A few good books... wanted

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Hypancistrus

Hypancistrus

Candiru
MFK Member
Oct 29, 2005
116
1
48
USA
I am looking to pick up some good books on Cichlids in the next two months. I am a fairly experienced aquarist with small “10 gallon” fishes like cories, tetras and small barbs and anabantoids. I have only recently broadened my field of interest into cichlids, and have found myself wanting more detailed info than my basic aquarium texts and ID guides can provide. Even though I am a beginner with cichlids, I do understand things like basic aquarium maintenance and water quality, so I am looking more for books that deal with intermediate cichlid topics, especially care and housing of the different groups- Malawi, Tanganyika, Victoria & Misc. Africans, CA/SA species & Dwarf Cichlids.

One that I had in mind as a good read was “The Cichlid Fishes: Nature’s Grand Experiment in Evolution” by George W. Barlow. Anyone read this? Is it worthwhile?

Any other suggestions will be welcomed. I have a pretty good Tanganyika book that I got as a Christmas present. It has very basic info in it on housing and water chemistry, and a broad overview of species. I’d like one with a little more detail on species selection. It’s called “African Cichlids of Lake Tanganyika” by David Boruchowitz. I don’t have any books specific to Malawi, Victoria, or any of the New World species.

Thanks for your help!

~Hyp~
 
type in cichlid or cichlid book on ebay, thats a good bet. a general atlas for fish is "Dr. Axelrods's Mini-Atlas of freshwater aquarium fishes" get the third edition. this book is for ID only. but try ebay or even your LFS the one i work at sells several.
 
a very good book, imo, is American Cichlids II Large Cichlids by Horst Linke and Wolfgang Staeck. It doesn't cover every species of course and some of the scientific names are outdated, but the species that are covered are covered in very good detail. what I liked particularly is the explanations given on how to distinguish closely species that are very closely related. for example, it was only in reading this book that I learned how to distinguish between Paratheraps zonatus, hartwegi and guttulatus. :)

oh, and check out aquabid's book/magazine section. the book I mentioned sells for about $20 at the lfs, but I only paid $5 for it. I also got Horst Linke's book on labyrinth fish as well as The Manual of Tankbusters (or whatever the name of it is) all for like $19 and that was with shipping included. :woot:
 
Ad Konings books are good. I have many of them . www.cichlidpress.com
The book Enjoying Cichlids is good. It does not cover all the species but for someone starting out, they (the authors, Konings is the editor and author) provide details about behavoir in the wild and aquarium, feeding, tank size, etc. about the most popular specie groups.

Para
 
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