Re: [Killietalk] WoK Volume 5 - was, A test

["Richard Pierce" <rwpierce at att_net>]

I hate to disagree, but I find the Wildekamp books to be invaluable.  They
contain a wealth of information not easily available elsewhere, although
some may not be of interest to the casual hobbyist.  They will stand for at
least a generation as THE source of killfish information for anyone
interested in serious research into any killifish species.

Each entry starts with the literature citation of the original description
of the species, followed by the etymology of the name and the type locality.
Next follows a list of synonyms, including the literature source of each
synonym.  This is the inforamtion that is crucial, but difficult to find if
you want to research a species.  From this it is possible to find and
examine all reports of a species in the literature, which will also let one
track down material held in various museums.  While most hobbyists will not
fund much use for this info, this is the "provenance" of each species.

Given the variation between populations, the meristics, chromosome numbers,
frontal scalation and lengths of each species may be of only limited use,
but it gives a starting place.  The habitat and distribution information is
useful to hobbyists as it gives clues to the water conditions under which
the species may be comfortable.

As for the breeding information, we all know fish that can be sucessfully
spawned and raised under different conditions by different people.  It gives
someone who is not familiar with a species a place to start.  And finally
there remarks about the species and their histories and the maps.

Color photos would have been nice but I am sure would have multiplied the
cost by several times.  Furthermore, it would be a monumental work to get
high quality photos of each species, nevermind multiple populations of each
species (There are 15 populations of A. christyi pictured in Wildekamp vol
1).  I have been photographing killies for a couple of years now, and I stil
don't have good photos of every fish in my fishroom.  It can take hours to
get a good picture of one fish, nevermind the pair.  I find that the Aqualog
volumes, combined with certain web sites give decent photos of most
killifish, but there are still some holes.

As for price, a set of the 3 Aqualog volumes on killifish will set you back
$204.  An AKA member could purchase the softcover versions of the World of
Killies volumes 1-4 for $170.  Assuming the 5th volume is priced the same as
Vol 4, the total for the 5 volume set would be $220.  And I don't find that
the icons in the aqualog volumes give very specific information, although
the introductions to each group at the beginning of the books are generally
excellent.

As for time: 12 years for a monographic treatment of a group as large as
killies is not that long.  In the area of my doctoral research, the
monograph on my study organisms was published in 1929, based mostly on
samples collected in 1904 & 1905.  The authors published a second monograph
ten years later, and these two works are still the definitive (if now
outdated) source for this group.

Finally, I was under the impression that works like the Wildekamp volumes
and the KMI were part of the mission of the AKA.





-----Original Message-----
From: killietalk-bounces+rwpierce=att_net at aka.org
[mailto:killietalk-bounces+rwpierce=att_net at aka.org]On Behalf Of John
Wubbolt
Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2007 4:49 PM
To: killifish discussion list
Subject: Re: [Killietalk] WoK Volume 5 - was, A test


Wasnt there a time limit put into the contract when it was made?   12
years and they're not done seems like an awefully long time.   Too bad
no holds to contracts or enforces them.

Thats alot of money put into these books for ppl to have been made to
wait so long for them to be completed.

Personally i find them a wast of money.. no pics, just line drawings, no
breeding info on most of the stuff.... The aqualogs gave me better pics,
and almost as much info... at a fraction of the costs.. but then again,
thats my opinion.

John

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