You & Your Aquarium: Reference & Resource
Written: May 07 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Concise, informative. easy to follow
Cons: Published in 1986, some outdated equipment information, could use an update
The Bottom Line: Excellent reference work and basic resource for beginning to intermediate freshwater aquarists.
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| sherrylee's Full Review: You and Your Aquarium Books |
If you go to your local bookstore and go to the Pets section, you will see about 12 zillion books on dogs and dog training. You will see many books about cats, some cute, some useful and informative. Birds have a whole shelf to themselves. Fish...
Well, fish are covered by about ten books. Half of the ten are thin beginner books aimed at kids. A few are exclusively for saltwater and marine tanks. The tenth book will be You & Your Aquarium by Dick Mills. I always found the lack of readily available aquarium books to be odd as keeping fish is a complex hobby, and there is a lot for the hobbyist to know.
I have several general aquarium books, as well as some specific books about the fish I keep and tank trouble shooting. I have found You & Your Aquarium to be the most useful and to be the book I turn to most when I have a question or a problem, especially on health issues.
This book does not have much in the way of specific, detailed information, but it does have a great deal of information on a broad range of topics.
WELL ARRANGED
I like the arrangement of the book. The chapters are set up progressively. It starts with basic Fish Anatomy, and follows with chapters on choosing systems (cold freshwater, tropical, marine, reef) and then on choosing specific fish for each ecosystem. There is a guide to over 100 commonly kept species of fish for all aquarium systems that I found interesting and useful. Each entry shows a picture of the fish, lists aquarium conditions required by the fish, ease of keeping, feeding and whether or not the fish is easy to breed in the aquarium.
The book then has chapters on choosing the aquarium itself, the types of filtration, heating and aeration. The section on setting up the actual aquarium is very informative, and covers all the various systems from substrates to inhabitants. Feeding your pets, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease are very well covered. These sections are full of easy to understand tables and charts, so you can match symptoms with possible problems.
For the really dedicated hobbyist, there are chapters on breeding, showing and photographing fish in the aquarium. I found these chapters to be especially interesting as I have not seen much information on these subjects in most other books.
The book is extensively illustrated, and instructions for setting up systems and components (filters, lighting, etc.) are illustrated step by step as well as being written out. It is easy to follow and easy to use. It is set up well enough that it is very useful for a beginner, yet still a good reference for the more experienced aquarist.
DRAWBACKS??
Like everything else, this book does have a few drawbacks. While there is enough basic information for a coldwater or tropical aquarist, I would not recommend it to marine or reef aquarists. There are several easy to find books specifically for the salt aquarium, and they are more informative as they are more specialized. Since there are not many grown up books specifically for coldwater or tropical tanks, it will be more useful for those hobbyists. Most books I have seen about keeping goldfish or a tropical community tank appear to be aimed at children or adolescents.
Another problem with this book is that it was originally published in 1986. It has been reprinted many times, but does not appear to have been updated. This does not affect much of the information; anatomy, choosing fish and tanks, feeding and health issues are the same. Technical information, such as filtration, lighting, aeration and heating, however, are somewhat out of date. Many more recent developments in filtration, and especially in lighting, are not covered in this book. Information on mechanical and technical topics should be taken with a grain of salt.
WHO WOULD LIKE THIS BOOK?
This book would be useful for beginning to intermediate freshwater aquarists. It also contains enough information on salt systems to be useful for an experienced freshwater aquarist setting up a first marine system. I find it especially useful for diagnosing and treating illness in fish. Most books have only very basic sections on symptoms and diseases; unless your fish have "ich", most general books are not useful. This one is useful, and it covers many deseases and treatments. I don't know that a very experienced aquarist would necessarily learn anything new from this book, but i think it is an excellent reference work for hobbyists of all levels.
I think some people probably wouldn't like this book; marine and reef keepers will not find enough information. People who keep fish strictly for the kids, or for ornamental reasons, would find this book to be a bit much. This is a serious book for the person who is serious about their tank(s).
Overall, I recommend it as a reference work for any freshwater aquarium keeper, and as an excellent resource for someone new to the hobby. It has all the info you'll need set up in an easy to follow and use fashion.
If you are looking for a good basic aquarium book, You & Your Aquarium might be the one.
Recommended:
Yes
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sherrylee
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Location: Kalispell, Montana
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