Marine/saltwater bible?

[ScottR]

I’m trying to find a book that discusses the different types of fishes, corals, inverts, etc. Hoping to find something almost like a thesaurus with pics and info. Just wanting to nerd out. Anyone know of any good books? Thanks in advance.

 

[hdsoftail1065]

I’m trying to find a book that discusses the different types of fishes, corals, inverts, etc. Hoping to find something almost like a thesaurus with pics and info. Just wanting to nerd out. Anyone know of any good books? Thanks in advance.

I haven't had a chance to read any, but if you put "books" in the search it pulled up quite a few hits. You might find several great books.

 

[andrewkw]

The reef aquarium vol 1,2,3.

 

[Mmun]

I’m trying to find a book that discusses the different types of fishes, corals, inverts, etc. Hoping to find something almost like a thesaurus with pics and info. Just wanting to nerd out. Anyone know of any good books? Thanks in advance.

any books by Scott Michael are really good. Has one on fish and inverts

 

[ZoWhat]

Aren't books outdated the day they're published.

I would build a library of online resources. Heck R2R is a pretty deep resource of as articles and Q&A

.

 

[ScottR]

Aren't books outdated the day they're published.

I would build a library of online resources. Heck R2R is a pretty deep resource of as articles and Q&A

.

R2R is great. But it’s always good to have a book at your fingertips to learn new things. I’m old school I guess.

 

[andrewkw]

Reef Aquarium Vol 1. was published in 1994 and there is still a lot of good and useful information in there. While it is unlikely I would love to see a new coral book come out since many species have been reclassified in recent years. With the exception of reefbuilders articles and a few more you won't find this stuff in hobbyist related pages since people are still calling corals by the old names for whatever reason. For fish though, most people can flip through pages to ID faster then doing an online search. When I was a newbie I used to bring Reef Aquarium Fishes: 500+ Essential-To-Know Aquarium Species Book by Scott W Michael with me to the fish store all the time. Book is in terrible shape but I still look at it from time to time when someone posts an ID thread for instance. This was only 12 or 13 years ago so I did have a smartphone then too.

If you don't have a lot of reef books I suggest you check out amazon's used books, some of them can be had quite cheap. Some have become quite expensive but I've only found a few like that. Probably 90% of the books I own are reef / fish related.

 

[lapin]

Julian Sprung co-wrote with J. Charles Delbeek - The Reef Aquarium volumes one, two and three.

Forest Rohwer - Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas is a good read

 

[Eggs]

I always liked this one. I think Mmun’s post referred to it.

 

[UNCFAN]

Ditto on lapin's post.

 

[Softhammer]

Bob Fenners books are great too. I consider his the Bible. The equipment is outdated but the concepts and info is timeless. Be careful of forums too. Plenty of people preach very poor information, nobody proof reads forums.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

I always liked this one. I think Mmun’s post referred to it.

This was a good book to have years back. There was also one for inverts and one for corals. These used to be the go to ID and care guides but are out datee and out of print.

 

[fish farmer]

I have Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea by John E. Randall, Gerald R. Allen and Roger C. Steene

It's a big book, lots of color photos, with lots of fish I never see in the hobby. It has taxonomic descriptions, descriptions of coloration, geographic range, depth range, maximum size and sometimes diet and other behaviors with each picture.

It covers more than 1200 species. Reef fish are the primary focus, but does include some marine game fish as well.

 

[ScottR]

I appreciate all of the responses. I’ll check all of these out. I agree with @Softhammer No one proof reads forums. While very helpful, I prefer a book that has been thought out and organized in such a fashion that it can be read from front to back.