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Outdoors & Nature |
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Dr. Axelrod's Mini-Atlas of Freshwater Aquarium Fishes (Dr. Axelrod's Atlas of Freshwater Aquarium Fishes)
written by Herbert Axelrod
Studio : TFH Publications
by TFH Publications
Brand : TFH PUBLICATIONS
Publisher : TFH Publications
Released : 1996
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9780866223850
UPC : 018214238515
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 19 reviews)
List Price : $49.95
Our Price : $15.90
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A smaller sized version of the large format.
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Product Description |
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AXELROD..MINI ATLAS of FRESHWATER FISH |
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A usefull tool in the aquarist library |
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The bulk book is just hundreds of photographs of fish fallowed by basic information about the fish therein. It is organized by fish family as many things are in the aquarium hobby. The book has three Indexes, fish alphabetized by scientific name, fish alphabetized by common name, and an index for the text portion of the book, and I think that is brilliant. The photos are a tiny bit grainy however the photos are taken in such a way that the fish in the picture are very detailed, and you could easily use this book to identify an unknown fish. There is information about many common plants, the book also has short basic sections about health, breeding, maintenance, equipment, the stuff that is in most fish books, etc. My one major complaint is I wish there was more information about each individual fish such as sexual dimorphism, water chemistry, and breeding, also the common names are not with the photos only the scientific names are so they must be cross-referenced in the index. I think many people have given this book a bad review simply because it comes so highly recommended that people expect it to be allot more than it is. its no holy grail of the fish books, far from it, but I think for what it is it does good. |
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A good book for aquarium fish lovers |
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Nice big book with lots of nice pictures. My daughter is very interested and pretty knowledgeable of aquarium fish and found this book useful. |
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Handy and Complete |
Definitely a very good reference guide for any freshwater enthusiast. The mini-atlas has every freshwater species beautifully diplayed in color photo. Under each color photo is a group of symbols. These symbols are defined in the book itself. The symbols convey what water conditions are appropriate, size of tank, food, swimming level, breeding type and level of aggression. The mini-atlas also has separate chapters on breeding, fish diseases, aquarium plants and tank set-up.
The only negative point is that each fish is called by its scientific name. If you desire to know the common name (the name used in aquarium shops) you have to go to the back of the book and search an index of scientific names which then refers to the common name. This process is a bit cumbersome.
All in all, this book is a nice addition to one's personal freshwater library. It's very complete and I find myself referring to it often. |
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A disappointment. |
From the reviews, I expected alot from this book. I know that it is old, but I was really disappointed. The information is not consistent and incomplete. Here are my issues:
(1) All the pictures are grouped (i.e. Ciclids, etc.) together followed by the complete text instead of a picture with text of each kind of fish.
(2) Everything is ordered by scientific name instead of common name. This makes the book less usefull to those who are new to freshwater fish.
(3) Compared to other books, the photographs are not that good. In fact, some of them are out of focus.
(4) The fact guide is totally useless as the information on how to intepret the what the legend means is not clear. For example, you see a temparature guide but not the upper or lower temperature.
(5) With that many pictures the book, I expected the book to focus on different species but instead there are multiple pictures of the same kinds of certain fish just because they have different color scheme.
(6) The biggest complaint that I have is that the information is not consistent and some are missing. Some pictures have both scientific and common names while others have just one name. Some have complete information, while others have partial (i.e. tank size, compatibility, etc.) or NO information at all.
If you are buying this book because you just want something to read, go ahead and buy it. However, if you are buying this book because you are new to the freshwater fish keeping and need information about different kinds of fish to choose from...this book is totally useless. Useless, I say because there are more books out there with more complete information. If you look at the index and can't find the names of the fishes that you commonly see in aquarium fish shops, then the book is useless. |
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Occasionally difficult, but a great reference |
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Need to know if a certain breed of unusual fish is compatible with, say, your angelfish? Dr. Axelrod knows. This atlas is amazing in it's depth for a "mini-atlas," with page after page of freshwater fish. And then he gets into the real meat of fishkeeping after that! Although it can occasionally be difficult to use (the fish are listed by their scientific name in general, not their common name, which can make looking up a certain fish difficult), all in all this is an incredible book, and one every fishkeeper should have on their bookshelf. |
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