Customer Reviews

Aquarium Fish of the World: The Comprehensive Guide to 650 Species

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a really well produced book that is full of beautiful photographs. The double page layout of similar species really helps when comparing closely related species. The text is informative but concise which is probably the book's only weak point. It only takes you a few seconds to read through the text for a species leaving you wanting to know more information.

"A Comprehensive Guide to 650 Species", is what appears just under the title, and that's exactly what it is. This well organized book from japanese scholars contains 11 chapters: Charachoids, Cyprinids, Loaches, Cichlids, Nandids, Anabantoids, Livebearers, Killifishes, Catfishes, Rainbowfishes, and Miscellaneous Fishes. Each chapter starts with the general characteristics of that type of fish, and pictures of the more common representatives. Next is a series of poster-like pages, where the upper part is filled with randomly placed photos of the fish and the bottom part lists care and breeding info of each. At the end there's an index by scientific name and one by common name. Noteworthy is the fact that the authors are very careful to present the correct scientific name of each species.

This is my favorite book for browsing about species from not only the fish that I keep (ie African Cichlids), but also consider all the others. While the information isn't very deep, it certainly piques your interest because of the beautiful pictures. You can see many rare and exotic species captured here.

This book was a major motivating factor in my even becoming an Aquarist! Great, up to date information- Nice photos- Super-accurate descriptions of fish! Really nicely done!

These Japanese fellows have produced some of the most concise, standardized, illustrative photos I've ever seen. I think they must have used a computer to get some of the images just so. So for identification this is great. For finding out what a given species looks like if you haven't seen any photos of it, it is also great. The organization is scientific and I enjoyed the introductory chart showing all the classes, orders, families, sub-families etc. But the short blurbs on each species are just way too brief for anything but a cursory view. I have carefully thought about buying this book just for its strengths, and may yet as used copies are currently only about $8. Outstanding photography!

January 16th 2009 Update: I borrowed this book from my local library, and this morning looked at it again sitting there, knowing it must go back and hence no longer in my possession for reference. So I decided to buy it on amazon. It was $7.87 for a good copy of this hardback classic and the seller was right here in Washington state.

Really for 8 bucks this is a very good book to have. I will say again what I said above, that somehow the authors have managed to create photos of all the fish that are standardized in their orientation, sizing, and look. They would, ordinarily be drawings or paintings, to get this kind of uniformity, but you can see they are photos! Simply masterful job!

I bought a book. It was full of pictures of fish.It was just what I was looking for. I'm happy with this purchase.

I have several aquariums this is one of my favorite resources
identifies and describes most fish i come across can't live without it

This book isn't bad but it is really only useful for identifying species. If you need more information on the care and compatibility with other species look somewhere else.

If you are looking for a book with wonderful pictures, than this book just might be for you. Though the information regarding each species of fish is rather weak, it still makes for a great book. I still enjoy spending hours looking through it even though I've owned it for for a few months!

As mentioned in the other customer reviews, this book is good in the large amount of big photos and is not for thorough information for each kind of fish included.

The number of species mentioned in the book, which is therefore critical for its value, is wrongly quoted both in the heading of this webpage and in the editor review as 800 species instead of the true 650 species as printed clearly on the book cover.

I think it should be corrected and not to mislead other to buy this valuable book disappointedly.