Books on taking care of puffers?

[trever22]

Are there any books that anyone would recommend for taking care of puffers. A book with many different kinds (not only one kind) would be nice too.

[PolishPuff]

This is a book I was recommended by some members here.

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article81.html

[Pufferpunk]

You will find no better info than right here. That book is pretty good for ID & basic care though.

[PolishPuff]

You will find no better info than right here.

TRUE

[nmonks]

Hmm… I think Jeni is being a bit hard on the Aqualog book! It's more than simply an identification guide. Better to say that it doesn't cover the basics at all, and assumes you know your way around a biological filter. Instead, the book provides lots of puffer-specific tips such as those relating to healthcare and diet (though it says nothing about thiaminase, and I'd strongly disagree with Klaus Ebert re: mussels as the "perfect' pufferfish food).

There is another pufferfish book out there by a chap called Chris Ralph, who is a fine fishkeeper and writes well, but to be frank puffers aren't his field of expertise, catfish are, and there are some serious errors in this book. Apart from misidentified pufferfish, the most serious problems relate to the brackish water Tetraodon species, some of which are listed as freshwater fish. Still, this is a very inexpensive book and there is some good stuff in its page, so overall it's worth owning if you feel the need to bulk up your pufferfish library.

The brackish water fishes book I edited has a chapter on puffers as well. I'll refrain from critiquing it one way or another, but suffice it to say that I did get input from people on this forum, and that helped to minimise any errors or omissions.

Cheers, Neale

You will find no better info than right here. That book is pretty good for ID & basic care though.

[Pufferpunk]

By basics, I meant feeding, parameters as far as BFW/BW/SW & general requirements for the species.

[nmonks]

Oh, I see. I'd call that the "essentials" myself!

What do you think is missing from the Aqualog book, Jeni? While I agree it doesn't contain a huge amount of text, I'm not sure there's anything genuinely missing from the book, though I do differ in opinion with regard to some of the things Ebert says.

Cheers, Neale

By basics, I meant feeding, parameters as far as BFW/BW/SW & general requirements for the species.

[RTR]

Ebert is a pragmatist - he opts to use broad technique which will serve, but which may or may not be the optimum for a given fish species. That is not rare in folks running a large number of tanks - you opt for the practical rather than seeking the best for each specimen.

Personally I prefer references which offer the optimum rather than the most practical. Or even those citing both.

Plus there are things in the English-language edition which I suspect of being mistranslations. Or if they are not, they needed expanded for understanding.

But at least he got the book out at a time when otherwise the cupboard was bare. For me Ebert gets plenty of brownie points for that.