[Killietalk] Fish books was Rivulins of the Old World

[Scott Davis <unclescott at prodigy_net>]

>Yes, I like fish books.

>Earl

Somebody in the hobby exhorted advanced aquarists (and I would include most killie people there) to not just read aquarium books, but to read good fish books.

Their point was that as one expands their horizons they not only get better at their specialty or specialties, but they gain an even greater appreciation for the world of nature and fishes in general.

Having retired, until a better offer is made, it is nice to have a little time to read. Really need to re-re-read the following and claim no expertise in those subject areas. But they have been worth the while.

After Wildekamp's World of Killies came J.H. Huber's Comparison of Old World and New World Tropical Cyprinodonts, which suggests how many of the old world and new world tropical killies came to be where they are. That could be followed by Hocutt and Wiley's Zoogeography of North American Freshwater Fishes. I don't pretend to understand all of that clearly but I have a greater appreciation for how different species have come to be where they are.

Tropical Fishlopedia: A Complete Guide to Fish Care by M. Bailey & P. Burgess is one of the best of the works on the aquarist's craft (currently on clearance sale at www.hamiltonbook.com ) and may or may not  lead to interest in Glenn Hoffman's Parasites of North American Fishes, 2nd Edition.

Goldstein, Harper and Edward?s American Aquarium Fishes certain belongs on a shelf of honor with those works.

One can also encounter

Richard Adams Cary's Philosopher Fish: Sturgeon, Caviar and the Geography of Desire

William W. Warner's,Beautiful Swimmers: Watermen, Crabs, and the Chesapeake Bay.

John McPhee's Founding Fish - The Shad which follows the fishery and biology of that fish from colonial times through the revolution (where it is somewhat mythically a hero in that struggle) to the present.

Those last three are all rich accounts not only of those specific animals and their life histories, but also of the natural and human history of the world around them. 

Would like to get and read Snakehead: A Fish Out of Water by Eric Jay Dolin and Trevor Corson's The Secret Life of Lobsters.

What other books (with Father?s day and summer looming, or with a retroactive mother?s day present still viable) would you suggest? 

Thanks,
Scott

 
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