From: rclark@alcor.concordia.ca (Richard Clark)
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria,alt.aquaria
Subject: (FRESH) Booklet Review : ADI #54 - Characins
Date: 23 Jul 92 18:34:00 GMT
Followup-To: rec.aquaria
Organization: Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec


Booklet Review : ADI #54 - Characins

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
----------------------------------------------------------------------


I realize this is a review of a really inexpensive booklet, but what
the heck.  I went throught the booklet looking for information, I'll
share with you what I found.

Aquarium Digest International #54, Characins
ISBN 3-923880-40-5
published by Tetra Press
32 pages
price : around US$3

I was somewhat disappointed with ADI's booklet on characins.  It
contains breeding information on a limited number of species (around
5), and briefly mentions most other species.

Although I don't consider myself a characin expert, I believe the
following are errors, taken only from the picture captions in the
book, I didn't read the text closely.  I used Baensch's Atlas and
Gery's book on characins for the correct spelling :

    The spelling errors in species names I found were

    pg     spelled as                        correction

    5      Hyphessobrycon erythostigma       erythrostigma
    5      Charlceus macrolepidotus          Chalceus
    8      Amoldichthys spilopterus          Arnoldichthys
    9      Thayer sancualmarial              Thayeria sanctaemariae
    25     Hyphessobrycon heterohabdus       heterorhabdus
    31     Hemigrammus erthrozonus           erythrozonus

Although this book was written after 1984, a number of the
synonyms listed in Gery's 1977 book and Baensch's Atlas are used
instead of the "current" name.  The following is a list of synonyms
that I spotted :

    pg     synonym                           current name

    4      Nannostamus eques                 Nannobrycon eques
    5      Micralestes interruptus*          Phenacogrammus interruptus
    7      Alestes longipinnis               Brycinus longipinnis
    9      Thayeria sanctaemariae            Thayeria obliqua (from gery)
    9      Hyphessobrycon ornatus            H. bentosi bentosi
    11     Abramites microcephalus           Abramites hypselonotus
    25     Micralestes interruptus*          Phenacogrammus interruptus

 * in the text a reference to the current name is found.  It may be
 just a matter of opinion.


Other errors -

a cardinal tetra picture is identified as a neon tetra on page 22.

There was a name I could not find in Gery's book or in Baensch's
Aquarium Atlas.  Since I'm not a characin expert, I don't know if
the fish exists :  Pygocentrus piraya.

The method described to differentiate the "false red-nose" from
the "true red nose" does not work for the pictures they show of
the two fish.

In my opinion, a significant amount of the space in the booklet is
wasted. Eight and a half pages of the 30 page booklet are devoted to a
trip to capture neon tetras.  Furthermore, multiple pictures of the
same fish appear.  The sloppiness in spelling scientific names for a
published work is inexcusable.

One thing I did like about the booklet was a grouping of all the body
shapes in a collage of pictures.  There is also a picture of
Hemiodopsis semitaeniatus that is not in the Gery or Baensch books.

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