From: rclark@alcor.concordia.ca (Richard Clark)
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria
Subject: Book Review : Characoids of the World, by Jacques Gery
Keywords: book review, characins,
Date: 23 Jul 92 18:30:26 GMT
Organization: Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec


Disclaimer: I am not a biologist.  Any opinions expressed are mine.  I
do not have extensive knowledge of characins, although I have kept a
number of them.  My intent is to simply help out some of the net readers
who have so graciously helped me.
                                                      Richard Clark
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Characoids of the World
ISBN 0-87666-458-3
published by Tropical Fish Hobbyist (H961)
672 pages, 13 x 21 cm.
price : around US$42
year : 1977

I recently purchased this book. It was once published by TFH (H961)
but is apparently now out of print. Since the book has to be "special
ordered" and there is probably little chance of glancing through it
first, I thought it appropriate to write a review.

The author states two goals in writing the book :
1) to provide a good pictorial guide for aquarist to identify characins 
   
2) to provide zoologists a scientific account of the group which has not
   been reviewed in 50 years.

This book attempts to identify most of the estimated 1200 species of
characins in the world.  There are lots of pictures in the book, the
large majority of them in colour (100's).  Line drawing are used where
appropriate to illustrate body parts that would be difficult to see in a
photograph.  The book has a large bibliography, but since I'm not a
biology person, I can't tell you how useful you are likely to find the
references, because the references are now a minimum of 15 years old.

The book is not a "cookbook" for breeding characins. I think I saw
a few lines of breeding information somewhere, but I haven't been able
to find it recently.  Certainly, if all you want to know is how to breed
characins, or under what conditions (water temp etc.) they should be
kept in an aquarium, this is the wrong book to buy.  Those things are
briefly mentioned in a few places, but that is not the goal of this
book.  You can find breeding and maintenance information in Baensch's
Atlas for example.

This book is more of a taxonomical guide (since I'm not a biology
person, I don't know what a taxonomical guide looks like, but this
appears to be one), the author comments throughout on the taxonomy of
the species. The location in which one may find the fish is given.
The author uses an "if-then-else" style of identification (he calls
them "dichotomous tables") to differentiate one fish from another, or
recognize a particular species. The author clearly states the physical
characteristics of each fish, such as number of caudal rays, size and
shape of teeth, colour, body shape etc. in _great_ detail.  Sadly, for
those trying to differentiate between closely related species, many of
the differentiating characteristics are things like tooth placement or
shape, ie., you'll have to kill your fish to positively identify it.
The book contains a good index listing the fish by species, genus and
synonyms, which helps to quickly find information.

To my knowledge, this is the most comprehensive book on characins
available.  It was recommended to me by several people, and Baensch's
Atlas refers to it, stating  "no one has studied Characins in as great
detail as Gery."  Just be aware that little of the information in this
book can be directly applied to the care of characins in your home
aquarium.

                                                Richard Clark

-- 
rick clark   (rclark@alcor.concordia.ca)
             (CIS 70272,3270)