(Part 2) Best fish & aquarium care books according to redditors

Sponge filters are good for filtration in these kind of circle tanks. Shrimp really don't need heaters, your house being around 60-70 should be enough to keep them satisfied. https://www.amazon.com/dp/189008719X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_6GsTCbQHZ1KB5 is a good book that lists pretty much all common aquarium plants as well as things like difficulty in keeping them and other things like that, if you go to a local fish store they will probably have some plants somewhere in the store you can chose from. Stock looks mostly like small shrimp. Pretty much just Google aquarium shrimp. Your local fish store may have some or you can buy them from somewhere like eBay. If you are looking to start something like this I'd recommend looking into the nitrogen cycle. If you don't look into it there will me chemicals in your water that will kill the shrimp. If you have any questions feel free to ask, I've been keeping shrimp for a while now and fish even longer 🙂

We have a beginner guide on our wiki for setting up proper tanks as well as guides on breeds for free.

personally I found a lot of the beginner books to be a bit too... idk, shallow? There wasn't much depth to the information. Then there are nicer books that are like text books... and cost about as much. I know a lot of people like this one and this one but I've never read either personally and I have a hard time recommending the mini one as it's talking about putting goldfish in 10gal tanks which just doesn't work (the smallest get to about the size of an adult hand. they wont fit in a 10gal...) but I've never read it so I'm not sure if there are some other great tidbits muddled in with bad info.

NANFA.org, all the way

Also, I've got a great book on the subject.

http://www.amazon.com/Betta-Bible-Science-Keeping-Bettas-ebook/dp/B00UQPQJFY

That's a great book. The paperback is pricey, but the kindle unlimited one is free.

Look on youtube, there are several very informative videos. Look up betta barracks DIY for some ideas on containers for them when they grow. I've never bred them but am researching it myself. Sorry I don't have any definite links, but there is a shit ton of info out there if you google it.

http://www.fishlore.com/fishforum/betta-breeding/37434-step-step-guide-breeding-bettas.html

Look at the stickies here: http://www.bettafish.com/forumdisplay.php?f=98

and this looks good: http://bettasource.com/forums/

When I first started my hobby, I picked up a copy of Saltwater Aquariums for Dummies. I found it to be MUCH more useful than The New Marine Aquarium. (If you're just getting into the hobby). I've always enjoyed The Pocket Expert Guide to Marine Fishes and the Marine Invertebrates as well. With the pocket experts, I find their information to be different from other sources that I use to research a fish before I make a decision to buy or not. A book that I can't seem to finish but always find myself skimming through is the Plankton Culture Manual. It can be a difficult read at times (for me anyways) but it's very helpful when you want to culture something.

I'm really looking for a book to help identify hitchhikers, but I can't seem to find one. Hopefully this thread turns a leaf. I've picked up the Reef Creature Identification books in hopes they would be what I was looking for, but they weren't.

The Nano-Reef Handbook Was a fun read as well. Gives you many ideas for the nano aquarium.

Last but not least, Algae: A problem Solver Guide has really helped when it came to figuring out how to battle algae or which algae would be awesome to have in a tank for decorative purposes.

I suggest reading some books on it. This isn't the best place to gather info. I'm not calling you a dummy, but this is a great book to start with http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001U3YQQU/ref=cm_sw_r_an_am_ap_am_us?ie=UTF8

Thank you for posting this, I just found a new subreddit to subscribe to.

And to the OP, when I said I'd seen a similar setup for water dragons, I meant juvies. An adult will need a much larger enclosure, with plenty of vertical space to climb. If you're interested, a really great book on the subject is Animals and Fishes in Aquaterrariums.

Here you go!

First and foremost you need to either find a really good store that will support you through it, a good book, and/or a good local reef club. If there are no local clubs, there is a wealth of information at Reef Central online, though those guys are kinda jerks to new people.

A great first S/W book: http://www.amazon.com/New-Marine-Aquarium-Step-Step/dp/1890087521

A more thorough, but a little dense to start with: http://www.amazon.com/Conscientious-Marine-Aquarist-Commonsense-Successful/dp/1890087025

The one thing they seem to leave out of marine biology is captive husbandry. I'm sure you get a little exposure to it, but it's not like doing it yourself.

