Reef Fishes: A Guide to Their Identification, Behavior, and Captive Care

by Scott W. Michael

Book Overview

Covering 68 families and thousands of species, Reef Fishes is an authoritative guide designed to be a lifelong reference for saltwater aquarists, divers, and amateur reef naturalists. This volume... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1890087211
• ISBN13: 9781890087210
• Release Date: June 2001
• Publisher: TFH Publications
• Length: 624 Pages
• Weight: 4.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 8.9" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

The Definitive Source for Marine Fish Information

This book is an absolutely amazing collection of useful information on marine fish. It is expected to be done in 3 vols. with each focusing on certain families only. It includes a chart of compatibility, ease of keeping, feeding needs, etc. that is better and more succinct than ANY book I have seen anywhere on the topic. Vol 1 even has a seahorse section that is more practical and complete than any dedicated seahorse book I have seen. This is great for beginners and also highly informative for veterans. WELL worth the price.

An excellent reference for even the advanced hobbyist!

This book covers an overview of the ecology and natural history of coral reefs and their inhabitants. It also covers the requirements of fish for keeping in aquariums, what they eat, tank requirements, water requirements, taxonimy, and where they come from. This book contains photos that can't be found in most other literature. Over all, this is an excellent companion for any reef hobbyist, scuba diver, or anyone else interested in life on coral reefs. I have been in the hobby for 16 years and take it from me, this book is well worth the money!

Tremendous amount of information for the described specious.

The book provides the readers with detail information in captive care, their natural habitat and specific behavior of each sub-catergories of marine fish specious, which is extremely important in understanding the fish and to provide them with a more suitable environment. This is the book every marine fish lover should consult before choosing any fish for their aquarium from the pet shop. This is important because no one should allow themself to become a fish killer if they possess the information to prevent making the wrong choices for their tank. I am looking forward to the second volumne to be in the market, because the volumne one does not cover many lovely specious especially the "Angel Fish".

Best in its class - a real treat for the advanced aquarist

The knowledge of marine fish captive care grows daily. Scott Michael takes that knowledge to a new level with a informative, educational yet easy to read book. If there is any saltwater fish that you are contemplating purchasing, this is the book to consult. It is so complete, so easy to read, so filled with good portraits of the fish and stories of their habitats, that I expect to find this series behind every marine fish dealers desk in America! Michael detials the captive care of hundreds of popular, not so popular and down right rare fish. He speaks from a love of marine fish; and it shows. There are better books for beginners. There are better books for intermediate hobbyists. The books by John Tullock are excellent for aquarium questions and advice. This book is about the fish.It is the definitive reference guide for marine fish. It will be for a long, long time.

Beautifully written and produced; too hefty for travellers

This is a beautifully produced work, packed with well-written text as well as outstanding photography. This may possibly be the "best" coral reef fish book. However, it's not designed to meet the needs of the traveling snorkeler or scuba diver who needs a transportable fish id book. The three volumes in this set will each cover a different set of families. The first volume includes morays, toadfish, trumpetfish, scorpionfish, lionfish, anthias, and several others. The two future volumes will include the other major families, such as butterfly fish, angel fish, parrot fish, wrasses, and gobies. For divers and underwater photographers, as opposed to aquarists, buying just one volume of the set would not be enough. The first volume alone is over 500 pages, and is published in hard back, so these are designed to reside in your library rather than fit into your suitcase.Pluses: The text is a pleasure to read. You can open this book at any page and find that you can't put it down. It puts the popular Indo Pacific Coral Reef Field Guide and the recently published Lieske and Myers guide to shame in this respect. It appears to be the most comprehensive coral reef fish book I've seen, with sections of about 15-20 pages each on scorpionfish or morays--far superior to any of the popular guides on the market. It has a scientific perspective and appears to be as much a marine biology text as it is a fish ID book. The chapter on coral reef ecology alone is better than the small Pisces book on that subject. The photos are outstanding, and the production quality is as high as any book I've seen in this category.Minuses: This book is written firstly for the aquarist and secondly for the diver and photographer. This is reflected in the layout (the book is organized by fish family rather than geographically, which limits it's usefulness as a fish identification guide), in the content (sharks, rays, barracudas, and pelagic reef visitors are missing from the table of contents), and in the theme, which is focused on keeping reef fish in captivity as much as observing them in their natural habitat. Overall, it's better than anything else out there. But if you want a portable fish ID book to take on dive trips, this isn't it.