The Pocket Idiot's Guide to Freshwater Aquariums

by Michael Wickland and Mike Wickham

A guide to setting up and maintaining a freshwater fishtank, including advice on selecting the right supplies. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1582451109
• ISBN13: 9781582451107
• Release Date: April 1999
• Publisher: Alpha Books
• Length: 218 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 4.3" x 7.4"

Customer Reviews

Great and Funny!

Mike Wickham does a wonderful job explaining freshwater fish in this book. He fills it with humor to keep you reading. I really learned a lot from this book and I didn't feel like an idiot when I started to get my fish and supplies.

Very informative and helpful.

I read this book a few weeks ago and must say that it's very good. I used to be in the aquarium hobby when I was younger, but I forgot almost everything that I had known back then. This book not only restores some of the knowledge that I forgot, but it also adds to what I didn't even know in the past. This little book is very concise and informative. Mike Wickham has done a great job of writing it. Some of the topics that he discusses are what type of tank to get, choosing a filter system, heating and lighting, which fish to pick out, basic water chemistry, plant selection, foods, and disease. Learning about the nitrogen cycle for the first time was also a big help. There are some other cool things about this book, too. The writer includes in the appendix some sample shopping lists so you'll know just what you need when starting out. The lists consist of equipment, fish, and plants for different tank gallonages. This guide also includes a routine maintenance checklist and a section on myths, mysteries, and misinformation. The Pocket Idiot's Guide to Freshwater Aquariums is very thorough, fun to read, and helpful. I'm glad that I have it in my reference collection. I find it to be very good and recommend it.

Good beginners book

I found this book very useful as a tool for getting back into tropical aquariums after a long hiatus. It doesn't go into much depth on the various filtration methods. The author admits that this topic is fairly lengthy. Other than that, the book covers all other freshwater aquaria topics very well. The author gives tons of useful shortcuts to simplify aquarium setup.