Tetras and Barbs: The Complete Guide to the Successful Care and Breeding of Two Ofthe Most Popular Groups of Aquarium Fish (Aquarium Success) [Paperback]

Randy Carey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 2009 | Series: Aquarium Success

Tetras and barbs are among the most popular community fish, with dozens of species readily available in pet and aquarium stores. Written by one of the leading experts on these groups of fish, this comprehensive guide features five important fish groups spanning hundreds of species and covers topics essential to aquarists interested in tetras and barbs such as feeding, water requirements, species, diseases, and breeding. Full-color photos, sidebars, charts, and tip boxes illustrate key points and nicely complement the informative text.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

RANDY CAREY is an active tropical fish hobbyist, breeder, and photographer who specializes in scatterers (tetras, barbs, rasboras, etc.). As an active member of the Minnesota Aquarium Society, he was the first to attain the club’s Lifetime Award for his breeding accomplishments. Randy travels America and Canada speaking to various aquarium societies.

Product Details

• Paperback: 127 pages
• Publisher: TFH Publications (December 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0793816769
• ISBN-13: 978-0793816767
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 6.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #795,920 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Holding a masters in the arts and one in the sciences, Randy seeks to express meaning as he weaves together the facts.

In 1993 the Federation of North American Aquarium Societies recognized him with article of the year and runner-up author of the year. He established a web presence in 1996, and In 1997 he started penning "Randy's Journal," considered the first aquarium-related blog -before "blog" was even a coined term. His web reputation carried him to a national magazine column, launched in 1999. After years of feature magazine articles and US/Canadian speaking engagements, Randy took a magazine assignment to explore the social and economic issues of the fish collecting industry within the Amazon Rainforest. TFH Publications chose Carey to write "Tetras and Barbs" as part of their international distribution of aquarium-related books.

Currently Randy Carey is working though Careytech Studios (careytech.com) to help other businesses develop their web presence and tell their stories through their web sites and related media.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book!, April 19, 2011

By 

William G Hudgens - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tetras and Barbs: The Complete Guide to the Successful Care and Breeding of Two Ofthe Most Popular Groups of Aquarium Fish (Aquarium Success) (Paperback)

This is an excellent book for both beginner and advanced aquarists. It is well written and well illustrated. Clearly the author know the subject very thoroughly. He provides a very good description of the primary fish in both the barb and tetra groups, including preferred habitat, food, water conditions, etc. The section about breeding is especially useful. He describes various techniques for breeding, depending on the amount of care and attention the aquarist wants to devote to it. Anyone who is interested in breeding or raising barbs or tetras should have this book in their library.Tetras and Barbs: The Complete Guide to the Successful Care and Breeding of Two of the Most Popular Groups of Aquarium Fish (Aquarium Success)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tetras and Barbs: The Complete Guide to the Successful Care and Breeding of Two of the Most Popular Groups of Aquarium Fish (Aqu, September 25, 2011

By 

Eiffel Chahin (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tetras and Barbs: The Complete Guide to the Successful Care and Breeding of Two Ofthe Most Popular Groups of Aquarium Fish (Aquarium Success) (Paperback)

This is a great book with lots of new fishes, but I find it lacks detailed information on how to breed each species. There are only a few books in the market about tetras and barbs, and we really need a book with all the details and secrets about breeding and keeping these beautiful fishes.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tetras and Barbs by Randy Carey, August 4, 2010

By 

Michael R. Hellweg (St. Louis, MO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tetras and Barbs: The Complete Guide to the Successful Care and Breeding of Two Ofthe Most Popular Groups of Aquarium Fish (Aquarium Success) (Paperback)

This long awaited book on Tetras and Barbs, the so-called "scatterers", is an excellent addition to any fishkeeper's library and I've proudly added it to mine. It covers every aspect of these amazing animals from an introduction and discussion of their relationship in the overall scheme of life to their habitats in the wild, setting up an aquarium designed for them, giving them proper care, breeding them, and raising their young if you desire to do so. None of the book is canned text - everything is fresh and new. Even the section on setting up an aquarium for them is not wasted by repeating things discussed ad nauseum in every beginner text ever produced, but rather it addresses how to set up an aquarium specifically for tetras and barbs.

This is not an encyclopedic work, either. That is to say that it does not contain a detailed description of each species, which can also be found elsewhere in atlas and encyclopedia type works. Don't get me wrong! There are many excellent photos throughout illustrating many of the common and the not-so-common species. But instead of wasting space describing fish a hobbyist might never encounter (for those who want information on the bread-and-butter fish) or spending all of the time on fish that can be found in any pet store (for those who want information on the rare stuff), the author spends his allotment of pages on a detailed look at all of the known groupings of tetras and barbs and their close relatives and what makes them unique and of special interest to hobbyists the world over.

The author has an interesting approach to keeping and breeding these fish that is a distillation of methods passed down from earlier generations of hobbyists combined with some of the latest thinking in the aquarium hobby. I especially liked the author's discussion of the various species' occupation of microhabitats in the wild which leads directly to satisfying each individual species' special needs and caring for the fish in home aquaria.

In the author's own words, "fishkeeping is both an art and a science". This book helps to explain the science of keeping and breeding tetras and barbs without becoming bogged down in complex terminology, and demistify the art without becoming too esoteric. Both the author's writing style and the topics covered in the book make this volume useful to both the beginning aquarist working with these fish for the first time, and for the seasoned advanced hobbyist looking for advanced information on these groups of fish.

I highly recommend this book for anyone even remotely interested in tetras, barbs, and other allied groups of fish. Of course, I have to mention the caveat that the author has been a good friend for many years, but if I didn't think this book was worthwhile, I would have politely declined the opportunity to write a review.