hey all,

i just got myself an e-reader and im looking for any nonfiction titles people can recommend for a noob to learn about fish, shrimps, aquariums, aquaculture, water chemistry or any related subjects?

if its not available in digital format i would consider buying hardcopy regardless.

thanks skf :-)

love n peace

will

ps any entertaining storybooks for the budding aquarist maybe cool too :-)

"ecology of the planted tank" is an interesting read

Is that the Walstad book Buck? I agree, although I do recall a pic of a planted tank with Tropheus duboisi. That went beyond interesting to ridiculous and simply not viable. The Amano books are great coffee table books but I doubt you'd find them now. 

The Baensch encyclopedias are good general books which cover a fair bit of info and lots of species. There's a photo index that has no text but all the photos from every edition. The aqualog series are similarly photo indexes but each volume covers a different group of fish. 

The best books cover a specific group in more detail. There's Apistogramma books, Geophagus books, the Cichlid Press books that cover the African lake fauna and so on. There was a book called Aquariology that covered water quality, disease management, diet and similar in reasonable detail. There's better books that focus only on disease management but that is not worth pursuing for home aquarists. Some of the cheap "Barrons" books at the pet shops are decent, eg. the "Bettas" title. 

Check out second hand bookstores because lots of stuff ends up there and isn't in print anymore. TFH and Tetra used to publish lots of good quality, small aquarium books on various topics and some are great. The old TFH Freshwater Angelfish book includes a great narrative on the first introduction of the species to Aquaria and the impact it caused. Lots of the old books have these type of historic accounts and they're a great read. 

Some of the great aquarium explorers like Herbert Axelrod or Heiko Bleher may have written about their adventures. The stories would be well worth reading. Chris Lukhaup is their modern day equivalent but out hunting shrimp. The bizarre story behind Endler's Guppy is worth exploring. 

 

Its worth subscribing to the digital versions of aquarium magazines. For example, I subscribe to Amazonas, Practical Fishkeeping and Tropical Fish Hobbyist. When you subscribe, you get back issues for all the digital versions too. Not to mention, its much cheaper than buying the magazines in print. I would very highly recommend Amazonas and PFK, but less so TFH. I could take it or leave it. TFH is very hit and miss as to whether I find something interesting in every issue, whereas I always find at least one thing interesting in the other two (and most times many things!).

 

Is that the Walstad book Buck? I agree, although I do recall a pic of a planted tank with Tropheus duboisi. That went beyond interesting to ridiculous and simply not viable.

 

yeah thats it, its just an intersting take on fish keeping and goes way in to the cycles of a closed system

Don't get me wrong; I really liked the book and it's got a lot of great info. Bizarre tank concept with those Tropheus though... 

Fishmosy is right about those magazines too. I have a fair number of FAMA and TFH mags and used to get whatever I could from the old fish shops. Those days are gone, just like FAMA. @Fishmosy, what's "Amazonas" like? 

 

@Fishmosy, what's "Amazonas" like? 

Fantastic. Very highly recommend it. And its only something like US $15 per year for digital subscription. 

i just got myself an e-reader and im looking for any nonfiction titles people can recommend for a noob to learn about fish, shrimps, aquariums, aquaculture, water chemistry or any related subjects?

if its not available in digital format i would consider buying hardcopy regardlesS

 

 

 

Not sure if this comes in digital format, but "Culturing Live Foods" by Michael Hellweg is a good book to have on hand.  

thanks for all your input people :-) keep it coming !!