For Seller

By: Lisa Koosis

There’s nothing more relaxing than an owning an aquarium–the flash of brightly-colored tropical fish swimming around, the burble of moving water, the curtain of bubbles, the funny little “No Fishing” decorations. It’s entertaining, peaceful, and a great way to unwind at the end of a long workday.

Of course, there’s more to it than that. Aquariums of all sizes–from a goldfish bowl with a single fish to a 500-gallon saltwater tank–require a great deal of care, both to set up and to maintain. Between testing the pH of the water, picking out a filter, selecting compatible fish, preventing and curing the common ailments of fish, oxygenating the tank, and all of the other to-dos of an aquarium, some might think it would take an advanced degree to have even a small fish tank. At the very least, it’s bound to scare off some would-be hobbyists.

Barron’s book, “Aquarium Fish,” takes a lot of the mystery and the madness out of the chores of setting up a tank, offering up practical advice for setting up and maintaining your aquarium. There are chapters devoted to setting up your tank for the first time. There are chapters on keeping the water just right for your fish, on feeding the fish, breeding the fish, maintaining a healthy diet, etc. For more advanced hobbyists, there are even chapters on creating a natural environment for specific fish, detailing the environments for certain rock-cave-dwelling fish among others.

The best part of this book, however, is the section which profiles hundreds of freshwater fish that are commonly available for purchase. This section is broken down by family: rainbow fishes, barbs and danios, livebearers, catfishes, among others. There is even a section on aquatic oddities and one for plants for your aquarium.

With full-color photos and vital information on the care of these fish, this book becomes a must-have for an aquarium owner. For each individual fish, there is information on size, needs, and, most importantly, compatibility in a community, making it much easier to choose the proper fish for your own tank.

On another note, this is a well-constructed book with beautiful photos and pages heavy-duty enough that they are not likely to be easily-destroyed by a splash or two of water, so you can keep it handy when you’re working on your tank.

This isn’t the book for advanced aquarium hobbyists. For one thing, it is geared toward freshwater fish only. For a second thing, although the information is detailed, I suspect it is lacking in the depth of detail that an experienced hobbyist might seek out. This book is wonderful, however, for those in the beginning and intermediate levels of experience.

With the help of “Aquarium Fish,” published by Barron’s, it is possible to make the experience of owning an aquarium rewarding and–yes–relaxing, too.

This article has been submitted in affiliation with http://www.PetLovers.Com/ which is a site for Pet Forums.