Article © Julian Dignall, uploaded January 01, 2002.
A difficult book to rate, certainly a visual treat but the information is at best sparse and in places downright contradictory. Breeding information is non-existent, but a good selection of adult and juvenile photos are this books best feature. As more of these fish are photographed, supplementary stickers are available to insert in the ample space (15 pages) at the back of the book. A "full" book would therefore cost around 70.00! At the point I last amended this review we were up to L280 and very few of these "new kids on the block" have appeared as additional stickers. This does bring into question the long-term viability of this book.
Unfortunately many of the fish pictured are not the same as the fish that particular "L" or "LDA" number was originally used to represent. Many are labelled with different (often clearly innacurate) scientific names or collection localities. Despite these serious flaws and until these fish are scientifically described this book remains the most complete English language reference available in book form.
Back to Book Reviews index.