Cichlid Book

[OgreMkV]

I just got a book at Petsmart.

An owner's guide to a happy healthy fish
The Cichlid
by: Mary E. Sweeney

Seems like a good book. Light on tank setup details, but seems to have good detail on the fish. Giving (uniquely in my experience) the binomial and common name and a pretty good pic.

More when I finish it.

[jpappy789]

let us know, i might want to checkl it out!

[jm1212]

nice find.

[OgreMkV]

the book does a fairly complete job of describing the chemistry of fish tanks (pH, DH or hardness, etc.).

It does an OK job describing the various fish. There is a chapter on Dwarfs, African, and American Ciclids. There are a few pictures. It was an annoyance that she described one particular cichlid as being one of the most beautiful, but didn't include a picture of that one.

Some of the descriptions were more complete than others. Some just had a few sentences. This is a cichlid. It likes this water. It is aggressive during mating. Some had a page long description.

There is a fairly complete chapter on cichlid behavior and the various reasons for aggression. That was a very interesting section.

It's an OK book. I'd give about 3 stars. I would call it a beginner book, except there are several important things missing (like cycling and acclimation). It's not an expert book either because of the general knowledge and the lack of significant species details.

I'm going to be making an Amazon Order pretty soon and will try to pick up another book for the care and keeping of cichlids.