My Aquarium » (Translatio)

(back cover)
Filled with instructive, easy-to-understand information, vivid color photos, and attractive sidebar features, the titles in Barron’s My Pet Series offer guidance to new and prospective pet owners and hobbyists.

Setting Up Your Aquarium
Information on stocking your tank with fish and installing aquarium equipment.

Maintaining Your Aquarium
Advice on all important details regarding water quality, temperature, substrate, and more.

Information for Parents
Guidance on introducing your children to aquarium care and teaching them how to keep their fish in a healthful tank environment.

Information for Aquarium Sitters
When you go on vacation, you can give your aquarium sitter the author’s easy-to-fill-out checklist. That way, you’ll be sure that your tank is properly maintained.

School Library Journal

Gr 8 Up

If these two books prove anything, it's that keeping a pet is as much about animal husbandry as it is about love and affection. In terms of a guinea pig, one is not enough-prospective owners should keep at least two or none at all, because the stress of isolation on a solitary animal is undetectable but nearly fatal. And as for fish, it's not the creature that is being maintained, but the environment. Without a perfectly balanced aquarium, anything inside is doomed. Both books are translated from German editions and seem to have been written for an adult audience. They rely on a previous knowledge of terminology related to their subjects and sometimes read like textbooks. There are tests and experiments that readers can conduct, as if to verify the information in the books. The lists for further reading are spare, focusing more on contacting animal associations than print resources, although some are provided. Fabulous color photos show the guinea pigs and aquariums in all their well-maintained glory. Comprehensive and dense, these titles are best suited to a collection serving teens or future zoologists.-Kara Schaff Dean, Walpole Public Library, MA