The Aquarium Fish Survival Manual

I give it two thumbs up - or five stars. :-) I agree with a previous reviewer that indicated that it is his best aquarium reference book. The only thing that I would like to point out about this book that might make it slightly confusing to a prospective reader is that the author apparently resides in Britain. I found a few discrepancies in fish naming compared to pet shops in my area. Also, after I first set up my aquarium, my fish became ill with what the author refers to as White Spot. When I went to the pet shop looking for medication for White Spot, they didn't know what I was talking about. As it turns out, White Spot is known locally as Ick or Ich. If I had paid closer attention when reading, I would have noticed that the scientific name begins with Ich. To me, these are minor inconveniences in an otherwise well-written and well-organized book. In addition, the color photographs are excellent, making it easy to identify a species. I highly recommend this book.

This book is a very good all-round book; it both deals with setup and maintenance of the aquarium (location, filters, heating, water quality, etc), and has a lot of pictures of common plants and fish. It puts the various fish into categories like whether they function well in a communal aquarium, where they mostly stay in the tank (bottom, middle, top), and what their preferred food is (plant, livefeed, dried food). This is a book you will find yourself returning to again and again for reference. Highly recommended!

This book has a lot of information in it. It is written plainly, and is easy to understand. Sometime it gets a bit to detailed for the beginner in some sections like lighting. As a reference for plants and fish (fresh/marine) it's a good book to start with. In 12 years of fish keeping I have seen few books that can match it, especially for the price. I bought my copy back in 1995, and although I have many other books on the shelf on aquaria, this is the 1st book I grab.Cons: This book is written in Europe, so some of the equipment they picture is not available here, but it still gives you lots of facts & rules of thumb on fish keeping that you can use. It is a little short on water "how to" manipulate water attribute, it only talks about pH, ammonia, and nitrite levels. Water hardness, iron, and CO2 level info is missing, much more a beginner and intermediate level book.