Best single reference book on FW fish?

[JohnPaul]

From those who have been involved in the hobby awhile, I am curious as to what you consider to be the best book on FW aquarium fish. I am not looking for the "how to set up a tank," "what is the nitrogen cycle?" sort of book, but rather a reference that would give complete, accurate information about as many fish species as possible--especially as related to aquarium care.

I own one book and have looked through others, but often they just leave out so much important info. Some examples: I can look up any livebearer in my current book ("The Aquarium Fish Handbook" by Dick Mills and Derek Lambert), never will it tell you to keep 2-3 females per male. I mean, that is a REALLY important fact, but it simply isn't listed. When I look up gouramis, never does it warn that having 2 males in too small a tank can lead to fighting. When I look up betta splendens, while it does warn against keeping two males in a tank, it never says anything about conflicts between a male and other large-finned fish in a community tank. When I look up various cory cats, never does it mention these are schooling/shoaling fish. The list goes on and on and on.

So...I need to get a dependable, comprehensive book. What should I buy?

 

[Lance M.]

I have several books and the ones that I find to be the best/most informative and reliable are the Aquarium Atlases by Baensch. I have all 3 volumes and they include tons of fish and lots of plants. The books include fish info like pH, temp, GH, KH, breeding, maintenience, who found the fish and when, where the fish is native, and any special things. They also include some fish that if you see them in a store you shouldn't get (I can't think of any examples right now). You'll probably have to order these books from somewhere because they were stopped being printed several years ago. I've found these three books to be the most reliable FW books I've seen.

 

[timd818]

You can get almost whatever you need here. And if you can't find it, post and someone will reply. I find this site a lot more helpful than most books and answers are posted within minutes.

 

[Drake]

I would recommend a fish encyclopedia. They have many pictures and info on many species of fish. But they usually aren't very cheap.

 

[penpitt]

I have the series by Baensch as well and find them very informative but it was well over 100 bucks for all three. My first book which is pretty decent is Aquarium Fishes of the World. Its written by Dr. Herbert R Axelrod, Dr. Warren E. Burgess, Neal Pronek, Glen S Axelrod, and David E Boruchowitz. I bought it a few years back at Barnes & Noble for 25 to 30 bucks. You could probably find it at amazon.com or locally still.

 

[xray]

They are very expensive. If you know what fish you want info on, then google the scientific name. If you are trying to figure out what fish you want by looking at pictures first, then you might need a book. Or if someone could suggest a good site that has lots of pics.

 

[Toirtis]

Simple answer...there isn't one. Baensch are nice (and expensive), but far from comprehensive, and somewhat out of date. fishbase.org is an excellent resource, but not without errors. One of the big problems with fish books (that will be much more easily addressed by CD versions), is that they are expensive to print, take 2-3 years from writing to bookshelf, and are quickly outdated by advances in husbandry, discoveries of new species, and changes to taxonomy (probably the worst group for this is catfish....dozens of new species discovered yearly, and the taxonomy is in constant flux). Probably the best resource out there are the Aqualog books....they are about as comprehensive and up to date as books come, and are available with subscriptions to updates and supplements that are sent to you....the problem with the Aqualog books is that there are 30+ of them (one for each group of fishes), and each volume runs about $30-$100 each. This is why I belong to my local aquarium society....the society has a library of 500+ books and thousands of journals that have taken years and tens of thousands of dollars to accumulate.....and members can borrow whatever they like for free.