Discus Health: Selection, Care, Diet, Diseases & Treatments for Discus, Angelfish and Other Cichlids

Customer Reviews:

The "Bible" of Discus Health.......2000-07-15

I have had this book since it was published and it is a complete guide to the health and well being of not only discus but other cichlids as well. If I have ever had a problem, a question or a need...this book has had the answer for me! It is, quite simply, the BEST there is...it is that simple.

a great book for both the beginner and the professional.......2000-05-25

this is a really great book with many ideas about the ways to treat discus fish and their diseases it is useful n case of any other soft water fish a famous japanese koi hatchery uses it for reference too. it saved many of my fish and saved me alot of money too.A MUST HAVE book it is now out of stock but i got a promise from the publisher to have it republished soon.

Average customer rating:

Very very good
Intresting introduction to the discus world

Discus: A Reference Book
Bernd Degen
Manufacturer: TFH Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0866225455

Customer Reviews:

Very very good.......2006-05-31

It is clear that the author has a serious love for Discus. Very easy reading, lots of great information. His excitement is felt in his writing.

Intresting introduction to the discus world.......2000-04-10

This is one of many books written on Discus by Bernd Degen, an very experienced discus breeder. The book is particularly suitable for the beginning Discus keeper and has excellent topics about discus care and selection. There is an rather good introduction to breeding too, showinh thechniques in detail. It is not an very detailed book, I think most Discus experts will miss more detailed information on breeding and on selection, specially about the wild types. But in general it is a good introduction to the novice in the Discus world.

Discus Fish (Complete Pet Owner's Manual)

Average customer rating:

Great info!
Not really about discus fish
Nice little book
Excelente guía para aficionados y experimentados
Just OK

Discus Fish (Complete Pet Owner's Manual)
Thomas Giovanetti , and Oliver Lucanus
Manufacturer: Barron''s Educational Series
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Accessories:

ASIN: 0764128582

Book Description

Freshwater aquarium hobbyists will find all the information they need regarding purchasing, feeding, and maintaining this delicately-hued tropical fish. Heavily illustrated with vivid color photos and instructive line art, Barron's Complete Pet Owner's Manuals show and inform pet owners regarding proper care of dogs, cats, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, small caged animals—virtually every creature that is kept as a pet. The books give advice on purchasing and otherwise acquiring a pet, feeding it nutritiously, keeping it in good health, and where applicable, grooming and training it. Each book in this large series is individually written by a specialist, and though the information is authoritative, the text is clear and straightforward, easy for every pet owner to understand.

Customer Reviews:

Great info!.......2007-01-25

So far, one of the best books I have read for a beginner just like me. It is easy to read and very informative, though it may come short on some subjects.

Not really about discus fish.......2006-09-01

I purchased this book as a reference for discus. Instead, it went through all of the details of setting up a fish tank, something one should be well informed about before even attempting to set up a discus tank.

Some of the information seemed contradictory or incorrect. The sections about discus were short and not detailed. This is not the book for any serious discus owner or owner-to-be.

Nice little book.......2006-04-23

Good pictures and enough information for a starter book. Gave me what I wanted to know for a small price. A whole lot cheaper than even the least expensive discus would have been.
Good for deciding whether or not you have or want to have the conditions for keeping these fish.

Excelente guía para aficionados y experimentados.......2006-03-22

Este libro tiene todos los temas que un principiante y un conocedor del tema esperan encontrar; la claridad y profundidad con la que se habla sobre el Rey del acuario de agua dulce ayuda a entender mejor su comportamiento, su habitat, su alimentación y en fin todo lo relevante de este pez.

Just OK.......2006-03-02

This is one of the most up to date discus books, but it is really not that informative for a beginner to the breed. It does offer pics of some of the newer strains, but is not the complete reference it claims it is.

Average customer rating:

Breeder in Pennsylvania, USA
There are many other much better Discus books around ...

Owning Discus
Mary E. Sweeney
Manufacturer: TFH Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0793803551

Customer Reviews:

Breeder in Pennsylvania, USA.......1999-07-28

I read this book two years ago and it was the most important literature that helped me to get started. This is an ideal book for the beginner

There are many other much better Discus books around ..........1998-12-27

I've read several Discus books, some really good ones from Bernd Degen, and I really didn't like this one. It doesn't focus on anything at all and it has no hints about keeping them (despite the sub-title in the front page) beside temperature. Some average pictures after all, from the TFH archive.

The Discus: An Owner's Guide toa Happy Healthy Fish (Happy Healthy Pet)

Average customer rating:

Absolute Rubbish
Just the basics
Just as it Says
A good book really for a beginner
Absolutely Terrible

The Discus: An Owner's Guide toa Happy Healthy Fish (Happy Healthy Pet)
Mic Hargrove , Maddy Hargrove , and David Brown
Manufacturer: Howell Book House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1582451125

Book Description

Written by tropical fish experts with over 30 years experience, The Discus includes all the information a new fish keeper needs to begin this exciting hobby: how to select a tank; proper water conditions; nutrition; and breeding your own beautiful fish. Like all the titles in the Owner's Guide series, The Discus is filled with info-packed sidebars and striking color photos. This book helps make keeping Discus a fun and rewarding experience for the hobbyist.

