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Aquarium and Natural History Books

Think in Axerods time as you will see in Sir David Attenboroughs documentary about him as a young man it was a lot more difficult to access the Amazon parts of Africa and Asia years ago . I have read some of Axelrods journeys were debatable when he was actually there. Anyway his contribution to the natural world is undeniable.
 
When I was a child my dad had quite a few books, since obvs that's how you learnt everything then, though sadly I think he chucked them years ago. I recently went to Aquarium Gardens and also got a signed copy of Christel's book. It's really fantastic, a great resource, and now I have a lot of beautiful plants on my list that I hope will pop up to collect over the next few years.

Since I'm quite new to the hobby I've been spending all my cash on stuff for the aquariums so that's the first book I've got so far, I'd love to get a nice collection of books to go with it. The book on my list which I really want is Fishes of the Orinoco in the Wild by Mikolji, which looks absolutely stunning.
 
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Not really got any recommendations as all my books were marine but it's just really nice to hear that people still love them. I live in the past where having a physical copy is the only way to go, I've been gifted a few downloaded books but I've never read them, there is something about just sitting there thumbing through a real book.
 
So after seeing all these great books I compromised with myself and bought "Ecology of the Planted Aquarium: A Practical Manual and Scientific Treatise" in kindle format. It is about 1/4 of the price of the hardback and I have an ebook reader so I think it will work.
A book like Aquarium Plants probably wouldn't work so well in digital format and I don't think you can get it in digital format either.
 
The book on my list which I really want is Fishes of the Orinoco in the Wild by Mikolji, which looks absolutely stunning.
Yes, that looks amazing. If you sign up to Mikolji's newletter you might get a discount code. I think also if you follow him on social media.
He also has some great videos on YouTube (for those who didn't know).
Mikolji
 
It is a beautiful book, one of a few I’ve bought over the past few months with my increasing Biotope scape obsession:

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I’ve got Bleher’s biotopes, I also recommend it 👍

Fishes of the Orinoco I’ve had on my list for sometime, but I’m not super fussed to go out and get it.
 
Anyone know where this is available to purchase? Showing as available on Amazon, but is over a 100quid.
RRP is around £100 iirc
 
Anyone know where this is available to purchase? Showing as available on Amazon, but is over a 100quid.
You find these price differences all over wrongly justified by the name. A good example is vinyl records say the Beatles Doesnt matter that some copies out there in the millions the very iconic " Beatles" means sellers try to get as much as they can without rareity at all. See a bit similar with Diana Walsteds book. Shop aroundvas Smokey said
 
The "foundation" of my aquarium literature is: "aquarium atlas" by Hans A. Baensch and Dr Rüdiger Riel.
Vol 1 is in Swedish, has a section on chemistry, equipment and plants.
Vol 2 is only available in German (I think).
Vol 3 and 4 is in English.
Not really in depth presentation of species but a great tool for trying to identify fish.
 

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For anyone who want to learn more about fish I highly recommend reading: Fishes an introduction to ichthyology. By Peter B. Moyle and Joseph J. Czech, jr.
Books on ichthyology can by very heavy reading for a layman (like myself), but this book is toned down a bit when it comes to the technical language used. So it is much better for a "beginner" in that regard.
It roughly consists of these parts: structure and form, systematics,genetics,evolution, a presentation of different types of fish,zoogeography, ecology and more.
This book made me avare that the blood of fish is in direct contact with water through the gills. Think about it. Whatever is in the water is also in the blood of fish.
I particularly find the section on evolution interesting.
 

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