04 For under $10 books:
Description
This article is from the Aquaria Resources: Societies, Books and Mailorder FAQ, by numerous authors.
04 For under $10 books:
Simon&Schuster's Pocket Guide to Aquarium Fishes lists for $7 and can
be found for $4 in discount book shops. Not an ``end-all'' reference
volume but at least it does not lie too much. I probably like it
because it has an excellent photo of Aphyosemion filamentosum that
looks just about like the A. filamentosum I have. (ISBN 0-671-25451-0)
At Crown Books and other ``remaindered'' book sellers, you will find a
book edited by Dick Mills that is called The Concise Encyclopedia of
Tropical Aquarium Fishes if it's published by Crescent (and Tetra's
Junior Atlas of Tropical Aquarium Fishes if it's published by Tetra).
It covers all the basic ideas about setting up an aquarium and has
descriptions and fair quality photos of over 300 species of fish (the
book is not in front of me so can't give you more detail). It's
published by Salamander Press in Europe and Tetra (Crescent) in US.
(Crescent edition ISBN 0-517-66776-2)
At Tower Books and other ``mainstream'' bookseller chains and larger
book stores, you will find Barron's series of translation of German
aquarium books, all between $5 and $8, concentrating on specific
categories of fish (Killifishes (ISBN 0-8120-4475-4), Cichlids (ISBN
0-8120-4597-1)), or breeding (Ines Scheurman's Aquarium Fish Breeding
(ISBN 0-8120-4474-6)), or general aquarium maintenance, or plants. All
of these books give a beginner a solid introduction to what and why of
the the filtration, water chemistry and so on. Any of these books make
an excellent starting point. They don't have very many color photos,
which probably contributed to the low price, but have a lot of
drawings.
Also near the $10 mark (and a lot less through mail-order), are the
Tetra/Salamander series of ``Fishkeeper's Guide To...'' books. They
are available at a number of ``normal'' book stores and I recommend
``... Healthy Aquarium'' and ``...Community Fishes'' as the better
beginner books. The rest of the series is quite good as well and any
one of these books should be a great start.
``The Innes Book'' -- First published in 1935, it is a thick volume
that has gone through a dozen publishers and something like 50
editions. The newer ones will probably be a bit more up to date, but
the older ones are not bad, either. They range from $2 to $15 and my
preference is for the oldest editions. Don't expect the fish names to
match the current nomenclature or in some case even the real species
-- for the last 40 years ``The Innes Book'' has had a picture of A.
filamentosum for their Aphyosemion gardneri.
These are the cheapest books. If you are willing to spend $15-20 (and
you better be willing to spend that much on the books if you are go to
spend that much on the fish!), the number of books is larger and the
amount of information increases.
Continue to:
My Books
