Pretty pictures, scary text, bad index

I concur with the other reviewers on bad proofreading. The icons cannot be relied on, even if you manage to figure out the mysterious equivalence between liters and cubic meters. Here's a couple other problems found in a quick read of a couple species I'm familiar with: Beta Fighting Fish (This book's symbols: Single Specimen and good community fish, minimum tank size 24 which is the same as most other beginner fish, but from reading another book they are happiest in 1 liter stagnant ponds with no other fish around to harrass them. I tried my beta in a 28 gallon tank and when three mollies were added, it showed signs of stress, so it is back in it's tiny tank and doing fine again.); Lyretail Black Molly is the only Molly listed while my pet store has a half dozen varieties.. Silver, Dalmation, standard tail, etc. (This book lists it as Single Specimen, not a community fish while another book that focuses on Mollies says these are happiest when scooling with others of the same kind.)

The organization and indexing is not suitable for a beginner. Suppose you wanted to find the Molly, like I did. You would have to know it is categorized as a Freshwater Livebearer AND called Poecilia Sphenops, or look it up under the common name index Lyretail Black Molly (sorted with the L's). Or, do like I did and flip through the pictures until you find it.

I'm returning this book and eagerly waiting for the 2nd or 3rd edition. Even though I really like the pictures, I need something more than a picture book.

[Friday, October 27, 2006]

WAKE UP THE PROOFREADER!!

We recently had the MISfortune of checking out the book: "THE AQUARIUM FISH HANDBOOK" from the library as we are beginning to get into tropical fish. While the reviews and cover-page blurbs sound glowing - within a few hours we found that the book was confusing (to say the least) on many points!
The first point is the "Minimum Volume" symbol; 24, 36, 48, 60, or 72 WHATS? The "Key" page says it could be "...gallons/liters or ... cubic feet/meters." There's a BIT of difference between a liter and a cubic meter, isn't there? If these are 'relative numbers' then 'relative to WHAT? Tank size, fish population, square inches, ???
Then there are the illustrations on page 12! On the bar graph "Tropical freshwater" is blue and is supposed to represent 1 inch of fish per 12 sq. in. of tank, "Tropical marine" is pink and represents 1 inch per 48 sq. in. but in the charts at the bottom of the page - the "tropical" box shows 9 pink fish while the "marine" box shows 36 BLUE fish! All in all, those calculations are correct but reversed! Then, to add insult to injury, the calculation for "Coldwater": four hundred and forty two divided by ONE HUNDRED and thirty? The proofreader was napping on this one!
The other "Oopsie" we have spotted in our cursory scan through the book was on page 103, re Altum Angelfish. The little Hand Symbol of dificulty rates this fish as number ONE or "Easiest to care for" while the "Special care" paragraph of this section states "This fish ... is an extremely dificult and delicate fish to keep"???? Which is it?
And this is just from a brief scan through the book from a simple, logical viewpoint. Paraphrasing the TV show "CSI": "little mistake - BIG mistake"! With these errors that should be easy to spot in the book - can we REALLY rely on the OTHER data presented therein? It is not too great a stretch of imagination that just these errors and confusions I have named could cost someone a good deal of effort, time AND money if someone relied 100% on this book! Clearly, we are glad that we checked the book out of our local library - for FREE - and didn't waste our money on it!

[Wednesday, July 26, 2006]

I'm returning this book

I've got to disagree with the previous reviewer, Gen, on this one! I would NOT recommend this book. It is very attractive with lovely pictures, but I found it full of errors and contradictions. Here are a few I found in about 20 minutes of browsing:

page 12: the graphics of tropical and marine fish are reversed, making it look like it's okay to keep 36 inches of marine fish when it's really 9 (the text is correct)

page 103: the Altum Angelfish is desribed as "an extremely difficult and delicate fish to keep," but the it gets a 1 (easiest) on the "ease of keeping" scale. Huh?

Numerous examples of fish being given a "safe with small fish" symbol, but being described in the text as eating small fish, See porkfish (page 239), flame hawkfish (238) and long-nosed hawkfish (239), for example.

I bought this book to help me select peaceful marine fish that would be reef-safe, but because of these issues it's useless to me and I'm returning it. It's a shame, because it is a great-looking, well-organzied book.

[Saturday, July 24, 2004]

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