Customer Reviews

The Tetra Encyclopedia of Koi

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

An excellent book which covers all aspects of sucessful Koi ownership. The book includes sections on building ponds from the simple pre-molded ponds to the concrete and flagstone wonders like most Koi owners can only dream of someday having. Also discussed, was selecting Koi, with good descriptions of desirable Koi characteristics. The book goes further to instruct new Koi owners on the importance of good water quality and good nutrition. Tetra food products are touted somewhat heavily though as you might guess. The sections on filter selection, construction and maintenance are top notch. A book I highly recommend. JE

Amazing. The only problem I had with this book is getting it out of my wife's hands. It covers EVERYTHING. Sections on Filtration, Pond design, Feeding (listing alternative foods that Koi enjoy), Anatomy (first rate), Selecting & showing your koi, a detail listing on the different patterns and scale formation and probably the best ( in my opinion) Parasites and Diseases, what they are, were they come from and how to destroy them.

This could be and should be renamed to "The koi instruction manual". If you are a koi breeders, I highly recommend this book, after reading it, I would wager that it would be THE book to recommend to your customers. The reason being that they would have less problems and get better enjoyment out of their hobby. It truly would be hard to go wrong with this book.

excellent resource on Koi. A must have if you are raising these beautiful fish. Good practical information as well as nice photos to help you classify your Koi

I lost half of my Koi in the space of 6 hours, because I was counting on this book, and it does not even mention the catastrophic disaster known as PH Crash. Unless you find out about that, and take preventative measures, this WILL happen to you!!

This book fails to describe water chemistry in sufficient detail, and these days it's pretty outdated. However, it does have a fantastic photo catalogue of koi varieties, and a decent overview of health problems, pond construction, and seasonal care. If you have fish, make sure to get multiple books in case one is missing important information.

I have kept koi and bred them for around 5 years now. And when I pick up a koi book this always seems to be the first one I go to. As far as I'm concerned, if I had only one koi book this would be the one. If you're about to get into koi don't do it without the Tetra Encyclopedia of Koi.

This book is as easy to read as any grade school book and as indepth as books which I have read that cost 5 times as much. I have enjoyed reading it so much that the day after I was done reading it, I started reading it again. I own a nursery for watergardening plants, fish and supplies, and I highly recommend it.

This is one of the best books that I have found on Koi. Beautiful color
photographs abound in this informative book. If you have to have only one book on Koi-this is the one. Lot of good advice on building a pond, what to do if there are problems such as illness, identifying fish pathogens and their treatment, different kinds of koi. I especially like the pictures of other people's ponds and landscaping-full of good ideas.

One thing that any Koi Garden aficionado will have (in addition to the Koi Garden of course) is a nice collection of books. While some people (including yours truly) love the internet and use places like my blog (google Koi Garden Blogspot) to provide them with great information, there is really nothing like leafing through a book dedicated to your Koi Garden fanaticism. Some of my favorite Koi Garden books made it on to my Holiday Gift guide. In addition, from time to time I will review other books in more detail.

One of my most favorite books on keeping Koi is "The Tetra Encyclopedia of Koi" Tetra PressThe Tetra Encyclopedia of Koi. This book is one of my "go to" books for any problems or questions I might have about Koi and the gardens that they live in.

This book was printed way back in 1989 but is still relevant. Each of its 200 pages is full of great information and beautiful photographs of the fish, the ponds and the gardens.

It consists of two basic sections:
Part one focuses on Practical things about the Koi hobby.
A brief history of Koi; Koi anatomy; landscaping, pond and filter construction and their effect on the health of the Koi; buying and keeping your Koi, including change of seasons; Koi anatomy and caring for the health of your Koi; and breeding and showing your Koi. The section about Koi pond and filter construction is especially useful, both to provide needed design considerations but also to open your mind to how beautiful some Koi ponds can be and how well they fit into the rest of the garden, something that is always on the mind of a real Koi Gardener...


The section on health care is very good and the part of the book I use the most. I have used it so much that the book naturally opens up to this section. It provides information on symptoms and pictures of all of the diseases that can afflict your fish; how to tell them apart, what is their cause and what to do to combat them. Some of the fancier drug treatments may have changed over the years but the basic treatments and the diagnosis of the individual diseases themselves have not. Even now, I use this section as a starting point for any analysis of health problems. I may eventually go talk with the owners of my favorite Koi store to decide on the best method of treatment, but this section of the book lets me do so with a lot more knowledge.

Part two focuses on all the different Koi varieties.
It covers fourteen of the main varieties and has informative bits about the subgroups as well. This area is another where this book shines. It talks about the history of the variety and how the fish variety evolved. It also covers the reasons the variety is grouped together and what to look for if you are looking for a particularly good specimen for your Koi Garden. It teaches you what makes a good verses bad example of that variety from a showing point of view. It even covers some behavioral differences between the different varieties. This section will provide you more than you could ever want to know and certainly enough to impress the snobbiest of Koi aficionados at your next Koi show. And really, who can put a price on that?


Finally two Indexes (a general index and a Koi variety index) and a Glossary complete this book and allow the user to keep track with all the Japanese words and Koi varieties.

Again, this is a great book as a reference or a gift. I have provided this link to purchase this book from Amazon. Curl up in the cold weather with a nice tea or coffee and enjoy the book!

The directory of color varieties is excellent, with large high-quality pictures few other books can match-- but this book only contains the very basics of actual koi care. I lost half of my fish in a matter of hours to a Ph crash-- a phenomenon this book never mentions. I only figured out what had actually happened a couple of years later, while reading the Koi Health & Disease book.