What were your first aquarium books?

[Sfamnun]

Hey everyone!

Inspired by last year's "What was your first catfish and year?" thread, I decided to start a thread about our first aquarium books! What were your first aquarium books? Which catfish species were represented, if any? Under what names were they listed?

I got my very first aquarium book when I was 5 years old, in 1992 - which was also when I got my first aquarium. It was a Hebrew translation (as I am originally from Israel) of "The Home Aquarium Book" by W. Simister which was originally published in 1976. The Hebrew title is "אקווריון בביתך", "Akvariun BeBeytcha", or "Aquarium In Your Home" in English (no one writes or says akvariun anymore though - these days it's akvarium). I've always liked it as it includes quite a few native British species (both fresh and marine) that were, of course, never available in Israel, as well as tips on how to collect them. Some pictures of tropical fish are included, but the book is mostly illustrated in black and white. After moving to Sweden as an adult I've had fun reading what it says about the European species in it.

The catfish include some kind of Ictalurid (referred to in the Hebrew text simply as "catfish" and mentions that it is imported from America as opposed to being the European catfish), a Corydoras referred to in the Hebrew as "Cheetah Catfish" - presumably Leopard Corydoras and a "Talking catfish" - possibly

Amblydoras nauticus

?

Other species of interest include: Pike, Minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus), Trout, Norwegian Lobster (presumably Nephrops norvegicus), Monkfish and the jellyfish Chrysaora isosceles. Not your usual list of either freshwater or marine species!

Another one of my very early books was not specifically an aquarium book at all, but instead a general guide to pets. That one was Pinchas Amitai's "Handbook of Pets in Israel" ("מדריך לחיות מחמד בישראל"). It is also quite interesting in that it lists many animals that the average person wouldn't get a chance to keep, either because keeping them isn't feasible or isn't legal - though that is (usually) noted in the entry for each such species.

Catfish included are: "Shiryan Gadol", loosely translatable to "Big Armoured one" and has the common English name provided as "Spotted Sucking Catfish". The Scientific name given is "Plecostomus commersoni".

"Coryas miyeri", given the English common name "Myersi Armoured Catfish" and the scientific name "Corydoras myersi". The picture appears to be of

Corydoras aeneus

. The order Siluriformes is presented as a whole (and illustrated with a picture of a small

Clarias gariepinus

being held out of the water) and there are also entries for the families Callichthydae and Loricariidae.

Other species of interest:

Native Israeli fish:
"Leopard Loache" (sic) "Orthrias pantheroides". Possibly Barbatula panthera? I am not so familiar with Israel's native loaches.
Blue pupfish - Aphanius mento
River blenny - Salaria fluviatilis

Non-fish:
Israel's native freshwater crab - Potamon potamios.
"Ground Beetle" - Adesmia abbreviate
"Corona Ground Beetle" - Prionoteca coronate (actually Prionotheca coronata)
American Alligator - Alligator mississippiensis (!)
Hooded Crow - Corvus corone cornix (now Corvus cornix as far as I understand)
Yellow-vented Bulbul - Pycnonotus xsanthopygos
House Sparrow - Passer domesticus
Little Owl - Athene noctua
Eagle Owl - Bubo bubo (!) (mostly explanations about why eagle owls are not the most proper or legal pets to keep.)
Marbled Polecat - Vormela peregusna
(Egyptian) mongoose - Herpestes ichneumon ichneumon
Mountain Gazelle - Gazella gazella (!) - This one is accompanied by a picture of a gazelle using a child's face as a support so it could stand up on its hind legs and eat some leaves from a tree.

[Birger]

Blue pupfish - Aphanius mento

Nice little fish!!


In 1970...yes I know I am dating myself, I was ten and began getting a small magazine by tetra every two months called Aquarium Digest International, that was all the information I had, a far cry from the instant internet of today.(they are well used)

My first book was Aquarium fishes and Plants by Rataj and Zukal, no catfish at all.

My second was Aquarium Guide by Jim Kelly, showed maybe ten species of catfish.

I just checked and now I have a list of 145 Aquarium related books and countless other magazines, papers etc.

Birger

[racoll]

My first aquarium (and catfish) books were the two by Sands.



However, the book that really got me into catfishes was The World of Catfishes by Kobayagawa. There were so many fishes in there that I'd never seen before, and many of them started to appear in the shops around that time (early 90s).

