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| Dr. Axelrod's Atlas of Freshwater Aquarium Fishes | 
| Authors: Glen S. Axelrod, Warren E. Burgess, Neal Pronek, Herbert R. Axelrod
Publisher: TFH Publications
Category: Book
List Price: $99.95
Buy New: $59.97
You Save: $39.98 (40%)
New (15) from $59.97
Avg. Customer Rating:  31 reviews
Sales Rank: 449712
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 11
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 1160
Shipping Weight (lbs): 9.1
Dimensions (in): 11 x 8.7 x 2.8
ISBN: 079380616X
Dewey Decimal Number: 639
EAN: 9780793806164
ASIN: 079380616X
Publication Date: July 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
Whether you are a dedicated tropical fish hobbyist, researcher, dealer, or wildlife agent, Dr. Axelrod's Atlas of Freshwater Aquarium Fishes offers a reliable zoogeographical method of listing species for a unique and simplified approach to fish identification. With hundreds of taxonomic changes since the previous edition, the Atlas incorporates a common name index as well as a scientific name index to the species identified within. It also provides full-color photos for more than 7,000 species of freshwater fishes from around the world, with emphasis on the most popular groups. New and improved photos of key species increase the informational value of the book over the previous edition.
Species added to this 11th edition of the Atlas include several rare livebearing species, along with a wide assortment of new-to-the-book fishes from the popular Neotropical cichlids group, South American killifish species, South American loricariid catfish group, and relatives of the popular Siamese Fighting Fish, Betta splendens. Added species very recently appearing on the aquarium scene also include the Vietnamese White Cloud, Endler's Livebearer, the Goo-Obo Gudgeon, Denison's Red Lined Barb, and the Dwarf Blue Rainbowfish among others.
Featuring newly added species, superior photography, and more informative content than ever before, the revised 11th edition of Dr. Axelrod's Atlas of Freshwater Aquarium Fishes is an essential ichthyological reference book that provides quick but accurate identifications to a wide selection of the hobby's most notable aquarium fishes.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 26 more reviews...
 Dr. Axelrod's Atlas of Freshwater Aquarium Fishes October 23, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The book serves to identifying any fish provided if one knows the scientific names. If the target audience are technically competent it will serve its intended purpose. But for the general hobbyists/fish keepers or even fish dealers the scientific names are impossible to remember. Even to pronounce them correctly seems impossible. By far the common names are more acceptable and meaningful to them. Even speaking to technical people the common names are more often used. I am not suggesting that the scientific names be dropped but be mention as an additional information to those who needs it. What I meant was that; the far the majority of hobbyists/fish keepers; young and old, technically minded or not would appreciate the common names as a reference.
Personally, I do find it difficult to locate a fish. It must be somewhere in the book! Maybe it helps if you know the region of the world it comes from as that will narrow down your search.
On the whole I know lots of work and effort has gone into the making of the book and credit must be given to all responsible.
 Excellent June 4, 2007
I bought this book when I started getting really into the hobby and I absolutely am impressed with the quality of the photos, how the fish are separated by continent and other useful information. I frequently check back with the names of the fish and where these fish come from. I guess the only not serious complaint is that it does not contain the common name for the fish, only the latin. Although, I could see how hard it could be to list the several common names of each fish, since it's already so huge!
Dr Axelrod's Atlas of Freshwater Aquarium Fishes January 10, 2007
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
The book delivered by Amazon was in Excellent Condition.
This Book displays pictures and details of fishes not available in other Atlas I have bought, so it is worth every dime.
Large, clear pictures of all freshwater fishes, great for reference.
Lots of pictures... but what is this fish? August 16, 2006
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I bought this book to help me identify fish. Have it worked so far? No.
First, it only names the fish in latin (scientific) name, which is a little frustrating to me. Sometimes, I need to cross info from other sources to reach the specimen I'm looking for.
Second, you need to know the continent where it comes from.
I've also found some errors in the information. The freshwater stingray, for example, is catalogued as an egglayer, while it's a livebearer fish.
This books is huge, and looks great in your library or stacked in your desk.
Impressive Picture book; useless otherwise July 26, 2006
16 out of 17 found this review helpful
This book has changed a lot since the first edition. Mostly, it has removed information and added pictures. LOTS of pictures. It is more of a coffee-table book than any kind of aquarium guide. But even the pictures are of uneven quality. I was shocked that the only picture included for a couple of fairly common fish were of dead, poorly-preserved specimens. Yikes!
The authors' stated purpose for this book is "This book was created with the express purpose of making the identification of fishes easier for hobbyists, aquarists, and scientists alike."
Well, if that was the goal, it fails miserably. The book is organized based on geographic area where the fish originates. Think about it. If you saw a fish and wanted to know what it was, would you somehow instinctively know which continent it came from? Of course not. You might want to identify it based on its colors or shape or whatever. The book does not function as an identification guide.
Although most info has been removed, there is some very terse info below each picture as small text and icons. The text lists info such as pH, ideal water temperature (in Centigrade), maximum adult length (in cm), and minimum tank size (in litres). Although it does not tell you what these mean, any intermediate or higher fishhkeeper should be able to figure it out.
The icons are not particularly clear unless you already know the fish. For example, the icon for egg-scatterer versus livebearer is only obvious if you know what the fish is to begin with. More importantly, I can find nowhere in the book where it actually tells what the icons mean. This is very sloppy.
The index is also horrendous, failing to include a number of entries, and including numerous false entries. For example, the first page entry listed for Scleropages jardini sends you to a page that does not contain pictures of jardini, and in fact is a section for a different continent.
Even the quality of the pictures is uneven. For some fish, the coverage is extensive, with a lot of pictures showing different color strains, breeding colors, and so on. Yet for other fish, the coverage is incomplete. For example, there are three pictures of Silver Arrowana, and all three show just-hatched arrowanas. Why not show an adult? The fish changes as it gets older. Also, there are only four pictures of Astronatus (Oscars), showing only 4 color patterns. It's absolutely shocking to me that the abino and tiger albino forms are not shown. They've been in the trade for well over a decade before this edition was published.
My last complaint is that they have been adding pages by adding them as decimal additions. For example, they added 16 pages of pictures of Swordtails (16 pages!) after page 432, and numbered them as pages 432.01, 432.02, etc. The reason for this, of course, is that it means less work adjusting the index, etc., and 16 pages in one place from a publishing standpoint is easier, because it means not changing the rest of the plates. But from a reader's standpoint, it is sloppy and unforgivable, considering the price of the book.
To summarize, this book contains an incredible array of pictures. On the plus side, it has pictures of many fish you'll find nowhere else. It is massive and impressive. The pages are slick and glossy and the physical production standards are high. On the down side, it is badly in need of extensive, high-quality, detailed editing to correct the numerous glaring errors and omissions.
Frankly, this is overall a hugely disappointing effort and I simply can't recommend plunking down such a high price for this edition.
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