Customer Reviews:

Absolute Rubbish.......2006-06-05

I bought this book thinking I will get more knowledge about Discus keeping .But after going through the book I changed my opinion and think buying this book was absolute waste of money and time. Information given in the book is too general for any aquarium fish and not for Discus fish in particular. Not worth spending you precious money and time.

Just the basics.......2004-04-28

This is a great book if you know next to nothing about discus. It gives you all the specs you may need to know to keep healthy beautiful discus and even the basics on breeding with some nice pictures. It also repeats alot of information for reference purposes. However, if you need a detailed discription of the care of discus you will be diapointed with this one. I recomend you purchase it with another more detailed book that may overlook the more simple aspects of discus care.

Just as it Says.......2003-12-31

This book is, as it implies for the beginning discus keeper. I will go as far as to say that this book isn't only for beginning discus keepers, but for stark new aquarium keepers of any fish. There are only a few chapters that are related directly to discus fish, and of these most of the information is VERY general insomuch that it only relates to GENERAL fishkeeping. If you are NEW to the hobby I would recommend this book, but if you are experianced at all find another, more in depth study of the discus:)

A good book really for a beginner.......2002-10-15

I saw this book when i went to the internet to do research on some information about keeping discus.At that time i was planning to own one but have no experience with discus and know very little about tropical fish which i thought only need air supply to survive.Many people on the net said this book was good and is very useful when it comes to problems with the discus so i went to buy it.I learnt many new things about it like heaters,different filtrations,UV lights,tank water like pH,ammonia,hardness and nitrites and nitrates.It was really useful even in the diseases section where they tell us how to deal with sickness of the fish.But overall it was really not that good as it did not go into detail about chillers and heaters and also some websites it listed at the back of the book have already closed.
These are some bad points so i only gave 3 stars but it is really worth buying for a beginner.

Absolutely Terrible.......2001-07-10

This book is a complete waste of money. I'd give it a negative number of stars if I could. What's so bad about it then? It is simply a beginners guide to aquarium keeping (and not a very good one at that) with a few mentions of discus thrown in to make it sound as if it is a discus book.

The photographs are OK as far as photography goes, but most of the fish pictured are poor specimens including the malformed discus pictured on the cover. Many of the photos are re-used in different parts of the book, occasionally in reverse as if there was an attempt to disguise the fact that the pictures were being re-used. The captions have nothing to do with the photos. There is a picture of a fish with holes in it's head and another of a fish with early stages of fin rot, but neither of these pictures are used in the section on diseases and the captions do not point out these defects. There is no identification of the strains being pictured and virtually no photos of wild specimens to help in identifying the 2 species and 5 subspecies that are briefly described in the text.

There is a section on the history of the discus, but important names such as Jack Wattley, Carrol Friswold, and Gene Wolfsheimer are conspicuous by their absence.

A lot of the information is redundant and contradictory. For example on page 39 we find "One way to estimate which size heater your aquarium will need is to allow 5 watts per gallon. For example, a 55-gallon aquarium would need a heater that is at least 275 watts". Meanwhile, on page 54 we read "A heater should supply 2 watts per gallon. So, a 55-gallon aquarium would need at least a 110-watt heater". Now which do think the authors would have you use? Of course they also don't mention that nobody actually manufactures heaters of those wattages (they can readily be found in 25, 50, 75, 100, 125, 150, 200, 250 and 300 watts).

On the whole, this is one of those books that seems to regurgitate a bunch of stuff that has become "standard knowledge" in the aquarium hobby, without really knowing why these things have become so (or the science behind it). On page 80 in a side box on bare tank set-ups, we are admonished that these are "less cozy for your fish", whatever that is supposed to mean. I doubt that "coziness" is anything we can measure or the fish can give us feedback on in the same way that they behave if their water is too warm.

On page 47 there is an extremely poor and misleading diagram of the nitrogen cyle. It implies that the major source of ammonia in the aquarium is the fungal and bacterial decomposition of fish "wastes" (feces?). The major source of ammonia is: it is directly exhaled into the water from fishes gills. There is also no mention of the relationship of pH to ammonia ionization, which is critical to be aware of in the low pH of a discus tank, particularly with regards to water changes and the usually accompanying rise in pH.

Customer Reviews:

Is it worth the money?.......2001-09-15

That's the question you've got to be asking if you've never seen this book. This is another one of Axelrod's big picture books. There's not much text, but there is a very valuable commentary on discus taxonomy written by Warren Burgess. There are also some good pointers in the captions to the photos. The photos are the usual TFH quality photos and the captions generally give information about the picture. The book is organized by wild caught species, strains that can be directly attributed to specific wild types (hybrids) and several other strains. Unfortunately it pre-dates the emergence of the red strains such as pigeon blood, marlboro red, etc. so these popular and important strains are not represented in this book.

