Product Description

HANDBOOK of FISH DISEASES

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #423617 in Books
• Published on: 1989-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 160 pages

Customer Reviews

Not for the casual fishkeeper
Battling fish disease is difficult, as there are not a lot of handy resources available. You can't easily tote your sick fish to a vet or the home of a knowledgable friend for a diagnosis, and fish ailments can be difficult to accurately describe in words. Even if you know what disease your fish has, it can be difficult to choose the right medicine or treatment. There are a myriad of medicines available through pet supply stores, most of which advertise themselves as a general cure-all for either bacterial, fungal, or parasitic disease.

I felt that this book was particularly promising, as it contained many color photographs of various fish diseases, a comprehensive listing of various medications, and diagnostic flow-charts. It is unfortunately cumbersome to use, however, and offers advise impractical to the casual fishkeeper. For example, although you can use a flowchart to reach a diagnosis and recommended treatment, the lack of a clear index or organization order makes finding the one paragraph you need difficult. The book also frequently recommends taking samples from your fish and analyzing them under a microscope. Although this may be useful to someone who knows how to handle fish without hurting them and has a laboratory at their disposal, it doesn't do a lot of good for the average person.

The book does contain useful information about fish disease, even though its practical application to the casual fishkeeper is limited.

Good but not great
This book does have a lot of information on fish disease, including information on how to diagnose and cure infected fish. The first 20 or so pages make up a giant flow chart to help you determine what is wrong with your fish. Something like, "does the fish have white spots if yes go to step 2 otherwise continue to step 3." This flow chart is hard to beat...it is excellent. The author seems to target this book more toward the advanced user. It has sections on how to perform an autopsy on your fish, and how to determine what is causing the problem with a microscope; a little more in depth than most people probably want or need. I'm a bit disappointed in the pictures. There is a fair amount of pictures, but not as many as I would have liked to seen. It's easy to read some of the symptoms for a particular disease and think, "gee, my fish might have that," but without a picture to let you know for sure, there's a little guesswork involved. The book is probably worth picking up, but I think it would be best used as a compliment to another, similar book.

Good, but not great.....
I bought this book thinking it would give me a better idea of diagnosing and treating fish diseases for my African Cichlids. I did not find the descriptions very helpful, nor did I find the lay out of the book very user friendly. I wish I knew of a better one out there to recommend to you, but I cannot. I did find a website out there that does have an excellent interface, with careful searches you should be able to find it easily.
This book is better than nothing, but there has to be better out there.

Peace,

Morley