Books
Contents:
- Best African cichlid book????
by aquatect2/aol.com (Aquatect 2) (8 Nov 1997)
- Has Anyone Seen This Book? [FW and SW]
by oleg/netcom.com (Oleg Kiselev) (Thu, 3 Feb 1994)
- Has Anyone Seen This Book? [FW and SW]
by ()
- Has Anyone Seen This Book? [FW and SW]
by ()
- (No Title)
by ()
- Books, Books, Books (FRESH WATER)
by oleg/Veritas.COM (Oleg Kiselev) (28 Feb 92)
- Help me identify a fish
by ()
by aquatect2/aol.com (Aquatect 2)
Date: 8 Nov 1997
Newsgroup: rec.aquaria.freshwater.cichlids
Hi,
A friend has asked me to set up a tank for him. I need a crash course in
setting up a simple African Cichlid tank. What's the best book for the buck?
I'm not new to fishkeeping (SA Cichlids mostly) and I've lurked here off and
on. The following is what I got from Deja News:
Konings' book is quite good on identification and behavior in the wild. I
have a copy and like it quite well; however, the best book on Cichlids in the
aquarium is Loiselle's The Cichlid Aquarium. Paul Loiselle's _The Cichlid
Aquarium_ and _A Fishkeepers Guide to African Cichlids_ both published by
Tetra. Ad Konings' books on Malawi cichlids. Staeck & Linke's books
(_Cichlids of West African_ and _Cichlids of East Africa_). Brichard's _All
the Fishes of Lake Tanganyika_. The best book on African cichlids is "African
Cichlids
I: Cichlids from West Africa" by Linke and Staeck The two best books around are
by Ad Konings. The first is TANGANYIKA CICHLIDS and the other is AD Konings
Book of Cichlids and all of the other fishes of Lake Malawi.
Thanks
Tom
by oleg/netcom.com (Oleg Kiselev)
Date: Thu, 3 Feb 1994
Newsgroup: rec.aquaria,sci.aquaria,alt.aquaria
In article <37107-at-dog.ee.lbl.gov> TWChan-at-lbl.gov (Terry Chan) writes:
>Can anyone give a review or comment on a book
>entitled _The Aquarium Encyclopedia_? It's
>authored by Gunther Sterba and published by
>MIT Press. It's supposed to cover a wide
I have a very old book by Sterba which only covers freshwater fish. It is a
good reference book for general info on the species, but is not at all
helpful with the specific breeding suggestions on lower than a genus level.
>variety of aquaria including FW and SW and >is currently selling for $29.95.
I would pick up a book by Sterba just on the general principle -- he seems
to get his data from the scientific literature instead of stealing lies from
older hobbyist-oriented books.
Can you provide more info on the book? I.e. the number of pages, the
publication and copyright dates, the ISBN #, the place where you had seen
it for sale?
--
Oleg Kiselev at home ...use the header to find the path
From: twcaps-at-tennyson.lbl.gov (Terry Chan)
Date: 3 Feb 1994 17:33:29 GMT
by
Newsgroup: rec.aquaria,sci.aquaria,alt.aquaria
I asked for a review of comments on _The Aquarium Encyclopedia_
by Gunther Sterba and published by MIT Press. oleg-at-netcom.com
(Oleg Kiselev) replies:
>I have a very old book by Sterba which only covers freshwater fish.
>It is a good reference book for general info on the species, but is
>not at all helpful with the specific breeding suggestions on lower
>than a genus level.
>
>I would pick up a book by Sterba just on the general principle -- he seems
>to get his data from the scientific literature instead of stealing lies from
>older hobbyist-oriented books.
>
>Can you provide more info on the book? I.e. the number of pages, the
>publication and copyright dates, the ISBN #, the place where you had seen
>it for sale?
Sure. I just received a catalog from MIT Press which contained
their "sale" items. The blurb reads:
"Covers all aspects of aquarium-keeping--from large fish
like sharks and swordfish to guppies, from zoo aquaria
to the fish bowl. Includes salt and freshwater fishes
from all over the world, with details of anatomy,
physiology, embryology, ethology, fish-rearing, feeding,
diseases, information on filtering systems, water chemistry,
aquaria plants, and much more."
Then there are snippets from _Science Books & Films_,
_The Antiquarian_ (which notes that the "illustrations,
paper, print, and binding are all of very high quality."),
and _Choice_.
It's 7 1/8 x 10 1/2 (inches), 1,200 illustrations, 225 color.
It lists for $45 and is on sale for $29.95. You can order
direct from the MIT Press at (800) 356-0343 or (617) 625-8569,
or write to them at:
The MIT Press
MIT
Dept. D
55 Hayward Street
Cambridge, MA 02142-1399
According to their order form, you will need to specify the
item's catalog number which is 302. It sounds like a very
good book and I wanted to get some sense of the author's
reputation. Thanks, Oleg.