[november]

i'm from '75 and this book comes from about 4 years later.
i remember my old man (who still owns it)covered the names underneath the pictures and i had to tell the name of the fish shown, i think i was 8 years old and knew all!

from the very first beginning cichlids somehow were the ones i used to love most.

[Onsaud]

I only got into aquariums very recently (despite being enthusiastic about fish my whole life), so my first book was What Fish? A Buyer's Guide to Tropical Fish. Since then I've gotten:

The 101 Best Tropical Fishes by Kathleen Wood

The Simple Guide to Freshwater Aquariums by David E. Boruchowitz (my favorite)

Encyclopedia of Aquarium and Pond Fish by David Alderton

500 Ways To Be a Better Freshwater Fishkeeper and

The 101 Best Aquarium Plants by Mary E. Sweeney.

I'm looking to get some Corydoras-specific books; anyone have suggestions?

[Suckermouth]

My guide when I was young was an old edition (1992?) of Axelrod's Exotic Tropical Fish. Back then there were profiles for each and every species pictured. The book has the approximate dimensions of a brick. The taxonomy is out of date, leading to interesting things like Ancistrus being at the beginning of the book and another Ancistrus (under the genus Xenocara) being almost at the end. There's a pretty Panaque nigrolineatus in that book and was one of my earliest introductions to the amazing world of loricariids. This would be an irreplaceable text before I had access to the internet to look up species profiles.

http://books.google.com/books/about/Exo ... AXAQAAIAAJ

Of the books I read from the library, I read many of the Barron's series of books, most of which focused on a particular group of fish and were published in approximately square and relatively thin texts. But above all I think my favorite book was "The Complete Aquarium" by Peter W. Scott, which included introductory biology and ecology of fish and their habitats, as well as step-by-step instructions on how to recreate numerous biotopes.

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Aquarium ... 0789400138

[racoll]

But above all I think my favorite book was "The Complete Aquarium" by Peter W. Scott, which included introductory biology and ecology of fish and their habitats, as well as step-by-step instructions on how to recreate numerous biotopes.

Yes, I had this one too. Fantastic book. I think it was my first introduction to biotope aquaria.

[Bas Pels]

My first book was Hans Frey, Aquariumhouden kunt u ook - translated this would mean 'you can keep an aquarium, too.

It was translated from German, I got a 4th print and was written in the sixties. Still, it was - and is - the best book for beginners I ever saw, but unfortunately out of print for 20 years or more.

Obviously, the technique is out of date, but he handles it so, that the conserns are not outdated, and therefore he does help to raise good questions in the shop

[HaakonH]

However, the book that really got me into catfishes was The World of Catfishes by Kobayagawa. There were so many fishes in there that I'd never seen before, and many of them started to appear in the shops around that time (early 90s).

This was the book that got me into Catfish as well, along with the big, heavy Axelrod Atlas My first book though was some Norwegian translation of a very basic beginners work that I can't remember the name of...

Haakon

[Jools]

My first fish book was The Proper Care of Guppies by Stan Shubel. However my most used and indeed most loved early fish book was The Spotter's Guide to Aquarium Fishes.

There are spotters guides books for all sorts of things (trees, birds, aeroplanes etc). Uniquely, AFAIK, it has a tick box to tick when you spot a species and you get 5 points for common species, 10,15,20 and up to 25 for the rare ones. Rather than go to a shop and then look up a fish in a book when you got home, it made you take the book to the shop and identify (and thus learn) about the fish as you looked at it.

This book is to blame for "My Cats" (and all that I hope for with that) and indeed my passion for "in-store lookup" or, to put it another way, to learn about fish as you are looking at them.

Great thread!

Cheers,

Jools

[Scleropages]

Good idea for a thread. My first aquarium book was one of these two (I can't remember which I acquired first, sometime around '83 or '84):

1. Simon & Schuster's Complete Guide to Freshwater and Marine Aquarium Fishes Including Plants, Amphibia, Reptiles, & Invertebrates (English Translation Copyright 1977)


2. The Golden Encyclopedia of Freshwater Tropical Fishes by Dick Mills & Dr. Gwynne Vevers (Copyright 1982)

[CoryfanAad]

elsevier aquariumbook 1972. Several catspecies in it. Lately bought two old books (1923 and 1925). all drawings. 1923 black and whitr. 1925 colored. In the last one : Corydoras Paleatus !!!!