This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Written by tropical fish experts with over 30 years experience, The Discus includes all the information a new fish keeper needs to begin this exciting hobby: how to select a tank; proper water conditions; nutrition; and breeding your own beautiful fish. Like all the titles in the Owner's Guide series, The Discus is filled with info-packed sidebars and striking color photos. This book helps make keeping Discus a fun and rewarding experience for the hobbyist.

Written by tropical fish experts with over 30 years experience, The Discus includes all the information a new fish keeper needs to begin this exciting hobby: how to select a tank; proper water conditions; nutrition; and breeding your own beautiful fish. Like all the titles in the Owner's Guide series, The Discus is filled with info-packed sidebars and striking color photos. This book helps make keeping Discus a fun and rewarding experience for the hobbyist.

The number of corals imported into the U.S. rose 249 percent between 1995 and 1996, an indication the coral reef hobby is booming. Concerned hobbyists have begun growing corals domestically so that people can enjoy reef tanks without destroying natural reefs. This book combines information on setting up and maintaining a reef, as well as ecological concerns.

Freshwater Aquariums for the Novice or Experienced Aquarist, Freshwater Aquariums in Your Life covers setting up the tank, the ideal fish to keep in your community aquarium and how to keep your fish and aquarium in top condition through good care and regular maintenance. The practical, easy-to-use information tells you what you need to know so you can spend more time enjoying your aquarium. Freshwater Aquariums in Your Life includes a special chapter on the best and worst fish to keep in your aquarium. Beautiful professional photos take you into the world of the aquarium and its creatures. The info-packed sidebars and fun facts make caring for your aquarium easy and rewarding.

The Cichlid: An Owner's Guide to a Happy Healthy Fish is the cichlid source for the freshwater aquarium hobbyist. Everything you need to know about cichlids is here, from choosing healthy fish to keeping them well fed. You'll get an analysis of the water conditions preferred by all the most popular members of the cichlid family and advice on how to provide your fish with conditions in which they will thrive. You'll also learn how to arrange the decor in your tank so that it is pleasing to both you and your fish, as well as how to select tankmates for your cichlids (with their aggressive tendencies, no simple matter). Written by an experienced fish-keeper, The Cichlid: An Owner's Guide to a Happy Healthy Fish, includes a wealth of information to help you understand your cichlid's behavior so that caring for your fish is all the more fun. With info-packed sidebars and stunning color photos, this is the cichlid book that hobbyists will most enjoy.

"For years I have augmented my income by working as a hack writer, penning throwaway articles for anyone who will pay me. Regularly, I would get the bus into Exeter City Centre, and sneak into W.H.Smiths and peruse the magazines for sale, and make a surreptitious list of any new publications whom I could approach to buy an article from me. One day in the late winter, I was doing just this when I found a copy of a magazine called Koi Carp. With my tongue firmly in cheek, I telephoned them, and asked whether they would be interested in an article - or even a series of articles - about the fortean aspects of their hobby. Much to my surprise and gratification they accepted, and so I started work on my first article. I had been so used to working for fly-by-night publications, that I had stopped taking a long-term view of my writing work. I was lucky if a series I wrote lasted three issues, so the fact that I knew next to nothing about the fortean aspect of koi carp-keeping didn't really matter. However, on this occasion, I was hoist by my own petard, as the series carried on for nearly two years After six or seven issues, I bit the bullet, and started to employ the old journalistic adage that one should never let the truth get in the way of a good story. Some of the stories that follow are true. Some are mostly true, others have a germ of truth, and even the ones that I made up are based on true events. I think my proudest moment as a journalist came after the publication of "They Saved Hitler's Koi," when Simon Wolstencroft, an old friend of mine, and then editor of a sister-magazine to the one for which I was working, sent me the following email. 1.How did you think you would get away with having this printed? 2.How did you get away with it? For goodness sake, don't read these stories looking for any firm insights into the history and culture of koi keeping, but I hope that they may give you some little amusement, because that was the spirit in which they were written."

