Customer Reviews

A PocketExpert Guide to Marine Fishes: 500+ Essential-To-Know Aquarium Species

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Interested in setting up a Fish Only Marine aquarium? Concerned about fish that will be compatible with the invertebrates in your Reef aquarium? Want to expand your knowledge beyond the 10 basic marine fish that your local aquarium store has in stock? Then this is a good book to consider. Loaded with full color pictures (on glossy paper)of marine fish, the book gives a concise summary of hundreds of these salt water inhabitants. The book itself is easier to handle than the smaller dimension Baensch Atlas and the print is larger. And the price is good value for your aquarium dollar. Bring this book with you to the aquarium store, and when you see that incredibly beautiful marine fish that you have never seen before, a quick read in this book will give you some of the information you will need to make an informed decision as to whether this fish will fare well in your aquarium at home.

The two "500+ Essential-to-Know Aquarium Species Books" are the biggest bang-for-your-buck aquarium stocking and general information books out there. Even though both of the books, Marine Fishes (ISBN: 1890087386 by Scott W. Michael) & Marine Invertebrates (ISBN: 1890087661 by Ronald Shimek) are pocket guides, they offer so much more information than the other books that I have seen. They don't waste space telling you about fish that you will never see in an aquarium and instead give relatively in-depth information on the species that you are likely to encounter. Neither do they present the information in hard-to-decode picture format; they use sentences: A very underused communicated technique in most aquarium handbooks out there. Not only is the selection of species perfect but the provided information on care is perfect as well. The Marine Fishes version provides the following well-presented information on each fish:

* A color picture
* Scientific name (genus & species)
* Common name
* Maximum size
* Minimum suggested aquarium size
* Aquarium suitability index
* Reef aquarium compatibility
* Captive care tips and information

Likewise, in an equally well-presented manner, A PocketExpert Guide to Marine Invertebrates: 500+ Essential-to-Know Aquarium Species presents the following information on each specimen discussed:
500+ Marine Invertebrates by Robert Shimek

* A color picture
* Scientific name (genus & species)
* Common name
* Maximum size
* Naturally-occurring range
* Lighting requirements
* Foods & feeding
* Aquarium suitability/Reef aquarium compatibility
* Captive care tips and information

Don't take my word for it, just try it with a few species that you already have in your tank or that you are considering buying by using Amazon.com's "Search inside the book feature." I recommend you buy these on Amazon.com; you get free shipping (with a $25 order) and don't have to pay sales tax.

http://www.hantla.com/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=17

I love this book. So far it contained all the fishes that I have seen at my local fish store and the best feature of the book is that it rates each fish from 1 to 5 where 5 indicates that it is an easy fish to keep alive in the aquarium, and 1 means it is hard to keep alive in an aquarium... This is great for me because I don't have the best track record with keep my fish alive and want to only buy fish which are easy to keep. The notes about each fish are really good to. It is like having 20 aquarium guru's giving you their experiences with each fish. Also, if you have a reef setup, it tells you if each fish is reef safe.

As long as you keep in mind that the book is under the PocketExpert Guide series then you will know what you are getting. The book does have over 500 + popular marine species but doesnt give more than very general information about each species. There are also some listings with no other information than it's photo, scientific name and its tank suitablity rank. In conclusion, its a good general book but I'll probably look for another fish book.

This is a great book, and I am glad I bought it! It has almost anything an aquarist should know and use in the aquarium habit; it shows lots of fish whom are familiar to the common aquarist. It is a true encyclopedia. It surely worth the money you will spend. Don't miss it- buy it! This book, more than everything, is very useful.
It covers more than 500 species, every species has a picture, and it includes: the aquarium size it should have, the foods it needs, and who are the species it will live with in peace and more.

Yes, my boyfriend and I refer to this book as the bible. Having been in the hobby for about 4 years, we have made mistakes here and there, but we would be in much more trouble without this book. It gives comprehensive information about each fish's temperment, feeding, maintenance, aquarium suitability, and recommended aquarium size. We wouldn't buy a fish without it.

