The 101 Best Tropical Fishes: How to Choose & Keep Hardy, Brilliant, Fascinating Species That Will Thrive in Your Home Aquarium

by Kathleen Wood

The 101 Best Tropical Fishes features exclusive tips on the basics of selecting fishes, mixing and matching livestock in aquariums of various sizes, building compatible communities, husbandry basics for each species, and expert tricks for keeping fishes healthy and colorful. Suitable for both new and intermediate hobbyists, the book is organized for instant look-up, with color coding to highlight species that will fit into aquarium systems of different sizes along with full-color identifying photos for each fish.

Genres: Reference

192 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2007

Reviews

[Gowthaman Ilango · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book for beginners. The feeding chapter was very helpful to understand the importance of different types of diet needed to maintain healthy fish

[Sarah Morgan Sandquist · Rating 5 out of 5]

Properly more 3.5. Could use info about ideal water parameters, but a good guide to leaf through, with some lovely pics.

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good beginner’s guide and reference for keeping freshwater tropical fish. This is a concise book that provides basic information on selecting combinations of fish, focusing on species for 10 and 20 gallon aquariums, though with some species just for larger tanks. The fish profiles include notes on adult size, communal behavior, recommended group size, tank environment preferences, feeding, and breeding habits. Color coding makes it easier to reference, seperating the easier and more peaceful fish from the aggressive and territorial species. While I was familiar with the gallon per inch of fish rule of thumb, I didn’t know different fish tend to hang out at different levels of the tank—top, middle or bottom, and occasionally combinations, and how to use this information for a more balanced tank. The majority seemed to prefer a group of at least 3, which limits the number of species a 10 or 20 gallon tank can accommodate. There are also a few suggested combinations of fish based on tank size. After reading through the profiles of species, the selection at the pet store no longer seems quite as overwhelming.
There are also profiles of fish to avoid, some pretty creepy—fish that are aggressive, large, can survive for short periods out of the tank, and will jump out given the chance. (I may have nightmares....) There’s also basic guidance on feeding and breeding. Some of the feeding recommendations seemed unrealistic for a beginner/casual hobbyist: ideally, you should feed your fish small meals four times a day, and feed them prepared live food (or frozen/freeze dried that also must be prepared) five times a week. I barely manage to feed myself three times a day, let alone prepare meals daily. But the variety of foods seemed reasonable, and interestingly some fish really like green beans.

[Jo-Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was really informative. The author did cover a lot of fishes and it must have been difficult to give information on all of them. I liked the way she gave important and interesting facts on the fish but didn't go into so much detail on each that the reader was bored. I found the information I was looking for for the most part. But, unbelievably, I have one tropical fish I could not find in Wood's book.

[Jamesirwin19 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a good overview of many different fish. However, since it attempts to cover 101 fish as well as 33 to be avoided, the depth of coverage for each fish leaves a lot to be desired. The article in the back of the book by Mary Sweeney, "Preventing & Stopping Common Fish Diseases", is very helpful and made a great addition to this book.

[Horacio Morfin · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 out of five