Did I say something wrong? Too long-winded? Can't anybody reccomend some
good Cichlid books? Have any new ones been printed in the last 5 years?

BD



"Big Dummy" wrote in message
. net...
Greetings to all you usenet fish experts,

I used to have a pretty good, if slightly dated library of books on
Cichlids. Unfortunatley about 95% of my books were destroyed in Hurricane
Katrina. I have at last set aside a small sum of money to begin to start
repairing this deficiency, and I am now seeking recomendations for some of
the best of the current generation of books on my favorite critters
(Cichlids) and perhaps of other equally interesting species of fish such
as
knifefishes, freshwater puffers, leaf fish, catfish, characins, etc. etc.
My
main interest is definately cichlids though.

I wonder if anyone can reccomend books which are accurate, have a good
overview of species, representative photos (in the best of all worlds
including adult and juvenile, male and female though I know thats rare),
and
have useful practical information including rate of growth, behavior (how
territorial they are etc), and the environment and conditions where they
are
typically found in nature, as well as more conventional information such
as
diet, temperature tolerance and optimal water conditions, how to sex them,
conditions needed for breeding, and etc.

Unfortunately I have a somewhat limited initial budget of about $100 -
$150
so I will have to pick carefully. Ideally I'd like to find books on
Central
American Cichlids, South American Cichlids, Malawi Cichlids (including at
least some individual treatment of Haps, Peacocks and Mbuna), and to
somewhat less of a degree, Tanganicans and other Africans, Asian cichlids
and other species such as mentioned above. I hope to get 3-5 books right
away, and then more later, so suggestions of both immediate and long term
(i.e. more expensive) goals would be welcome.

Any help at all would be appreciated.

DB