Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An important book for the cichlid specialist, September 25, 1998
By A Customer
I purchased the first edition of this book as soon as it was available. It contains photos and drawings of as many cichlid species as possible. It attempts better than any other book to include every known cichlid. If you have purchased a cichlid species and want to identify it or confirm the name you purchased it under, this book is useful. There is a wealth of information on the hobby history of species and husbandry information on some. General information from introductory books about cichlids is seldom repeated here. There are species covered that have not been bred, or even never imported as aquarium subjects. Information will of course be sparse. Well known information about common species is omitted, but little-known information is here . If you will have only one cichlid book in your library, and want basic information, this is not that book. If you want several cichlid books, this should be one of them. And of course if you want the one book with the most cichlid pictures and the most cichlid listings, THIS IS IT. I enjoy Dr. Axelrod's observations and opinions. I've read a number of books and magazine articles by him, and you may have to reread and read other works of his to appreciate them fully. Dr. Axelrod has been very influential in the development and directions the aquarium hobby has taken since the fifties. I would give this book another star, but the first edition which I have is already missing some newly imported species and there are some cichlid photos I'd like to see replaced . That's probably not fair of me since there will always (I hope) be new species introduced to the hobby and better photos taken. If you want a good introductory book, I suggest THE CICHLID AQUARIUM by Dr. Paul Loiselle. I prefer the organization and index of the first edition of Dr. Loiselle's book, but either one is a find for the new cichlid enthusiast.
|
|
|
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Dissapointing and bloated, but has nice pictures, December 14, 2002
I got the Lexicon with the idea that it would prove to be a useful identification tool for the various species and strains of cichlids I keep. In that sense, the book is fairly successful - there is a plethora of beautiful photos of many, many species.
There are some serious problems with this book though. The most glaring problem is that Axelrod, in at least two instances, has printed two copies of the same photo and called the specimen two different species !!! He uses the same photo, just reversed, for Aulonucara jacobfreirgei as he does for another Aulonocara sp. Same thing with two species of Apistogramma.
Another dissapointing feature about this book is the information content of the text - there isn't any. Axelrod's favourite topic in the text is himself. Axelrod is more interested in telling us about how important he is and about how much influence he has had on the aquarium hobby than he is in providing useful biological information. Oftentimes the text more resembles the ramblings of a senile old man than a scientific discussion of the species in question. Additionally, the length of the text could have been considerably shortened by replacing the often lengthy sentance about who described the species and when with the taxonomic standard of putting the name of the species' author(s) and the year of description behind the species name.
My final beef with this book is the poor taste of the author is his discussions of the classification of cichlids(actually, rants is probably a better description). Axelrod repeatedly poo-poo's the works of cladists (Axelrod calls them splitters)- challenging cladistic theory is all well and good, but in most instances the criticism is in the form of a snide comment about the other author or their classification. Never is any evidence provided to support Axelrod's claims/criticisms - one is left with the impression that the reason Axelrod opposes a new classification is simply that it is new and different than his ideas. Some of Axelrod's comments border on slander - this should never have been allowed to go to print.
The Lexicon had great potential, but overall it is a bloated, arrogant work. With proper editing it would have been much more useful. If you want a book with nice pictures, than this book is OK - just dont read anything in it :-)
|
|
|
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Every Fish But..., April 9, 1998
By A Customer
If you want a book that shows you a picture or a drawing of every cichlid that there is then this book is for you. BUT if you want to learn about the fish you see then this book is not for you. It mentions very little in the way of behaviour, eating habits etc. If you want to keep cichlids in an aquarium, rather than go out and catch them, then this book isn't for you. I was very disappointed after I bought the book. It shows lots of very beautiful pictures but tells you little more.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by Glen S. Axelrod
by Erwin Schraml
by Richard F. Stratton