The only current field guide to sharks and rays of the West Coast of British Columbia. Sharks! The very mention of the word conjures up images of dangerous creatures with a voracious appetite. This public image couldn't be farther from the truth for a vast majority of shark species: most are cautious and placid, and many inhabit waters that exclude them from human contact. Much fear of sharks is driven by media reports or films that sensationalize shark attacks, despite the rarity of such occurrences. So much about sharks, and their relatives, makes them fascinating, and we still have much to learn. This book is for everyone interested in learning more about sharks and their relatives. It provides the most accurate and up-to-date information on chondrichthyans in British Columbia waters, including detailed species descriptions and identification information. Richly illustrated and with underwater photographs by Andy Murch, Sharks, Skates, Rays and Chimeras of British Columbia presents sharks and their relatives as valuable members of our coastal fish community, worthy of respect, study, admiration and protection.

This book is a comprehensive identification guide to the 222 species of fishes in Florida's fresh waters. Each species is presented with color photographs, key characteristics for identification, comparisons to similar species, habitat descriptions, and dot distribution maps. Florida's unique mix of species includes some of the world's favorite sport fishes, the Tarpon and Largemouth Bass. This guide also features three species native only to Florida-the Seminole Killifish, Flagfish, and Okaloosa Darter-and the smallest freshwater fish in North America, the Least Killifish. Ranging from the panhandle to the Everglades, their habitats include springs, creeks, rivers, lakes, ponds, swamps, marshes, and man-made canals. As Florida's human population grows, the state's freshwater environments are being changed in ways that threaten its native fishes. This book provides important information on the diversity, distribution, and environmental needs of both native and nonindigenous species, helping us monitor and take care of Florida's water and its aquatic inhabitants.

In this book, Peter Moyle successfully illustrates the joys of the study of living fishes, revealing why those of us who have spent a lifetime studying fish as a profession consider ourselves to be so fortunate. We are constantly rewarded by discovering new and unexpected things that fish will do.

Tide and Current chronicles ten years in the life of author and artist Carol Araki Wyban, during which she lived with, learned about, and came to love the fishponds of Hawai'i. In lyric prose and art, the book captures the essence of the timeless ecological truths she discovered. The author relates her experiences from the viewpoint of an entrepreneur, but one with a deep commitment to the past and to the legacy given to us by the ancient Hawaiians regarding the use of fishponds as food production systems. Unlike other native cultures that hunted and gathered over vast territories, the Hawaiians developed renewable, sustainable, and comprehensive management of their natural resources in the islands' limited space. They were innovators who took a great step from catching fish to raising fish. Wyban presents not only the daily routine of life at a commercial fishpond, but also an in-depth look at how the Hawaiians managed their resources, the technology they developed, and the myths, legends, and kapu associated with their fishponds.

Along a tiny spring in a narrow canyon near Death Valley, seemingly against all odds, an Inyo Mountain slender salamander makes its home. "The desert," writes conservation biologist Christopher Norment, "is defined by the absence of water, and yet in the desert there is water enough, if you live properly." Relicts of a Beautiful Sea explores the existence of rare, unexpected, and sublime desert creatures such as the black toad and four pupfishes unique to the desert West. All are anomalies: amphibians and fish, dependent upon aquatic habitats, yet living in one of the driest places on earth, where precipitation averages less than four inches per year. In this climate of extremes, beset by conflicts over water rights, each species illustrates the work of natural selection and the importance of conservation. This is also a story of persistence--for as much as ten million years--amid the changing landscape of western North America. By telling the story of these creatures, Norment illustrates the beauty of evolution and explores ethical and practical issues of conservation: what is a four-inch-long salamander worth, hidden away in the heat-blasted canyons of the Inyo Mountains, and what would the cost of its extinction be? What is any lonely and besieged species worth, and why should we care?