Here's an oldie but goodie: https://www.amazon.com/Exotic-Aquarium-Fishes-Innes-Book/dp/B0014V63VY. Was given an old copy with my first tank years ago.

​

The book has been around for decades. Some of the material is a little out of date but still tons of good basic fishkeeping info

the booklet

He apparently wrote some more books on them, as far as i know only in german but you could translate them with google?

For fluorescent light I know she recommends 1-3 watts per gallon.
I'm not sure what is the equivalent watts in LED since It can be different depending on manufacturer.

In this book the author also uses the walstad method and he measures the necessary light using lumens. He says that most aquarium plants need up to about 120-160 lumens per gallon of water to grow their best. Not sure if this information is correct.

I pulled all my lessons from online so finding a physical book, written towards children, was difficult.

I think this one is a good pick though from reading the reviews

"This book is written in a very accessible manner, as if the author is in your living room giving a friendly chat about his experience in the hobby."

The first aquarium book I ever read was "The 101 Best Tropical Fishes" By Kathleen Wood. I really enjoyed the book it wasn't over whelming, about half of each page is taken up by a photo of the fish in a tank suited for it. The rest of the page was a detailed description of the fish and what sort of things to look out for. I picked it up at Petsmart while I was getting a toy for my dog and I have been hooked on aquariums ever since. I should add that there are also many other books in the same series, for example.

This is a great book about planted aquariums.

This one about brackish fish is awesome as well.

Addition. Basic FW fish book

I look to Mike Paletta's [Ultimate Marine Aquariums] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1890087742) for inspiration. It's a little outdated now, but it derails around 25 of the top reefs around the world 8-10 yrs ago. He took good notes about what makes the serious successful, interviewed the reefers, and took amazing photos.

Test kits aren't a bad idea; but yeah. I can see how that might come across as preachy.

I wouldn't recommend CO2. CO2 is kind of fiddly; there's all kinds of fish-killing potential with a pressurized CO2 setup. If she's not up to using test kits then CO2 is probably not a good idea.

Have you considered books? I guess most people go online these days; but a book can actually be really nice to have. This one is neat; it's got colour photos and (really) short caresheets for most fish (and plants). This one is awesome if you want to learn how planted tanks work. These ones will make you feel completely inadequate about your fish tank (but are good inspiration for aspiring aquascapers).

Here is the mobile version of your link

I'm so sorry for your loss :( There are things that you can do to help protect your other fish from getting sick, but I hope you still recognize that you've already been taking extremely good care of your fish -- your little oranda was lucky that you were the one to take him home.

Goldfish are "unnatural" fish that are bred to maintain traits from their egg-shaped bodies to their fancy fins -- even their color is the product of specific breeding. This makes it so that sometimes, their breeding can compromise their health (like what may have happened with your oranda with his puffy wen). To be on the safe side, you might want to try to source your fancies from a respectable breeder (or even just shop around for the best pet store in your area). Goldfish can also be extremely difficult to take care of, mainly because so much about their care is still wrapped in unhealthy traditions and real experts are so few and far between. (I first got my comet from a pet shop that sold me a bowl, no water conditioner and told me he'd only live a month or two.)

This book from the creator of the Goldfish Connection is really helpful. Again, sorry for your loss.

Edit : BlueSanctum had the great idea of doing a garlic treatment for your sick fish, and thinking about it, maybe you should now look into feeding your other Oranda some garlic and/or doing some kind of garlic treatment ? Just in case your first oranda had a parasite or something which may spread to your second fish. In addition to the Koko's site, Goldfish Emergency has a good article on it.

Sprackland wrote a book once, named Animals and Fishes in Aquaterrariums (TFH, 1995)... try and source it, if you can.

https://www.amazon.com/Animals-Fishes-Aquaterrariums-Robert-Sprackland/dp/0793801257

Firebelly toads might look cute, but they're really unsuited to a mixed species viv, they will bite/eat anything that moves near them. Dart frogs, small pipids (ADFs, small Pipa sp, Silurana), Kaola pulchra and small tree frogs are all much better with other species.

[Nature Aquarium World] (http://www.amazon.com/Nature-Aquarium-World-Make-Beautiful/dp/0793800897)

really, no. once upon a time people fingerpainted and doodled, as a hobby, just for fun....what would our world be like if we'd stopped at that and never created the visual arts? do you know the works of takashi amano?