What your favorite book about aquariums?

[memorywrangler]

What books -- yes,actual, physical books -- about fish and aquarium keeping have you found most useful?

I was at the library the other day and found a copy of "Fish and Invertebrate Culture" by Stephen Spotte and published in 1978.  It has a remarkable collection of information that still seems very useful, including tips for making airlift pumps more efficient and a great discussion of the nitrogen cycle.   It was much more satisfying than the often-superficial information I find online.

It makes me think there must be a bunch of great (perhaps quite old) books out there.  What are they?

 

[Fish Folk]

William T. Innes "Exotic Aquarium Fishes." Many editions available. First edition, 1935. I've seen a 21st edition dated 1994. Later editions obviously had better (and more) photographs.

Herbert R. Axelrod published a number of books. Earliest was "Handbook of Tropical Aquarium Fishes" (1955). Most recent was "Atlas of Freshwater Aquarium Fishes" (2004). Lots of drama followed him around in life.

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Now, if you promise not to reveal this secret to the internet, we keep a stash of miscellaneous books linked here on the forum for actual readers to download.

Follow this link, but tell no one 😎

https://forum.aquariumcoop.com/files

[nabokovfan87]

This is one I am excitedly looking forward to.  Here is a video on it.

There is an hour or so conversation I will try to find it as well and post below.  Essentially, showing where the fish come from, issues they face in the wild, discussing a style of tank simulating nature.  It's an interesting journey and I like the approach!
 

 

New one from the author's channel

 

Edited July 21, 2023 by nabokovfan87

[AquaHobbyist123]

Like @Fish Folk mentioned, the Atlas of freshwater fishes by Herbert Axelrod is a terrific book. I own used copies of both the Handbook of tropical aquarium fishes and the Atlas, and the Atlas is much better(and even has a neat darters section in it) in my opinion in general, and it covers way more species with many absolutely beautiful pictures, and gives care guides about them. However, the handbook is more in-depth about specific fish species, just with less species. Personally I think that the two books complement each other quite nicley.

Yeah, Herbert R. Axelrod was quite the interesting character all right!

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Ecology of the Planted Aquarium

[Twood]

On 7/20/2023 at 11:42 PM, Fish Folk said:

William T. Innes "Exotic Aquarium Fishes." Many editions available. First edition, 1935. I've seen a 21st edition dated 1994. Later editions obviously had better (and more) photographs.

Herbert R. Axelrod published a number of books. Earliest was "Handbook of Tropical Aquarium Fishes" (1955). Most recent was "Atlas of Freshwater Aquarium Fishes" (2004). Lots of drama followed him around in life.

_________________________________

Now, if you promise not to reveal this secret to the internet, we keep a stash of miscellaneous books linked here on the forum for actual readers to download.

Follow this link, but tell no one 😎

https://forum.aquariumcoop.com/files

I did not realize this was available - very cool!

I really enjoyed reading "The Dragon Behind the Glass" - very interesting book about the Asian Arrowana and it covers a lot of interesting topics about the aquarium trade.

[Fish Folk]

I enjoyed “Sunken Gardens” by Karen Randall. Nice introduction to planted tanks.

 I swear by Ted Coletti’s “The Tub Pond Handbook.”

”Freshwater Fishes of Virginia” was a gift from a local Ichthyology professor. Amazing resource!

Axelrod’s “The Allure of Discus” is nice