The really valuable aspect of this book is that it gives a view of what discus are supposed to look like, which is generally quite different from what is seen in the tanks of retailers. It does not give much in the way of specific information about keeping, breeding and diseases. If that is what you want then you are better off buying some of the less expensive books out there by someone such as Degen, Wattley or Quarles.

So is it worth the money? If you think you really need a lot of help with discus, then no it isn't. However if you are fairly experienced, have maybe bred some discus and are interested in comparing what you've got vs. some of the other strains out there, this book can be well worth the investment.

Excellent Book !.......2000-09-03

This is a great book. Ok it is expensive, but it is a very large book. It is packed full of many great photos. It covers a lot of areas from all of the different spieces to breeding. Allthough not a wealth of information, the many, many wonderful photos must be seen to appreciate. They are bright, clear, and very large. Truely a great book. Well worth the money.

Average customer rating:

Good but dated
Extremely interesting and thorough book

Jack Wattley's Handbook of Discus/H1070
Jack Wattley
Manufacturer: TFH Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0866220372

Customer Reviews:

Good but dated.......2003-02-18

I'm sure this book was excellent in it's time but now it seems dated. There are much more beneficial titles out there for information on discus. I would recommend Perfectionist, or Discus Breeding for Beginners for more current information. If your looking for another book to round out your discus library go ahead and buy this book, but if your looking for up to date and helpful discus information go elsewhere.

Extremely interesting and thorough book.......2001-02-09

If you want a book written by one of the kings of the discus world, you want this book. It is exceptionally thorough and includes fabulous full-page photos, includeing a lot of excellent photos of differenttypes of discus. Another section describes what it is like to collectwild discus in the Amazon. Very interesting, readable book with lots of great information about this fabulous fish!

Average customer rating:

For the advanced hobbyist
not that great a book

All About Discus
Herbert Axelrod
Manufacturer: Not Avail
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0876667612

Customer Reviews:

For the advanced hobbyist.......1999-07-28

This book is not intended for the beginner, nor should it be. Dr. Axelrod has studied this fish (and others) for years. He is a little vague about "getting started" because he spends more time describing distinctions amoung discus and the different diseases amoung them.

not that great a book.......1999-05-19

This book does not say much about the steps to take before keeping discuses (e.g.how to set up the tank properly before putting them in etc). This is definately not a book for beginners.

Average customer rating:

Unbeatable Books for the Aquarist

Majestic Discus (AQUALOG Special)
Manfred Gobel
Manufacturer: Aquaristik - Consulting & Service GmbH
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 393170243X

Book Description

The King of fishes, the living dream of every aquarist. We show you the 48 most beautiful discus on the included poster. The care of these beauties is quite demanding - our specialists tell you how to get along smoothly. The 'true' discus fan should be on the look-out for "AQUALOG South American Cichlids IV" which shows all discus and angels on about 900 brilliant color photos. The fishes featured in this book are not just identified by their name but also code number. AQUALOG has developed an ingenious code number system which labels every known or newly discovered fish (incl. breeding forms etc.)with an individual code number. This number remains, despite any scientific renaming. Moreover, it enables you to communicate internationally about any fish without the danger of confusion regarding local names! If you require complete information on all fishes of this group, you'll find it in our AQUALOG-reference book "South American Cichlids IV"!

Customer Reviews:

Unbeatable Books for the Aquarist.......2007-01-22

All of the Aqualog books are excellent value, although they are not particularly cheap. They are full to the brim with first class colour photographs and to reproduce these in a book is an expensive process. Whether they are about the beautiful L Number now coming into the aquarist trade or in this case arguably the most beautiful freshwater tropical fish species, they are the most comprehensive identification books you can buy. They never become dated because as new fish become available to the aquarist trade the books are updated. There is not a lot of literature on Discus so this book is invaluable.

They do not deal with the basics of fish keeping, there are many and varied books that do that. They are in the main a fish identification encyclopaedia and not a lot more. But for those aquarists who are particularly interested in a single species they are indispensable.

Average customer rating:

lacking breeding
Nice Pictures, not enough info.
Very informative perfect hand book for discus beginners

Discus Breeding for Beginners
Jack Wattley
Manufacturer: TFH Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0793830087

Customer Reviews:

lacking breeding.......2006-07-17

the book's title lacks connection with the content which spends little time on the topic of breeding. Generally the book is excellenet clearly wiritten and useful but fails to deliver on the title.

Nice Pictures, not enough info........2003-03-11

I just purchased this book along with 0812046692 Discus Fish by Thomas Giovanetti, I found this book was full of great colorful picutures but did not give me very much information. Specifically one of my disus was sick - I just purchased him - the Discus Fish book helped me treat my fish this book was useless. I also found some of the information was exactly the opposite of what I was reading in all other books???

Very informative perfect hand book for discus beginners.......2000-08-22

The first,I want send greeting to Jack Wattley for his magnificent,excellent book for all beginers. In this book author tells us everything,about right water for discus,about purchasing and selecting good stock,about feeding discus,about disease, about breeding and hatching artificially!!!He teach us the techniques to raise and breed discus. I find this more full color beautiful photos. Thank you,Jack. Nikolay Khakhamov.

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