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Aquarium and Natural History Books

Picked this lot up for £10 today, looks to be some nice books in here, along with a load of 1970s aquarist magazines!
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Hi all,
For god sake who put that book at the bottom!?
I don't know, but "How be you bud?" is an English (west country) greeting to a friend.

It might be quite good as an emergent plant? and who knows whether it might remain dwarfed and flower under an aquarium light?

Years ago we had a mature student who had worked professionally in the "horticultural industry" in the Netherlands and he first told me about light crawlers, using light wavelength to produce the crop you wanted and aeroponics.

cheers Darrel
 
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Picked this lot up for £10 today, looks to be some nice books in here, along with a load of 1970s aquarist magazines!View attachment 197457
Nice haul, I have some of those too. The Complete Aquarium Encyclopedia was my aquarium bible growing up and is referenced in A Brief and Incomplete History of Aquascaping. A great book and still very relevant.

 
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These are my go to books. The last one ‘The Living Aquarium’ was published in 1979 and was my go to for many years. It’s still great for the basic ecology of aquariums and the nitrogen cycle etc. The Aquarium Atlas is published in 5 volumes and is very comprehensive.
 

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So on a related note I'm interested to see what people think of as their most valuable fish keeping book. If you had to buy one book to give as a gift to a new fishkeeper what would you choose? Would it be something practical or something inspiring or both?
 
These are my go to books. The last one ‘The Living Aquarium’ was published in 1979 and was my go to for many years. It’s still great for the basic ecology of aquariums and the nitrogen cycle etc. The Aquarium Atlas is published in 5 volumes and is very comprehensive.
The living aquarium is the first aquarium book I remember getting, and I’ve never let it go.
 
First of two recent purchases, this one arrived today.

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Couldn't resist buying it after reading the "Book blurb" description that's written on the back cover.

Blurb:
"Here are the happy and colourful little fish flitting through the verdant forests of aquarium plants, both plants and fish held in perfect balance through the marvelous workins of natural forces in your aquarium, the entire uni achieving blissful stasis as the waste products of the fish nourish the grateful plants, with turn generously contribute their bounty of lifegiving oxygen for the fish in this aquatic wonderland.
Forget it. As author David E.Boruchowtitz points out, there's no such thing as a perfectly balanced aquarium. The biosystems at play in even the smallest fish tank are too complex for us to ever fully understand, much less completely control. But sensible use of today's excellent aquarium equipment allows hobbyists to create a very satisfactory artificial substitue for "balance" in the home aquarium once they know how true balances are achieved in nature. This book explains both sides of the story-the natural biosystems as well as how to use the equipment available-in a text markes as much by its refreshing clairty as by its interesting and highly useful recommendations."


I'd have maybe chosen a picture for the front cover that didn’t show deficiencies, guess the author wasn't using ei in this tank.

Will reserve judgement on the book until I've read it.
 
Will reserve judgement on the book until I've read it.
It's got to have some good content though, be interesting to get your review either way John 👍
Finally managed to get my hands on a copy of this. It's as rare as hens teeth these days....

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Finally managed to get my hands on a copy of this. It's as rare as hens teeth these days....
Very nice find Tim and definitely a book I'd like to add to the collection one day.

As a side note: my beloved other half phoned me at work today asking if I'd been ordering more aquarium books... "it was cheap" I replied.
Being the master of distraction I swung by aldi on the way home and got her two lovely bunches of tulips, which seemed to do the trick and she hasn't mentioned the book tonight.
The purchase price of my book was £2.50, so think I'll have to up my game in the flower department if I ever shell out for Bleher's Biotopes.

It's got to have some good content though, be interesting to get your review either way John 👍
18 pages in and enjoying it so far, will report back with honest review once finished.
 
18 pages in and enjoying it so far, will report back with honest review once finished.

Well finished the book and here's my review.

The books main theme of "balance" is basically based on water changes, the author repeats on numerous occasions that this happens in nature, so needs to happen within our closed systems. I'm not sure if this is a side swipe aimed at the walstad type tanks or not.
He does accept that if a tank were to be heavily planted, and had a very light fish load then maybe then a balancing act could be achieved.

Plant's seem somewhat of an after thought in the book, with his preference for epiphytes and even then they only get a casual mention. So don't rush out to buy it if your looking for hints and tips on growing aquarium plants.

There's also a chapter on filters that @dw1305 would love. The author deems filters as the "work horses of the nitrogen cycle" he goes on to say that plants alone simply cannot keep up with the amount of ammonium produced in the average aquarium, the bulk of nitrification happens inside these filters.

Having said all that I enjoyed reading the book. It touches on the scientific side of water to some extent and also gives insights in to how water cycles itself in nature. There's a decent section on basic biotope set ups and another section on fish wellbeing.

Ultimately the main theme running throughout the book is water change, water change, water change; the more the merrier.

So would i recommend the book...
Yes, for anybody new to fish keeping I'd suggest they'll learn things that would be beneficial to fish health. For anybody that's a seasond aquarist, especially if you have a planted tank then you might want to give it a miss 😉

"Meanwhile, back at the ranch"

Latest purchases...

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