Customer Reviews

Discus as a Hobby (Save-Our-Planet Book)

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

 

 

Two of the most important books of my collection are Discus as a Hobby/ J Quarles and Discus Health/Untergasser. Discus as a Hobby is highly recommended for easy reading and it's simplicity removes the so called complexities revolving around Discus keeping.A beginner and any Discus enthusiast will find this book very informative.

The purpose of this book is to aid the beginning discus hobbiest. It does this well by providing all of the basics to start anyone down the right path to keep discus. For the more advanced hobbiest it doesn't offer as much, but that wasn't the purpose of this volume.

I have owned this book for several years. I also own several "coffee-table" sized books on Discus. But this is the book I find myself referring to most for information on how to keep my Discus healthy. The author's practical, no-nonsense style is informative, and very easy to read. It is a bargain, considering all the good tips and advice contained within. Highly recommended for beginning to intermediate-level aquarists who want to raise "The King of the Aquarium".

I didn't care for this book and here's why. The author's coverage is much too superficial to be really useful for getting started in this hobby. You certainly need more than what is in this book, yet the very misleading title states it has "everything you need to know".

The book is heavy on photos and light on details. The author isn't shy about giving his opinions which would be good, but unfortunately he doesn't always say why. At one point he states that under-gravel filters are bad, but tells us since much has been written about them the reader can find out why elsewhere. True enough, but excuse me, why am I bothering with this book? It is supposed to have "everything you need to know" isn't it?

The fact is there is nothing in this book that can't be found in better detail, and free, by doing an internet search of various Discus related web sites. However, I do recommend a much better book, "Discuss Fish" by T. Giovanetti which has much more information, and better, detailed explanations.

Overall score: Thumbs way down.

I found that the book had real information that you can apply when getting started in the hobby. I find myself going back to the book time and time again finding small bits of useful techniques that I missed reading it the first time. I have found that if you apply the advice given in the book you will get off to a great start with the fish and have many years of enjoyment to look foward too. For such a small book it is packed with excellent advice that other books overlook and just want to show you photos of fish. This book really tells you how to do things. This is book is a must read to add to your collection.

I am new to the Discus hobby, and I found this book to be very informative and interesting..I have also found that the discus world is very oddly full of very opinionated people, and apparently some people have personal issues with the author of this book. I believe the negative reviews below were NOT aimed at the content of this book, but rather at Mr.Quarles personally..(note that all the negative reviewers dont identify themselves!)I know nothing about Mr.Quarles personally, other than he knows Discus..this is an excellent book for people just entering the hobby, it answers lots of questions about this fascinating fish.

On my age (almost 70 years) and after reading hundreds articles and an awfull lot books about Discus, I finally decided to buy this book. I've read a lot of postings made by Mr. Quarles in several forums and this man gave me the chills. Probably this man is very frustrated and now he has started to offend people very very much. The book is in one word worthless. That's probably the reason of the joker price now asked for this "book". It's nothing worth. Perhaps it won't even light my fireplace. My advice for people who want to start discus start buying books from good authors like Bernd Degen or Jack Wattley.

I consider this a very poor addition to my collection of Discus books. I found it to be poorly written and devoid of any really useful or unique information. All information in this title was handled, much more thoroughly, by earlier publications from Jack Whattley and Bernd Degen. Save your money for one of the better written titles.

Save your money. The author hasn't a clue. In one word this book is "Garbage." One star is a generous rating.

Its hard to believe anyone would publish something like this. To all prospective buyers, save your money and purchase ANY other book than this one. One star is a generous rating.