Customer Reviews

Anemone Fishes: And Their Host Sea Anemones

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If you are at all interested in sea anemones and anemone fishes (clownfishes) then this book is THE definitive book on anemone and clownfish identification. Dr. Fautin and Dr. Allen make a point in saying that this book is NOT primarily about the captive care of anemones or anemone fishes (though there is a small section about their basic care needs; however, they say to look elsewhere for more detailed aquarium care) but rather, it is about the identification, distribution, biology of the sea anemones, the life history of anemone fishes, and the interactions between fish and sea anemones. There is no other book that has as much field research on sea anemones and anemone fishes than this book.

The biggest point that Fautin and Allen make about anemones is that they should not be harvested for the average aquarist. Even the most expert aquarist out there has trouble keeping anemones for more than 5 years (there are exceptions of course and hopefully, these exceptions will spread). But anemone fishes can be kept extremely well without anemones. They will even breed without them.

The best aquarium care book about clownfishes and anemones is Joyce Wilkerson's book called Clownfishes. I also highly recommend this book as it is thorough in it's descriptions on the care and husbandry of clownfishes.

Daphne Fautin and Gerald Allen have created the definitive reference for clowfishes and host anemones, at least from the standpoint of the marine aquarist.

Although the text of the first edition of this book is online, it lacks many of the pictures and the identification charts. The physical book is well worth the money.

The aquarist interested in keeping clownfishes and anemones should also have Joyce Wilkerson's book, Clownfishes, and John Tullock's book, The Natural Reef Aquarium. Do *NOT* attempt to keep anemones if you are a beginning aquarist.

While this book provides good reference material for identifying anemone fish & sea anemones it provides *no* useful material about how to keep clownfish or anemones alive and healthy in a reef tank.

If your looking for a ref. book for identification of the creatures this book is fine. I was looking for a good reference on how to keep anemones, and this book was of no help whatever in that regard.