Customer Reviews

Aquarium Owner's Guide: The Complete Illustrated Guide To The Home Aquarium

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

 

 

I give this book 5 stars! I have had an aquarium for years and this past Christmas, I upgraded from a simple 10-gallon aquarium to a 38-gallon. I have research particular types of fish before on the Internet but I found this book to be everything that I was looking for and it answered all my questions. This 256 page book contains everything from the history of fish keeping to internal and external functions, species, habitats, communities, diseases, and much more. I read every page of this book and the nice thing about it is that it describes the majority of common (fresh water in my case) brackish, and marine fish, Many fish that I have owned are described as which I found extremely helpful. The descriptions on everything from fish to maintenance, etc., is thorough yet brief. I would definitely recommend this book for any beginner and experienced aquarium enthusiast. I thought I knew enough about my aquarium and the hobby of keeping fish but I was wrong. This easy to follow guide is something that you can always look back on to answer all of your questions... 5 stars

If you have been a Aquarium enthusiast and want to take it to the next step, this book is perfect for you. Easy to read, great quality photos, informative but not boring, a manual to enhance the hobbyist. I had looked local for two weeks in book stores and pet shops and found no other book that even comes close to this one. Look no further people, you have found it. Gina Sandford put together everything a beginning hobbyist needs, now it is up to you where to go from here. A great blend of knowledge and photos will make you read it cover to cover. Have fun!

I bought this book when I was first setting up my aquarium. I looked at the aquarium guides offered on Amazon.com, and bought three at once: this book, along with "Dr. Axelrod's Mini-Atlas of Freshwater Aquarium Fishes" and "The Complete Aquarium" by Peter W. Scott.

My favorite thing about this book is that the author provides quite a bit of useful information for the fishes covered in the book. For example, I didn't expect my dwarf gouramies to start breeding right away, but they did, and this book warned me that the male gets overprotective of the bubblenest and that the female needs a place to hide out and recover from spawning.

My one complaint: because the book covers freshwater, brackish, and marine fish, there are lots of omissions. I wish the book covered clown loaches...I am sure that marine aquarists would find similar oversights, but for a general reference it is quite useful.

This is a great place to start, and if I had to limit myself to just one book, this is the one that I would recommend.

For those just getting started with keeping fish, this is an excellent guide. The design plans for different aquariums is especially nice, and the list of fish that would be good for a starting fishkeeper is an excellent guide to go by. The pictures in this book are gorgeous and the guide to diseases has excellent examples, which is extremely useful when diagnosing your own fish. All in all, a good starter reference, but for more in-depth coverage, an atlas by Dr. Axelrod would be a good addition to your library.

While the book is well-written and has great information, I found it to be too basic of an overview. It is a wonderful resource for someone starting in the hobby, or for people wishing to learn more about certain fish (the fish section is packed with information). However, I found the information on tanks and equipment lacked in-depth coverage.

This book has a lot of good details for all stages of aquarium life. It covers various subjects well. it's only "downfall" is that some of the sections could elabroate more. But of the 3 books we have, I use this one 9 out of 10 times.

I thought that this book would have more about different types of fish and who they really get along best with. Its an ok book for newbies but I would go to the library first and check it out before buying.

Easy to read and very well illustrated, this is an excellent book for the beginner setting up a home aquarium. It has a concise, easy to understand section on installation tasks and initial set-up. Fish introduction, care, and ailments are also well handled. The freshwater species guide is somewhat limited however, with some popular tropical fish not listed (a favorite of mine the Clown Loach for example is not mentioned). Overall a very worthwhile book for your reference needs.

This book has a nice layout, nice pictures and good summary on fishes it carries. Unfortunately, tries to cover both fresh and salt water and has very entries of either. The tank equipment and setup guides do not go into any real detail and major things such as live rock are left out entirely for marine setups. This might be good to start interest, but don't try to setup a tank with this alone, or you may leave the hobby for good after frustrating problems and losses occur.