnt a issue.

 

[Doggfather]

I pretty much agree with everybody else, the Baensch Atlas is the way to go, i have 1 - 3 and when i find 4 i will buy it.

All i need to do now is learn German so i can read 5 - 6