Reading suggestions

Bleher’s Biotopes by Heiko Bleher

Aquapress Bleher, 2014, ISBN: 8890973625

A great sourcebook for dreaming about, designing and building biotope aquariums. Bleher has unparalleled experience as an explorer of the world’s freshwaters and this book is his first attempt to really synthesise this experience. In particular, other sources (such as Fishbase and academic papers) rarely give a sense of which fish really live together in the same habitat in a particular lake or river basin or what these habitats look and feel like. A couple of major caveats: Firstly, Bleher’s prose style is appalling – the English  grammar is poor and he can barely write a sentence without making grating and unnecessary claims about his own importance. It is genuinely difficult to read. This book really needed a good editor that could stand up to Bleher – by publishing it himself he has done a massive disservice to his readers and the work. Secondly, the example biotope aquariums themselves are ugly, overcrowded and lacking creativity in the species they choose. I struggled to find any that looked like the habitat that they were intended to represent in terms of the hardscape and planting design and they are too reliant on commonly available species to accurately represent a fish species assemblage. They will be of limited interest to those really looking to put together creative biotope aquariums that go beyond the normal community species.

Lost Worlds of the Guiana Highlands by Stewart McPherson

Redfern Natural History, 2008, ISBN: 0955891809

A good overview of the geology, natural history and the history of exploration of the remarkable ‘tepuis’ of Venezuela and Brazil. Beautifully illustrated, well researched and highly accessible. It covers a broad range of topics, but doesn’t go into a lot of depth anywhere.