What Is Your Favourite General Fish Book?

[darkleo]

Post your favourite fish book!

Mine is Fishlopaedia by Mary Bailey and Peter Burgess

 

[rdd1952]

Not much on fish books as too many are outdated (never seen one that mentions fishless cycling but there may be some out there). I prefer to search the internet for information.

 

[darkleo]

I read books because they are so heavily edited; you know that the information is going to be true. Thats why I love aquarticles.com, as it is like a big fish book.

 

[rdd1952]

you know that the information is going to be true.

Not everything you read has to be true. I've seen way too many fish books (when I got my first tank and was trying to learn from books) that gave terrible advice & ridiculous stocking levels. In most cases, it is strictly someone's opinion of how things should be done and has no scientific base. You or I could easily write a fish book and get it published but there's no saying that everything in it would be true.

I just grabbed the first fish book I bought off the shelf. Under Suggestions for Stocking for a 20 gallon tank it says that 3 to 10 days after setting up the tank (no previous mention of cycling, just letting the filter run until the water isn't cloudy any more), to add 2 flying foxes and a brushy nose catfish. After 10 more days, add 7 neon tetras, 5 black phantom tetras (2 male & 3 female), 5 harlequin rasboras, 2 dwarf gouramis (a pair) and 3 corys. After 4 more weeks you add 4 guppies or 4 platies (2 pair).

First, even if the first 3 fish made it through the first ammonia spike, when you added 22 more fish 10 days later you would either have to be changing water 2 or more times a day or lose a lot of fish. Lastly, adding 2 pair of either guppies or platies is not a good idea. The best mix is 1 male to 2 or 3 females. With 2 pair, the males would harass the females to death.

That was one of 4 stocking scenarios for a 20 gallon tank (all severely overstocked). The last one was my favorite though. Once again it started with the flying foxes and BN (all started that way). After 10 days, you added 7 neons, 5 rosy tetras or red phantom tetras and 3 corys. Then the last addition to the tank was, get this, 3 bettas, a male and 2 females. Now that would make for an interesting tank. How long do you think the 2 female bettas would last.

Another scheme for a 50 gallon tank listed 20 neons, 3 angels along with 7 nice tiger barbs. Not a good mix either considering that neons are the natural prey of angels and tiger barbs would most likely eventually kill the angels.

By the way, the title of this book is Tropical Fish by Peter Stadelmann and Lee Finley. As I said, I'll stick to the internet for my fish information. Forums like this are a much better source of info than books.

 

[dwarfgourami]

I use a combination of books and internet. Fishless cycling is only one part of fishkeeping and you only have to learn it once; I still find books have something to offer too. Apart from the Baensch Atlas, my two favourites are Livebearing Fishes by John Dawes and The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Aquarium Fish & Fish Care by Mary Bailey and Gina Sandford. The Ultimate Encyclopedia looks like your everyday coffee table book and it was 2.99 in the stationers, but it has a lot of interesting information about fish species by some highly experienced people. To put it another way- just because I've grasped the concept of fishless cycling doesn't turn me into Mary Bailey. There are less experienced or less clever writers than her, of course, but the internet is also full of people who repeat what they have read from the internet with no actual experience of their own.

 

[Darkstar]

The book I most frequently use is probably Aqualog: Loricariidae All L-Numbers

 

[fredgarvin]

"The Innes Book". By Dr William Innes. Editor of "The Aquarium" for many years. The first to breed neons in captivity, for many years this was thought to be impossible. The tag end of their name is "innesi". Loads of good advice. Excellent descriptions of tons of different kinds of fish, all lavishly illustrated. This used to be "The Aquarists Bible." Dr Innes was an icthyologist of world renown and an avid hobbiest. He used to get up at 5 AM to collect daphnia for his charges. Apparently forgotton.

 

[Larissa]

Old thread...but helpful nonetheless I suppose. I should really read more published works on this hobby...