Customer Reviews

Loaches: Natural History and Aquarium Care

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

 

 

This is a pretty remarkable book in that its authors are a group of loach fans who knew each other from internet websites centered on loaches. Instead of the typically distant, dull text that most tropical fish books have, this book is delightfully colorful and passionate about loaches. Not only that, it is written from the perspective of ardent hobbyists who are enthused about loaches and their care in aquariums, which leads to a lot more useful, practical advice than you generally get.

The downside of such an approach by collaborative amateurs is that you would expect to see comparatively shoddy organization and lousy text quality. Fortunately, however, the project was headed up by some superb professional text editors, and the text is every bit as professional as you could hope for. What's left is the best of both worlds -- a personal, charming, and extremely helpful book about loaches that is entirely professional.

I can only hope that this model of publishing becomes more commonplace, because it produced a jewel here. If you're interested in loaches, this book is a knockout.

This is simply the best book on loaches ever. No book on loaches has been written for 20 or 30years (or maybe even more!) and then this absolute gem appears! If you own even one loach, buy this book. The DIY section on how to make a flowing stream tank is priceless, and worth the cost of the book alone. The taxonomy is very up to date and the whole book is very well presented and put together.

One of the most enjoyable books on tropical fish I have ever read. I particularly like that it was written by hobbyists/enthusiasts, and includes some terrific tried and true advice on keeping these interesting, fun fish.
Pictures are very good. Highly recommended.
I would love to find other similarly conceived books on the hobby.

Even though these fish have gained much popularity over the last decade, especially with Clown Loaches, there has not been a decent reference available for them. Finally, we have the ultimate reference! I love how it was a collaborative effort by several of the most dedicated and knowledgeable loach fanatics around. The information is very thorough, accurate and well laid out with lots of great photos. These are very unique and special fish, and finally there is a book for keeping them healthy, happy and to allow one to fully appreciate their uniqueness and funny quirks.

This book is absolutely fantastic. It provides a loach enthusiast with all the information they could ever want to know starting out. I believe there is no collection of information about loaches greater then this book. It was put together by regular people who have years of experience handling tanks and has great advice in understanding the local area where these fish come from, the handling of the fish, feeding, providing a perfect biotype tank for your fish, treating your fish sickness (which I found incredibly useful), and tons of tid bits on common and rare loaches in the aquarium trade. Plus it is a fantastic read that wont bore you (like so many other books on fish have accomplished). Overall, great item!

Excellent book. Photos good,info thorough and gets me off to a good start on these fascinating group of fishes. Minor item: would have like to seen size in the facts box that accompanies each fish instead of hidden in general text.

Very informative book on loaches. Everything you need to know and many different loaches in this book!

Information in the book is solid and up to date. Some of the images were not edited correctly (compressed jpgs perhaps) and obviously printed at too low of a resolution, or were from lower megapixel digital cameras, i.e. pixelated. It is a smaller percentage of the images, but is quite noticeable on the larger images, and even on the cover image. Other than that I really like the book, though I considered returning it over the image quality.