Baensch Aquarium Atlas Question

[JSmails]

Im looking to buy this but I note there are several volumes. Which is the best or what is the difference, as I just want to buy one.

 

[4ftguppy]

Im looking to buy this but I note there are several volumes. Which is the best or what is the difference, as I just want to buy one.

The commonest fish are in book 1 - the higher the volume the more obscure the fish. This is not 100% true, as some common fish today were not in the hobby when book 1 was written.

Book 1 is pretty good (I have 1, 2 and 3)

 

[dwarfgourami]

I have vols 1-4. When Baensch wrote the first volume he included the fish that were in the hobby then, and also added a section on plants, and one on diseases. The fish are most of the common ones, including a lot of tetras, some catfish, the common livebearers, cichlids etc. Vol. 2 has more fish and more plants. One may note that goodeids seem more or less a new addition for this volume. Vol. 3 yet more fish and plants. Vol. 4 more fish. One may note that a lot of livebearers and catfish come into the hobby late- that section grows in later volumes. But the common plecs and the platies and guppies were there in volume one. I would start with vol. 1, unless you are planning to specialise on goodeids.

 

[Mad Duff]

It depends what you want really, if you are requiring a decent amount of info about each fish then the individual books will give you that, its nice to gradually build the collection which is what I have done. But if you want to be able to identify lots of fish and only want basic info on each fish then the Baensch Photo Index is worth its weight in gold as it contains all fish from books 1 to 5, it does still give a fair amount of info but not in as much detail as the individual books.

 

[TolkienGeek]

I have Volume 3. The info is great, but like everyone says, the later books deal with more rare and obscure fish and plants.

It has a great section on trout though . I guess if I wanted to bring some home maybe. Hey, thats not such a bad idea!! Kidding, kidding... My cousin did keep a bluegill he caught for some time though, poor thing.

 

[DarkEntity]

you can get volume 1-5 in one book from Amazon. Its about 40quid