Identification Books

[Goliath]

Guys,

 

I am sure this has been discussed before but can some of you pros out there give us novice Reefers some good books that can ID Inverts, Corals and Marine Fish. I would love to get my hands on a book that can tell me not just the look and location of an Invert or Coral but what type of lighting it needs, food it eats, how easy or hard it is to keep in a cptive reef etc...

 

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

 

Jeremy

[Masoch]

Marine Fishes

 

This is a catch-all for marine fish available to the aquarium trade. It's not great at IDing fish with large amounts of variablity (saddleback and clarkii clowns, for instance), but it does have notes on reef compatibility, size, agression, food, and pictures.

[DeskJockey]

Corals: A Quick Reference Guide, Julian Sprung

Inverts: A quick reference guide, Julian Sprung

Aquarium Corals, Eric Borneman

Reef Fishes Volume 1, Scott Michael

[Goliath]

you guys are the greatest

[sjpresley]

Goliath:

 

The problem with most books is that much if not most of the information is based on other literature and not experience so you will find the same "phraseology" and information in many sources which is often outdated and inaccurate.

 

The best solution is to have a varied library with books from both English speaking and non-english speaking sources. Besides the commonly recommended books by American authors the Baensch Marine atlases (German but the first 3 volumes have been translated) have a great deal of information and photos, so do the "Modern coral reef aquarium books" by Fossa and Nilson (great information from these European researchers and the English isn't too bad so they are readable, these are pretty expensive though). Opinions differ and the more perspectives you get the better you will be able to form a concept of what you can expect from an animal (or plant).

 

For coral information, I suggest starting with Borneman's book. It has the best information on a host of genera. The Sprung book is a good supplement.

 

Search around on ebay and search Amazon.com, click on the "used" books buttons and buy from their market place sellers; you should find some pretty good deals.

[R*Frost*]

Corals: A Quick Reference Guide, Julian Sprung    Inverts: A Quick Reference Guide, Julian Sprung

 

I agree i have both these books great at identifying corals and inverts.

 

in the coral one for each species they have

1.Feeding chart what they eat

2.lighting needs on a scale i.e 4-9 out of 10

3.water flow on sclae i.e 2-8 out of 10

4.aggresivness on scale i.e 8

5. Hardness on sclae like aggresivness

6. species info, compatibility, place ment on Rock with pic, similar species

 

in invert 1 :

1.species info, compatibilty

2.Hardiness not on scale, described

3. Description

4.Desirable/undesirable features

5.similar

6.food

7.special conditions

 

 

sry for the long post but these are amazing books. I think you can get them cheaper on amazon.co.uk if ya buy them together

 

hope this helped Simon