This book has some very good features and will almost certainly be useful to beginning and even intermediate marine aquarists. It has entries on most of the fishes likely to be found in the average aquarium retail shop accompanied by truly excellent photos for each species. The book's best feature is its reef compatibility entry which details which fishes are totally reef safe, which will eat soft corals or Large Polyped Stony corals but not Small Polyped Stony corals, and which will simply devour every invertebrate in the tank. I also like the rating (from 1 to 5) of each species' ease of maintenance in the captive environment, though the reader must always keep in mind that this is a general rating and that numerous variables (collection methods, shipping speed, water quality and live food availability, etc., etc.) can alter such a rating considerably. As a marine hobbyist, I would say this is a good book. As a marine biologist, however, I would caution the reader to beware of some misspelling of scientific names (the genus Macolor is listed as Malcolor, and there are a few others), the fact that the "maximum lengths" listed for many of the species are rather small according to other sources (also keep in mind that healthy fishes never truly stop growing), and the very general home range listed for each species (the "Indo-Pacific" is rather vague, to my mind). That said, I have gotten much use out of this book, and find it a good reference when the cautions mentioned above are held in mind.

This book is a true Encyclopedia for Aquarists, marine biologists or scuba divers. This book is very comprehensive and includes all the marine fishes you will ever see in and out of a true marine aquarium. The writer suggests which fish to buy and which to avoid, not only from buying but from taking it from it's nature habitat. it includes a very detailed description of every fish in the book, the tank mates the fish should have. The special food for every fish, The size of the aquarium every fish must have. And of course a beautiful picture of the fish and much more. I recommend this book for every scuba diver, marine biologist and of course Aquarists, professionals and especially for people whom are new Aquarists, it will save you lot of money and save many fish from dying in your aquarium. This book worth much more than it costs.

This is an absolute must for all marine fish keepers. Dont walk into an aquarium store without it! It will save you, your fish and invertebrates a lot of pain and hassle. Great for working out which fish to keep and compatability with other fish and invertebrates.

Have you ever been to an aquarium store and having seen a most gorgeous marine fish swimming around and said to yourself "Hmm. I wondered how difficult it is to keep that?" Well, this most excellent guidebook will answer your most pressing questions about its aquarium suitability, feeding requirements and how to care for it.

The author deployed an indexing ranking system for aquarium suitability from 1 (least suitable) to 5 (most suitable). It covers a broad range of commonly seen marine animals including tangs, angelfish, butterflyfish, clownfish, triggerfish and even sharks!

A word about the ranking system. I personally would avoid those marine fish rated 1 and 2 as they are best left in the ocean. However I caution everyone that even marine fish with rated 5 doesn't mean it is a strong buy. Some sharks are given a 5 rating for aquarium suitability and I seriously doubt that. No shark will be contented living in an aquarium even if it is a 1000 gallon one. Based on my experience, I would recommend beginning marine aquarist to completely avoid all species of butterflyfish and venomous fish( like lionfish, rabbitface) altogether regardless of their ratings. After acquiring some experience in marine fishkeeping, then we could tackle keeping these gorgeous but delicate marine animals.

This guidebook is absolutely a life-saver. If not for this book, there will be countless more cases of a marine animal landed in the hands of an unprepared owner. I would suggest going thru this book page by page for an idea of what fish that might interest you and its aquarium suitability. Bring it along for your next more informed marine purchase or better yet put down a deposit for your favorite marine fish and observe it in the store for a week or two. There are times when these beautiful animals are caught using unhumane methods from doubtful sources so these most abused animals normally don't last more than a few weeks in the store. It would be wise to put down a deposit and leave it in the store for some time and meanwhile refer to the guidebook for more reference about keeping the animal. Happy fishkeeping! :)