Article © Marc Stabel, uploaded January 01, 2002.

Four years after publishing Welse aus aller Welt, Mayland came up with its successor. This book is slightly bigger, has a hardcover and 224 pages, which means it is some 72 pages larger than its predecessor.

It has plenty of remarkable colour photos and some drawings. The framework doesn't differ much from that of his earlier book: an introduction, the family descriptions and a register of species.

The main difference is that the book now covers 34 catfish families instead of 22, among which we find the Doiichthyidae for instance, a family that now sits in Ariidae. Again, valid names and older books don't go very well together. The pages 36 — 213 are for the catfishes and there's a good deal of information to be found. Like in the previous book, the Loricariidae have the most pages (178-210). One thing I didn't like about the book is the incredible amount of underscores; every name (family, genus or species) and everything of interest has one, which makes the text look rather amateurish.

Despite the fact that it is better and more complete than Welse aus aller Welt, it never gave me the same good feeling. Of course I was spoiled by all kinds of other catfish books I had come across over the years. But there is a difference between buying a book as an asset and buying one for your collection. Thus to me, although informative and worthwhile, this book belongs to the latter.

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