Innes's Exotic Aquarium Fishes: A Work of General Reference, 21st Edition

I have the earlier editions from 1962 the 19th and it has lots of black and white but this 21st edition is outstanding and has newer equipment to recommend than back in the 60s. It is smaller but the information is great but again I started years ago with one 10 gal tanks and ended up with 27 tanks and was treting fish for all kinds of desease in my research and i found the book usefull but I wish i could have enter the corrections found from research about fish they say go together (not always the case and found common drugs to treat deseases better than any listed in the books. This is hobby that can get youso involved you cant take a vacation cause you cant take your fish on a lease and walk them and youdont need friends trying to help take care of them while you gone(tried that ,been there, and cost me more dead fish and expense dont even talk about Better to starve fish for a few days than have helpers that dont understand fish . al little food is great but a lot will do better is worse. But i started my grandkids off with this new book and he is going great Just got to keep in their heads that most all fish should go in tanks with all the same size fish and not a great big fiah and little fish. Fish do eat fish, you know . But the book explained it well but their pocket books will teach them a lesson when they dont read. Show me a man who doesnt read and learn and I will show you a crazy man.

NOTE: Amazon seems to have attached this review to more than one edition of this book. This review is regarding the 21st edition ONLY! I give five stars to editions 19 or earlier!A different book, Innes' _Exotic Aquarium Fishes_, is THE classic aquarium book. There were 19 editions of it from 1935 through 1966. UNFORTUNATELY, THIS BOOK IS NOT THAT BOOK! _Innes's Exotic Aquarium Fishes_ (21st edition, 1994) is a bait and switch. The book's own back cover text says it all. It says that this 21st edition "represents major changes in the original _Exotic Aquarium Fishes_, by Dr. Willima T. Innes-- to the extent that neither any of Dr. Innes's photos nor any significant portion of his original text appears in this book..." In other words, TFH wrote a new book and inserted Innes' name into the title to make it sell.Poor Innes is probably turning over in his grave knowing that his primary competitor, TFH, ended up with the rights to his excellent book. TFH's founder, Herbert Axelrod, later (1962) wrote a book and named it _Exotic Tropical Fishes_, presumably to steal some of the thunder from Innes' successful _Exotic Aquarium Fishes_. Innes later sued Axelrod when it was discovered that Axelrod had lifted some of Innes' photos, blacked out the backgrounds to make them look different, and used them in his own book. Innes won the copyright lawsuit, but copyright laws were harder to enforce in those days. Innes couldn't prove monetary damages and so, sadly, won no award in the suit.Anyway, though this so-called 21st edition is a fairly decent book in its own right, please don't buy it. Find yourself a used copy of a real "Innes book," _Exotic Aquarium Fishes_, which means buying 19th edition or earlier. You'll be much happier to find a supreme book that is the favorite of almost every longterm hobbyist.

I bought this book for my mother who has been an aquarium hobbyist since long before I was born. A tank leak ruined many things stored under it including her books on aquariums. I found this as a replacement and she loved it. The basic subjects covered in this book are basic principles, management, feeding, diseases, plants, fish and how to classify them. I would recommend this book to anyone who keeps an aquarium since it answers many of the basic questions and will allow you to figure out what the problems with your tank may be so you can turn the situation around more quickly. Or give you the information you need to prevent problems in the first place.

This book has all the information an aquarium enthusiast will need.

Fun older style reference book that has a place in any hobbyist bookshelf, lot's of good pix and info.......

Use to own an earlier edition of the book. It has been revised but is still very informative.

This is the book I had over 35 years ago that taught me about tropicals and how to breed them. I replaced the one I lent out many years ago that moved to florida on me. I was 24 then, now I am 62 and still love my fish.

AS described. A great source of detailed information on all sorts of aquatic environments.

Good book just to read and extend your knowledge on some more tropical species, their behaviours and so on.Not a massively long book but what it covers it seems to cover off well. I suppose a book that covered every tropical fish would be stupidly large and rather pointless any way.

Expected more from this. Some years ago I had a better volume from the same author. This is more like an abridged version of that and a quick introduction to the subject.

raffle prize

good

Ideal for anyone classically trained. Correct names as to the what the common man knows them by abounds. Like clown fish as we know them aren't listed as clown fish but by latin name. And first fish doesn't appear till page 96