Herbert R. Axelrod

I actually quite enjoyed reading this book, but it's not at all what it seems. Or what everyone else assumes it to be- most places I saw it listed online had for the description something along the lines of "a complete care guide for angelfishes" etc. Um, not really. It's actually a collection of articles from early days of Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazine, all on the subject of angelfish of course, published together in this book. Written by two prominent men in the hobby who early on studied, collected and bred angelfishes. Back in the days when tapwater was simply "aged" before using in the tank because dechlorinator wasn't invented yet, When live foods were collected from ponds or raised regularly, because the only other thing you could feed your fish was scrapings of raw beef heart- flake not yet being manufactured. The first chapter jumps straight into a personal narrative about how Dr. Axelrod got his first pair of angelfish and started a breeding operation. Then there are chapters describing collecting trips to the Amazon and Rio Negro in Brazil, and another about a visit to a large fish farm in Singapore. All quite engaging and full of interesting little details. There's a chapter on how different angelfish varieties were developed, and some details on the scientific names and identification of species which I kind of glossed over. Next a section on angelfish genetics, and finally one on how to choose good specimens, breed them and raise the fry. Ending is abrupt. Of interest for what it is, but I'd not really consider this a care manual. The photographs of different angelfish types are really good quality, considering how old the book is.… (mer)

Table of Contents
Introduction 11
1. The Lakes 15
2. Rocks and Islands 31
3. Peculiarities of African Lake Cichlids 39
4. How Cichlids Feed 47
5. Breeding African Lake Cichlids
6. Breeding African Cichlids in the 71
Aquarium 99

7. Diseases and Parasites 107
8. Identifying African Lake Cichlids . 111
9. Cichlids of Lake Tanganyika . 115
10. Cichlids of Lake Malawi . 123
Illustrations Index. .379
Photo survey of Lake Malawi Cichlids starts on p. 122
Photo survey of Lake Tanganyika cichlids starts on p. 296… (mer)

This book which ambitiously attempted to depict every marine fish species of a particular area, was once again more enjoyable in terms of looking at the pictures, than actually reading the text. Although it seemed not as dry as the last volume, and a bit more info bits on behavior of the fishes. I was a bit disappointed that several sections of photographs (or illustrations, when photos were lacking) in the book appeared to have no description- the parrotfishes, for example, were shown but not described in text. Perhaps they have details in one of the other volumes. I looked up some fifteen species, because although the details are very clear in the book's photos, the colors are usually duller than life. The christmas wrasse is particularly stunning, the lionfish and turkeyfishes are as always, fairly spectacular-looking, and the ribbon eel- blue or black- is mesmerizing if you find a video showing its swimming motion. Wow. Also lots of squirrelfishes, toadfishes, goatfishes, frogfishes, stonefishes, flounders or soles, chromis, clownfishes, gobies, rays, sharks and lots of open-water fishes -both predator and prey- are depicted. Such a wide variety of life in the seas.

from the Dogear Diary… (mer)