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Re: [Killietalk] Killietalk Digest, More good, old books
Hi Scott,
I agree that Willy Jocher reads as an amazing aquarist but for me his books published in Germany in the late 60's and by TFH in the early 70's are more an example of what all old school serious breeders did. Herbie's Breeding Aquarium Fishes books were not so much inspired by Jocher but were based on articles by two men from the same school of thought as Jocher -- Richter of East Germany and the the Chech aquarist and shop owner Zukal. The Breeding series of TFH was made up of many reprints from the magazine of Zukal and Richter articles, plus pieces by other people. The whole series of small books by German authors that TFH brought out in the early 70's and that Jocher's books were a part of was based on a series put out in Germany in the late 60's (talk about advanced!). The original publisher is listed in the TFH editions. I get the impression that Jocher was East German. The East germans were always considered particularly fine aquarists. Wasn't that the region
of Germany where Neons were first bred because it had more areas of soft acid water? If you read Aquarium Journal in the 50's and saw Walter Berthodt's wonderful articles you would have seen Jocher's philosophy there. I think it was just the wisdom of the day that we lost during the African cichlid craze and have since rediscovered.
Bobby
Scott Davis <unclescott at prodigy_net> wrote:
Mark, I hope you feel less down in the mouth soon. I wouldn't be doing so well soon after oral surgery.
If those were the two slim volumes on spawning problem fish out in about 1972 I think they were by Willy Jocker, translated from the German. He also wrote the slim but useful book on foods for aquarium and terrarium (which included some items startlingly unfamiliar to aquarists, but probably not to herp people..) Talk about good things in small packages!
Either for those who read those books soon afterwards or some years later - as in my case - they may have had a revolutionary impact upon participation in the hobby. Jocker assumed that fish could be spawned. If they thrived with the tap water and food a person could conveniently provide, so much the better. In an elegantly simple approach, if the fish weren't spawning one should check the nature of the fish's native waters for basic chemistry, especially mineral level and temperature. Adjustments should be made while endeavoring to feed as many live foods (or veggies in selected cases) as possible. Simpler said then done, he challenged the aquarist to find out all that he could about the fish's diet, biology, habitat and spawning habits.
Guys like Scheel in his letters, articles, and ROTOW were already doing that, but here was a person painting that theme across the entire freshwater hobby. In a sense that was also what innovators in the marine hobby would begin doing later.
I'm not privy to what was going on at TFH back then (or ever) but one could also see those volumes as precursors for Axelrod's sometimes very useful series on breeding aquarium fishes, The latter, in larger print, by their very nature could be interpreted as a tribute to Jocker's books.
All the best!
Scott
Anubias Design wrote: Larry,
That's a good one. Another good spawning series is, I think, Breeding (or Spawning?) Problem Fishes by Richter, which is 2 books published by TFH. I could be wrong on that. I'm in bed after oral surgery and not going to go downstairs to check the bookshelf tonight.
Mark
Hello Everyone,
I have one more little "classic" aquarium/fish breeding book that is a gem of a find if you should ever run across it. "Breeding Aquarium Fishes", published by the now long defunct, Aquarium Stock Company, 1961.
A collection of breeding "recipes" translated from German to English.
Full of useful info that never goes out of date. The attention to details is amazing that these pioneering breeders took to spawn fish over 75 years ago that we still consider "difficult" fishes to breed, incuding many killifish.
Regards,
Larry Waybright
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