Encyclopedia of Exotic Tropical Fishes

By Glen Axelrod and Brian Scott, T.F.H. Publications (2005)

This Encyclopedia for Freshwater Aquariums is written by Glen Axelrod and Brian Scott. Encyclopedia of Exotic Tropical Fishes is huge! It has over 800 pages and weighs a couple of pounds. This is a hardback book that also has a very cool embedded bookmark. Anything by Axelrod is worth reading and this book is no exception. We we're very impressed with the physical appearance (design and photos) of this book. About the only drawback to this book are the few typos you'll come across. Other than that, this book is an excellent resource for any freshwater hobbyist and we highly recommend it.

The main topics covered:

Chapter 1: History of Ichthyology - This is a brief intro on the history of fish keeping.
Chapter 2: Systematics & Speciation - A chapter on the classification of fishes and a detailed explanation on taxonomic methods.
Chapter 3: Anatomy & Physiology - This chapter talks about the internal and external anatomy and physiology of freshwater fish. The swim bladder, respiration, lateral line, fish body shape, mouth, scales and fins are talked about at length.
Chapter 4: Nutrition & Feeding - An excellent chapter on feeding your fish. This is probably one of the best write ups on fish food that we've read. There are matching photos for each of the foods explained. All foods are covered - live foods, fresh foods, dry foods, etc. Lots of good ideas in this chapter.
Chapter 5: Reproduction in Fishes - The different methods of reproduction in tropical fishes is discussed with tips for improving your chances of breeding success. Some of the things you'll learn about include; water quality, spawning triggers, food for fry and information on hybrids.
Chapter 6: Aquarium Management - The topics covered in this chapter include mechanical, chemical and biological filtration, water quality, temperature, aquarium test kits. Experienced aquarists probably won't get much out of this chapter but it could be extremely informative for beginners.
Part II of book - 600+ pages of species profiles with fantastic photos for help in identification. There are 2 photos for each species, sometimes one of each sex or somtimes just a different perspective of the fish. This section of the book makes it worth the price.
Index - There is both a common name (popular name) index and a scientific name index which is very helpful.

An excellent resource that should be in every freshwater hobbyists library, we give Encyclopedia of Exotic Tropical Fishes 4.5 stars

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