Need Book Recommendations

[Melissa]

Hello, all! Happy Tuesday morning - I'm not a morning person!

Ok, well, I have Calfo's book on reef invertebrates. I am also going to get the popular Corals book by Sprung. Before I venture into corals, I want to read up on fishes so I'm looking for a book that has extensive information about all types of fish that can be kept in the average marine tank. I'd like it to be broken up into families, then species with latin names, specific requirements, general temperment, diet, max size, minimum tank size required, possibly pros and cons and a photo of each one, etc. It is hard for me to identify things in the LFS unless I know what the heck it looks like.

The reason I'm doing this is to put together a list of all the fish and invertebrates I'd like to keep prior to buying the first one. This way, I'll know what order they should be introduced to the tank and hopefully circumvent any territorial issues. I've seen some fish I'd like to have based upon color and requirements. In looking for these fish on the net, I come up with a number of photos with sometimes different latin names. It's hard to get consistant information usually. Some say semi-aggressive, some say peaceful.

So if anyone could please recommend some good books, I would really appreciate it. I'm not necessarily looking for all this in one book, though that would be ideal.

Thanks everyone!
Melissa

[Phishnoob]

This is an easy one. The first fish book you should get is the 500+ book by Scott Michelson. It tells you which fish are reef safe and gives them a rating on a scale of 0 to 5 for ease of care. My two fish I tried to keep that were a 2 died (before I bought the book) and all of my fives are doing just great.

Every LFS should have a well thumbed one of these if you want to look at it, and it is available on Amazon or at your LFS.

edited: oh yeah, when you put your list together if it says this species "might" or "may" eat your inverts they are going to eat your inverts.

[goodfortune]

Hi Melissa:

Check out this book:


I haven't bought it yet, but I've heard good things about it. Hope to meet you at the meeting tonight

P.S. - Phishnoob, we're talking about the same book, right?

[Phishnoob]

Yeppers same book

I did not have it in my hands so guessed as good as I was able to with my leftover brain cells.

[Mrs_Phishnoob]

I did not have it in my hands so guessed as good as I was able to with my leftover brain cells.

I can vouch for that

Anyways, that book is about essential...I wouldn't start a tank without it.

[Melissa]

I've found it on amazon, so will be ordering it soon! Thanks for the tips!

goodfortune,
I'll be there - it will be great to meet you and others in the area finally!

Melissa