Good Reference Book?

[DAnCSF]

I have the following reference books Exotic Aquarium Fished, William T Innes, 19th Ed and The Encyclopedia of Freshwater Tropical Fishes Expaned Ed Herbert t Axelrod. Both are rather old and long in the tooth. Does anybody have a recommendation for similar but more up to date reference books?

Thanks in Advance DanC

 

[Byron]

Both of those were very good in their day. There is much that is still relevant, depending what you are looking for, and the advancement in science dealing with aquariums and aquarium fish is considerable.

Online sites that are owned/operated by professional biologists and highly educated/experienced aquarists are probably your best source. For example, Corydoras World for the Corydoradinae species, Loaches Online for the freshwater loaches, and Seriously Fish. CW requires a membership but there is a free FaceBook group run by Ian Fuller who owns CW, the other two are free access.

 

[DAnCSF]

Both of those were very good in their day. There is much that is still relevant, depending what you are looking for, and the advancement in science dealing with aquariums and aquarium fish is considerable.

Online sites that are owned/operated by professional biologists and highly educated/experienced aquarists are probably your best source. For example, Corydoras World for the Corydoradinae species, Loaches Online for the freshwater loaches, and Seriously Fish. CW requires a membership but there is a free FaceBook group run by Ian Fuller who owns CW, the other two are free access.

Yup, I'm just old fashioned, I guess books are sooooo old school and passé and I should just depend on the internet...LOL

 

[Byron]

Yup, I'm just old fashioned, I guess books are sooooo old school and passé and I should just depend on the internet...LOL

The problem is that by the time the book is published, the data may already be changing. But publication of a book is terribly expensive compared to an internet site. Ironically, this is also the cause for the enormous amount of total nonsense one can find. You must know the source (individual/s) of the data to know if it is or is not reliable.

I have some reference books from a decade, two decades and longer back, including both you mentioned, again it depends what actual information one is looking for.

 

[GaryE]

While they are out of date in terms of scientific names in some cases, the Baensch Atlas series (1 to 3 before the fish get too obscure) is magnificent. I still look through mine sometimes, and the info on the fish that were in the hobby, as far as their keeping goes, is great.
I was never a fan of Axelrod's books, but Innes is a household god here. There are so many hacks in that book because it was written in a time of lower tech.

Most of the subject specific, specialized fishbooks are expensive as they're out of print.