Coral Reef Fishes: Caribbean, Indian Ocean, and Pacific Ocean : Including the Red Sea [Hardcover]

Ewald Lieske (Author), Robert Myers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1997

This is a handy guide to all fishes that are likely to be observed by anybody visiting or diving on the coral reefs of the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, and the Pacific to a depth of sixty meters. Accessible to amateur marine life enthusiasts, this book is the first comprehensive guide of its kind. It enables the reader quickly to identify 2,074 species of fish and includes over 2,500 color illustrations depicting the major forms of each species -- male, female, immature, or geographical varieties The text proceeds according to region, depicting each species and its varieties, and offering information on its geographic range and where on the coral reef itself the fish may be found. Important identification characteristics are highlighted on every color plate.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you're a scuba-diving or tropical-fish enthusiast, you'll want this well-illustrated, comprehensive guide to the reef fishes of the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, and the Pacific, where creatures with lime skeletons form giant underwater structures. No coral reef is quite like the next, but most abound in life. Ewald Lieske and Robert Myers catalog 2,074 fish species, each with a color plate, description, and notes on range and ecology. Bigeyes, snooks, stargazers, sweetlips: the names are a song, and this compendium makes a wonderful symphony. END

Review

I have used this book for identifying fishes I have seen underwater. It is one of the best for this purpose since it is handy and comprehensive, containing all likely coral reef fishes in the Caribbean and IndoPacific. Most other books contain only a subset. In addition, this guide provides clues for quick and proper identification. -- Rainer Froese, Senior Scientist, International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management (ICLARM), Philippines

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr (May 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691026599
• ISBN-13: 978-0691026596
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 4.9 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,589,344 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars drawings instead of photos limit its usefulness, August 23, 1998

By 

Joe the Critic (San Jose Area, CA USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Coral Reef Fishes: Caribbean, Indian Ocean, and Pacific Ocean : Including the Red Sea (Hardcover)

I took this book with me on a recent dive trip to Fiji and found it of very limited use for fish identification. The book has no photographs, only drawings (or paintings), and the resolution and accuracy of the images is much too poor to distinguish similar species. I was unable to identify the particular species of anemonefish, lionfish, or scorpion fish that I encountered from the pictures in this book. I also found that including both the South Pacific and the Caribbean in one volume is more of a disadvantage than otherwise, since it is unlikely one would cover both regions in the same trip. It's a little like writing a guide book on New York and Tokyo--it makes the book look more comprehensive, but doesn't add much value. I would recommend almost any book with photographs over this one.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Most useful book I ever bought!, September 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Coral Reef Fishes (Paperback)

I am an avid scuba diver and recreational fisherman. This book is a tremendously useful book for identification of ocean fish. The book not only has detailed colored drawings of fish, but also includes a description, habitat, feeding habits, an dpossible dangers. I highly recommend this book to any diving or fishing enthusiasts.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good,but not the best, March 26, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Coral Reef Fishes (Paperback)

This book covers more species than any other in my collection of good fish books,about 30 ones!That`s why I'll give it three stars. The illustrations are beautifull but if you wish to identify real fishes,this isn`t right book for you. It covers both Indo-Pacific and Caribbean and it describes 2000 species and about 1500 are from Indo-Pacific. That`s what good with it. It is also enjoyable to read,as you can learn a lot but I would appreciate a photo book about the area better,because then the fish looks like as you see it in the natural habitat. But if you like to draw coral reef fishes,I can recommend you to look at the pictures of this book. Real photographs are sometimes too detailed. And I think the sharks section should be bigger. There are about 400 species of sharks,and only 3 color plates are about sharks with a total number of may be 40 species!That`s not enough. But the angelfish chapters are absoulutley detailed. But if you wish to have a really good book,I would recommend "Reef Fish Identification" for the Caribbean and "South East Asia Tropical Fish Guide" for the Pacific.