Good general fish reference books?

[Jayhawk]

I'm looking to update my fish bookshelf. While I have a wide collection of cichlid books, I don't have a good general tropical fish reference like Baensch or Axelrod, but I also don't want to spend 100s of dollars.

Any suggestions?

I'd thought of Axelrod's Aquarium Fish of the World (I think it's like 1000 pages or so).

I glanced through Axelrod's Mini-Atlas, but the scientific names are terribly out of date...

How about the Baensch atlases? Do you need all three and how up to date are they?

Thanks,

Eric

 

[RTR]

All of Dr. A's books were out of date or simply incorrect when originally published and they have not improved with age.

The best general book(s) available now are the Baensch Atlas series. Only the first three and the photo index are available in English. They are not perfect, but still the best by a wide margin.

 

[Jayhawk]

RTR - What is the difference between Atlas 1, 2 & 3? Is each just an updated version or is it simply volume one has certain fish families?

Thanks,

Eric

 

[RTR]

The books beyond the first expand on the fish families presented in the original, and add newer to the trade items or those lacking good pictures and info for the earliest volumes. There is no duplication other than a very small number of incorrectly named/pictured fish in #1which were corrected in #2.

 

[Jayhawk]

Thanks!