Terry Chan
--
Energy and Environment Division | Internet: TWChan-at-lbl.gov
Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory | Talk is cheap and I have
Berkeley, California USA 94720 | a big line of credit.
From: daf-at-herky.cs.uiowa.edu (David Forsyth)
Date: 3 Feb 1994 19:27:36 GMT
by
Newsgroup: rec.aquaria,sci.aquaria,alt.aquaria
by
In this country, MIT press publish a version; in a recent sale catalogue,
they had it for $29.95, I recall. The MIT press version is rather nice,
though with more b/w figures than colour. There was a lavish version
published (I think) in England about 10 years ago - I found a copy in
Johannesburg in 1983, which I had to leave behind when I left SA in
1985, and have never been able to replace. Both are nice books.
Sterba seems to be or to have been a senior state
aquarist for some major institution in East Germany,
and I think his books are generally sound. The old freshwater one
is very outdated - I have a copy, and I like it a lot - but sensible.
I tend to believe Sterba without wanting to check against five other
sources - not true of many other authors in this area.
David Forsyth
by oleg/Veritas.COM (Oleg Kiselev)
Date: 28 Feb 92
Newsgroup: alt.aquaria
I visited a local "mainstream" book store the other day. There are a few
new aquarium books there worth mentioning.
One, there is a new edition of Tetra's Fishkeeper's Guide to Tropical
Aquarium, which has been significantly amended and updated. Not a bad
book for a beginner to get an idea what all the equipment is for, but has
only a few photos to show off the common fish species without much
explanation. This makes a good companion book to Something like Scheurmann's
"Aquarium Fish Breeding".
Second was a dissapointment: this is the first book I did not like at all
in Barron's series of German translations. It's a thin, beginer-ish
book and if you have a choice between this new book and Scheurmann's
New Aquarium Guide or, even better, her fish breeding book, choose the
latter.
The third was not at the store, but something I checked out of
the library: Wolfgang Wickler's "Breeding Aquarium Fishes" published
in the Aquarium Paperbacks series by D. Van Nostrand Co. This book
was written in 1963 and it shows: the "production" values are low,
the names are often *way* out of date and there is not a single mention
of "nirogen cycle" yet and I am now on the page 50 of the 88 pages in
this book. My other complaint is that I think this book is too "chatty",
more like a face-to-face conversation than a well-organized exposition
of the subject. This leads to having otherwise excellent information
be scattered all over the book. And yet, this book is worth finding!
It's full great insights and ideas, practical suggestions I have never
seen anywere else (but which often confirm what I have learened through
experiences breeding various fish), lots of specific species and general
genus data, etc.
There is no ISBN on Wickler's book, but if you see it in a used book store
somewhere (where else COULD you find it?!) GET IT.
--
"and a letter in your writing doesn't mean you're not dead" -- Pixies.
Oleg Kiselev oleg-at-veritas.com
VERITAS Software ...!{apple|uunet}!veritas!oleg
From: oleg-at-netcom.com (Oleg Kiselev)
Date: Wed, 3 Feb 1993 09:02:56 GMT
by
Newsgroup: rec.aquaria,alt.aquaria
In article <1993Feb2.174453.14396-at-bsu-ucs> 01mbmccabe-at-leo.bsuvc.bsu.edu writes:
>This advertising style does go on throughout the TFH line doesn't it?
No, it doesn't. You will not find anything that blatant in the more useful
TFH publications, like Scheel's Killifish Atlas, or Richter's Dwarf Cichlids
encyclopaedia, or Burgess' Catfish atlas, or a whole bunch of other
non-Axelrod, non-beginner books.
>I would have to make a firm disagreement here. Or at least ask firmly for
>clarification. Do you mean things specifically by Axelrod, or just things by
>TFH being crap (with your noted exceptions?)
Things authored by Axelrod are crap. Things by TFH that are beginner-oriented
are crap.
>Independent of this
>clarification, I will say you are wrong about their beginner books. I've owned
>at least two of their Step-By-Step aquarium books (still have one, actually)
>and they were both helpful in the beginning -- probably the best, most
>understandable source of information I had at my roots in this hobby.
Have you compared them with, say, Tetra's "Fishkeeper's Guide" series of
books, where every single one of them provides solid step-by-step
instructions for aquarium setup? Or with Barron's series of German
translations? Or with that old standard of aquarium references, The Innes
Book, which is currently published by TFH?
>These
>certainly were not comprehensive in meny senses of the word, but when I bought
>them, I did not expect this -- why would I from a beginners book?
When you buy a general intro book it should be written well enough
to still be useful and believable after you have learned to keep youir fish
alive. The Innes Book is one such publication, Dick Mills' books from
Crescent and Tetra, Scheurmann's books from Barron's, Van Ramshorst's book
from HPBooks -- all provide good beginner-to-intermediate guidance and are
well enough put together to still be worth-while references many years later.
--
Oleg Kiselev at home ...use the header to find the path
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