[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Scheel's ROTOW
Hi,
Scheel's Atlas is very nice and the breeding information is good, but
for my money it is inferior to his original RIVULINS OF THE OLD WORLD, a book
that has to be considered one of the 10 best ever written on aquarium fish. (
Along with Innes' EXOTIC AQUARIUM FISHES, Sterba's FRESHWATER FISHES OF THE
WORLD, Sterba's AQUARIUM CARE, Ida Mellen's brilliant 1001 ANSWERS TO
QUESTIONS ABOUT AQUARIUM FISHES, Horst and Kipper's THE OPTIMUM AQUARIUM,
Holly, Rachow and Meinken's DIE AQUARIEN FISCHE IM WORT UND BILD, Jacob's
LIVEBEARING AQUARIUM FISHES, Stoye's TROPICAL FISH FOR THE HOME, Romer's
CICHLID ATLAS vol. 1, All the BAENSCH ATLASES, The Pet Library series of fish
books in the 1960's and Barron's remarkable series of fish books today.)
Scheel's photos in ROTOW are stunning. Think of how many people came to
killies because of those lovely males photographed with the classic black
background -- stunning. The other thing that is wonderful about ROTOW is that
it is a great history of the killie hobby. Scheel researched the original
reports on so many species that appeared in the famous weekly fish
newspapers/magazines that the germans published before WW II. Unlike today's
all too brief "infomercial" style of de-humanized, jargon driven,
corporate/computer-influenced writing, Scheel is a storyteller in the grand
tradition and the ease and time he takes to recount the original importation
and description of species weaves a spell in the reader's mind. No doubt the
power of the writing has sent countless hobbyists to Africa to collect the
fish. The TFH ATLAS cuts out a great deal of the grace and knowledge found in
the original even though it covers more and newer species.
Robert E.
---------------
See http://www.aka.org/AKA/subkillietalk.html to unsubscribe
Join the AKA at http://www.aka.org/AKA/Applic.htm