The Tropical Freshwater Aquarium Problem Solver

Rating:
Summary: Good descriptions of fish-weak on technical info
Review: A small sparse book that covers a lot of fish & all of the basics of care and keeping -- sometimes devoting as much as a page to a particular topic. Contains some old fashioned thinking. Sandford actuallly tells you to set up your tank & let it sit without fish for a month so that it can mature. Actually, the maturing (i.e., estabilishing nitrate bacteria and nitrite bacteria for the nitrogen cycle) doesn't really start until you provide food (i.e., fish waste) for the bacteria. So the month of waiting without fish in the tank is not only old hat, it's unscientific & shows that Sandford probably never measured the ammonia/nitrate/nitrate levels in a tank during this empty tank break-in.

The question-and-answer format that accompanies the text throughout is useful on questions of fish behavior but less so for technical info like "Why is my tank cloudy?" or "What's the advantage of a canister filter over a hang-on power filter?"

There must be better sources of info available. In fact, searching a few sites on the web will get you more & better technical info than this book contains. But the pictures are generaly very good & there are lots of them. For each fish there are descriptions of habitat conditions, although these are "in-the-wild" conditions, which don't necessarily include ones that will also work well in home aquaria.

Rating:
Summary: Good descriptions of fish-weak on technical info
Review: A small sparse book that covers a lot of fish & all of the basics of care and keeping -- sometimes devoting as much as a page to a particular topic. Contains some old fashioned thinking. Sandford actuallly tells you to set up your tank & let it sit without fish for a month so that it can mature. Actually, the maturing (i.e., estabilishing nitrate bacteria and nitrite bacteria for the nitrogen cycle) doesn't really start until you provide food (i.e., fish waste) for the bacteria. So the month of waiting without fish in the tank is not only old hat, it's unscientific & shows that Sandford probably never measured the ammonia/nitrate/nitrate levels in a tank during this empty tank break-in.

The question-and-answer format that accompanies the text throughout is useful on questions of fish behavior but less so for technical info like "Why is my tank cloudy?" or "What's the advantage of a canister filter over a hang-on power filter?"

There must be better sources of info available. In fact, searching a few sites on the web will get you more & better technical info than this book contains. But the pictures are generaly very good & there are lots of them. For each fish there are descriptions of habitat conditions, although these are "in-the-wild" conditions, which don't necessarily include ones that will also work well in home aquaria.

Rating:
Summary: Dont make mistakes with your first aquarium, buy this book!
Review: Gina Sandford presents an increadiable amount of information about fish keeping, in this very easy to read and understand, book. It clear explains every aspect of setting up a tank and keeping fish. It will answer all your questions, including the ones you havent thought of yet! The best part of the book is the profiles of the 7 common groups of fish. Each provides a tank conditions & care guide which will prevent you from placing the wrong fish in the wrong settings.

Rating:
Summary: Nice section on Fish Identification, less on Technicals
Review: I like this book, but I bought it because it had information on fish rarely found in most aquarium books, mainly the loach families and fairly good coverage on catfish families.

I completely agree with Scott Hieber about the Maturation portion of this book though. It does not make any sense. Other than that I had few problems with this book.

Rating:
Summary: Nice section on Fish Identification, less on Technicals
Review: I like this book, but I bought it because it had information on fish rarely found in most aquarium books, mainly the loach families and fairly good coverage on catfish families.

I completely agree with Scott Hieber about the Maturation portion of this book though. It does not make any sense. Other than that I had few problems with this book.