Book Review - "The 101 Best Tropical Fishes" & Tropical Fish Hobbyist Magazine

Earlier this year, I switched from the paper Tropical Fish Hobbyist Magazine to the digital subscription... which was only $1.00 a year... but after getting tired of reading the magazine online, which isn't as conducive to my reading throne.. lol.., I decided to switch back to the paper magazine. As part of signing up for a two year subscription, I got a free 2009 Fish Calendar and also got to choose from a couple of books. I chose "The 101 Best Tropical Fishes" (Plus 33 Species To Avoid) by Kathleen Wood.

http://www.amazon.com/101-Best-Tropical-Fishes-Fascinating/dp/1890087939
At first glance, it's a pocket sized 4" x 8" plastic coated soft cover book with 191 pages. It's well illustrated with profiles on each of the fish. As I started looking at the introduction and first chapters where they talk about tank sizes, etc., I started getting that queasy feeling. They have a section called "Model Community Tanks". I'm only going to list two out of the five examples for 10G tanks to see what you all think. They do have the scientific names next to the common names but I did not include them for most of the below since they are easily identified by their common names.
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10-Gallon Peaceful Global Community
Top Swimmers
2 Dwarf Gouramis (male-female pair)
Midwater Swimmers
5-7 Glowlight Tetras
Bottom Dwellers
3 Albino Aeneus Corydoras
2 Otocinclus vittatus
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10-Gallon Amazon Quiet Pool
Top Swimmers
3 Marbled Hatchetfish
Midwater Swimmers
12 Neon Tetras
Bottom Dwellers
3 Panda Corydoras
1 Clown Pleco
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In the above example, a Clown Pleco reaches 4" to 5" and is very wide bodied, so it's not like a 4" torpedo shaped fish... and it is an eating-pooping machine like most plecos. Just the Clown Pleco would be a big bioload for a 10G tank, IMO... but maybe a small school of Neons would be OK with it. Normally, a 4" to 5" fish should not be kept in a 10G tank but at least a Clown Pleco isn't a big swimmer so the limited tank size won't affect it as much. I just wouldn't do it as a planned stocking.
They also had a livebearer tank with 6 fancy guppies (2 males - 4 females), 3 swordtails (1 male - 2 females) and 3 Bronze Corydoras.
Now, personally, I would consider these examples as VERY overstocked... especially considering what would happen within a month (or even days) in the livebearer tank... but what do some of you other experts out there think???
Should this book be considered just another crappy book that leads so many newbie's into tragedy... like so many other books that I've seen or am I just being too cautious about overstocking?
The article on my blog for "10 Gallon Tank Stocking Suggestions" doesn't come close to these levels of stocking for a 10G tank... but then the fish will be much happier and the hobbyist won't be stuck with tons of tank maintenance, fish health issues, etc., by following my guidelines versus what is found in many books.
Compared to Aquarium Fish Magazine, which has some really BAD info in it at times, Tropical Fish Hobbyist Magazine is a MUCH BETTER magazine but I'm not too happy about them promoting the above book.
Links to subscribe to TFH, get a FREE no-obligation copy of TFH Magazine or subscribe to the digital version, go to the "Free Offers" link on this blog (see link under Labels).
Lenny Vasbinder
Fish Blog - http://goldlenny.blogspot.com/ (Links to any articles referenced in above reply are listed on the right side, alphabetically under Labels and also under Archives by Year, Month)

FREE fish offers from around the web

Update - August 08, 2010 - Hikari free food offer updated


HIKARIUSA.COM IS GIVING AWAY FREE FISH FOOD! - THRU SEPTEMBER 15, 2010*
Go to http://www.hikariusa.com/ and on their home page, right near the top, is a link to get a free sample of fish food. Not just a pinch either... 20g. Here is the link when I visited the page on August 8, 2010 but promotional links change sometimes so the home page should have the latest link if this one does not work...
http://www.hikariusa.com/promotions/try-hikari-free-fish-food-sample-offer

As I type this, I'm looking at a container of Nutrafin Max Spirulina Algae Flake Food that is about 2" diameter and 5" high and it's 60g/2.12oz, so a third of this is a probably a month or two worth of food... maybe more depending on your numbers.

REEFKEEPING ONLINE MAGAZINE -

Since 2002, this online magazine has been letting readers see the entire monthly magazine for FREE. Can't beat that price!!!
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/past.php

The Complete Pond Solver -

A FREE downloadable .pdf eBook - http://www.practical-water-gardens.com/10steps.htm and see more free downloadable or online eBooks on my Pond Pages.


TROPICAL FISH HOBBYIST MAGAZINE HAS FREE TRIAL SUBSCRIPTION!
Well, if the below Free Single Edition trial subscription link(s) do not work and the $1.00 Digital Subscription doesn't seem to be available any longer, so the below links may no longer work. You can still subscribe for the paper or digital subscriptions here... but read below for updated links as I find them.

http://www.tfhmagazine.com/subscriptions/

For potential discounted subscription rates, go to this forum and join the forum. Once a member of the forum, they have Subscription Codes that will supposedly get you a much discounted rate on the paper edition.

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aquariumforum/showthread.php?t=127

ORIGINAL POST BELOW BUT MOST OF THE ORIGINAL LINKS NO LONGER WORKED WHEN I TESTED THEM IN DECEMBER, 2008 BUT I DID ADD A NEW LINK DIRECTLY BELOW THIS PARAGRAPH THAT IS STILL WORKING FOR NOW -

Go to http://www.qfie.com/TFH/clsTFHNewOrd2.asp?strAspReason=102&PubCode=TFH&foreign=0

http://www.tropicalresources.net/phpBB2/free_copy.php  

And better yet, if you choose to purchase a multi-year subscription, you will receive a FREE book along with your longer subscription at a lower price. This offer won't last forever though. This FREE book offer was found through one of my home forums at http://www.tropicalresources.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=20166&highlight

Come by and say hi sometime!

GoldLenny

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