|
Setting Up A Tropical Aquarium | 
 enlarge | Author: Stuart Thraves
Publisher: Interpet Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: £20.00
Buy New: £11.55
You Save: £8.45 (42%)
New (16) Used (6) from £10.94
Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 13755
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.4
Dimensions (in): 10.1 x 8.6 x 0.8
ISBN: 1842861026
Dewey Decimal Number: 639
EAN: 9781842861028
ASIN: 1842861026
Publication Date: November 2004
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
|
| Customer Reviews:
Superb introduction to tropical fish-keeping June 28, 2008
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
There are lots of books about setting up a tropical aquarium, but this is the best I've seen so far, by a long way. It is clear, superbly illustrated, and full of invaluable information.
It takes you day-by-day, then later week-by week, through the process of choosing and installing your aquarium, choosing and adding the fish, and ongoing maintenance. The first half of the book concentrates on choosing and setting up the tank, equipment, decor etc. There is a superb guide to aquarium plants, their various requirements, how big they grow, and how to care for them, with a separate plant index at the back. There is a useful and not too technical section about water chemistry - this can seem daunting to the beginner, but this book takes you through the basics gently, with useful illustrations and colour photographs, even showing you how to read the water test kits accurately. It's really important not to add fish too early to a new tank, and by following the timetable in this book, you can see there's plenty to do in those early days.
The second half of the book looks at the fish: starting with the hardiest fish suitable for your new tank, and moving onto the more exotic and delicate species. Most of the popular tropical species are described, with beautiful colour photos, and a summary of their requirements and problems to look out for. This is not as detailed as some books which focus on just the fish, but an excellent way to pick out your favourites for further research where necessary.
And it doesn't just abandon you once you've set up your tank and put in the fish. There are also some excellent sections on the maintenance of your aquarium, cleaning, pruning and transplanting plants, dealing with algae etc., again illustrated with helpful colour photos that actually show you the procedure described in the text. Things like cleaning the filter for the first time can be quite daunting for a beginner, but so much easier if you can see photos of what the various bits look like and check you're doing the right things, and the water really should look that colour, etc. Although the section on fish diseases is quite brief, there's a really useful illustration showing what the various symptoms look like - this poor fish (no, children, not a real one) with everything from mouth rot to whitespot - it's a really easy way to identify any problems for further investigation.
Finally, a general index followed by separate indexes for fish and plant species make it easy to find the information you need.
I would thoroughly recommend this book to anyone new to tropical fishkeeping, even if you've already gone out and bought your tank.
Very Informative and Well Laid Out November 1, 2007
24 out of 24 found this review helpful
This book is not cheap, even at Amazon prices but it is worth the extra few pounds. The author has been involved in the writing or co-writing of a number of aquarium/tropical fish books and has certainly got the hang of how to go about producing a good book, covering all aspects of fish-keeping.
The book takes you step by step through the business of setting up an aquarium, something that you must know how to do correctly, because if you don't the results can be catastrophic. Most people when they get a tank, immediately want to see some fish in it. Disaster strikes and they give up the idea of keeping fish before they have even started.
This book tell you the correct way to set up the tank when to introduce the plant and more importantly when to put fish in. Without going into great detail here, a chemical process needs to take place before the water is fit to put fish in. Putting fish into water that five minutes ago was in the tap is a sure recipe for disaster. The book explains what needs to be done step by step.
Follow the instructions in the book and you will have a wonderful looking tank with beautiful, healthy fish, some of which are shown in the excellent photographs in the book. The old saying "it's easy when you know how" illustrates why you should buy this book and anyway watching the movements of brightly colored fish , that rapidly become tame enough show their hungry when you get the food out is much better than watching TV and more relaxing.
|
|
|
| |
