Beginner's Guide to Freshwater Tropical Fish: Complete Aquarium Setup & Care Log

I bought this for my 14 year old niece as she started keeping fish a few months ago and recently had one die. I was looking for something similar to the RSPCA guides but with a bit more depth. Given that it is described as being a complete care guide I naturally assumed it would include common diseases and disorders, like every other pet keeping book I have ever read. There is useful detail in there about setting up and understanding water quality but I found it to be obsessed with recommending weekly water quality checks (which would work out very expensive) and giving the owner no help in how to notice if their fish are unwell. I kept fish for many, many years and never once needed to use a water quality test kit. But I did know how to tell if my fish were uncomfortable, distressed, diseased or unwell. What is the point of telling owners how to check the water if they are going to be oblivious to all the other ways in which their fish could be unwell, such as fungal, parasitic disease or digestive upsets? Especially since in my experience fish die much more commonly from overfeeding or fungal diseases than from nitrogen imbalance. I feel that this is an excellent guide in how to set up an aquarium and how to perform a water quality test but that is of very limited use in actually understanding how to look after fish and keep them well. I will now have to spend more money on buying a different book instead.
Read more

I'm sure this has lots of info in it but really not very inspiring for a youngster. I was hoping for something with bright pictures and information about the different types of fish in addition to basic principles for keeping them healthy. This is very dry.
Read more

Bought for my 9 year old. Great to help him get involved
Read more

Gives you basic general information, print is big which for me is a plus. But this is a very basic guide with very little pictures. If you are looking for starter information at a good price, it's worth the money.
Read more