What Fish?

A Buyer's Guide to Tropical Fish
by Nick Fletcher, et al.

This is kind of a catalog of popular tropical fish (although a few can live in unheated aquariums as well). It's full of gorgeous photographs, a brief description of each fish species, an idea of its price, needs in terms of food, water parameters, habitat decor, companions (if any) and other helpful tips on its care. Most of the featured fish were by now familiar to me, although there were quite a few "oddballs" in the back I'd never heard of before. At the very end of the book is a brief section outlining aquarium setup, fish introduction and water care maintenance. The authors include Mary Bailey, Ian Fuller, Nick Fletcher, Richard Hardwick, Peter Hiscock, Pat Lambert, John Rundle, Andrew Smith and Kevin Webb. I'm sure I've encountered some of them in prior fish books. Quite a lot of the text felt familiar to the point I think it was reprinted from another book I'd already read (mainly the final section on setup- I recognized the pictures too).

I really only browsed through this book. The creatures are all so temptingly beautiful that early on I quit reading the details on every species and tried to focus my attention on just those that are suitable for my own aquarium parameters. After all the looking and reading, I find that I'm still very fond of angelfish (I had them as a kid but my current tank isn't quite large enough) and my new favorite is the chocolate gourami. I love the way that fish looks! but it seems to be a delicate species so that one's not an option either.

Rating: 4/5    208 pages, 2006