North American Native Fishes for the Home Aquarium

Rating:
Summary: Great beginners book for natives
Review: 5 stars for a beginner who has never kept an aquarium, 3 stars for everyone else. The first half of this book covers the basics, which was of no use to me. The second half of the book covers the fish, and is pure gold, I just wish there was more of it.

This is not a book to buy for the pictures, the photography is nothing to get excited about. Most of the pictures are small with poor color reproduction.

Rating:
Summary: A worthy sequel to his Piranha book.
Review: Dave Schelser has done it again. His "Native Fish" book covers just about everything the enthusiast could want to know. Schelser describes everything from setting up the aquarium, to collection, feeding, and disease. A worthy sequel to his book "Pirahna: A Complete Pet Owner's Manual," also published by Barron's. All 133 photographs are taken by Schelser himself, whether in the wild or in the lab. One would never guess there were so many small but amazingly attractive fish native to North America without reading this book. Bravo Dave!!

Rating:
Summary: The Benchmark for Aquarist who keeps local species.
Review: this book is a throw back in many ways. Much like the old Innes books , Schleser's book starts out with the fundamentals. Topics like why to keep natives, fish taxonomy, conservation issues, collecting information, aquarium keeping tips and such cover the first 8 chapters. I like that. It starts the reader off right with a good foundation. Instead of just dumping you into a glossy book of pretty pictures of fish , this book starts you off with the how's and the why's of native fish keeping. This old fashioned nuts and bolts approach gives the reader a better chance to become a conservation minded Aquarist instead of just a pet store consumer. For Conservation efforts to be a success it must reach the grassroots level. The average person must be able to apply in a practical way, learned conservation ethics. I like to apply my housewife from Dubuque Iowa test to any book about collecting and keeping fish. If a housewife (or hubby) can read this book and apply it to activities with their local youth group, school or their own children then this book is a success. Well following my Dubuque test , this book is winner.

After 8 chapters of the basics , chapter 9 is all about fish. It breaks the fish down into basic types and goes into excellent detail about suitable aquarium species within each genus. Almost 100 pages is spent highlighting North America's unique aquatic heritage. Beautiful and obscure fish like the banded pygmy sunfish, dollar sunfish, gulf darter , Flagfin shiner , Fundulus Chrysotus , brindeled madtom and scores of other unloved North American fishes get the exposure they deserve . Full color photo's , range maps and rearing information follow each species. If you are interested in Longear Sunfish for example (page 139) you get 2 pages of great information , 3 photo's of the various strains out there and the basic information to keep , rear and enjoy this temperate fish. That's the kind of stuff anyone interested in Native Fish wants needs and got's to have. Get this book it's a winner.