Review on Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Ornamental-Health-Helen-Roberts/product-reviews/0813814014/ref=sr_1_1_cm_cr_acr_pop_hist_all?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&qid=1279469822&sr=8-1

A 'must' addition for any serious college-level vet collection, February 15, 2010

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Vet and animal libraries need Helen E. Roberts' FUNDAMENTALS OF ORNAMENTAL FISH HEALTH, a complete guide to the health of ornamental aquatic animals. Fish medical care is covered in a fine survey of nonlethal aquatic medicine covering clinical applications of fish medicine and summarizing the latest diagnostics and even surgery techniques. Fish health technical guides are rare, making this a 'must' addition for any serious college-level vet collection.

First of all, as a reviewer, I have to disclose that I knew next to nothing about fish medicine as applied to ornamental fish prior to reading this book. Having disclosed that little tidbit of information, I was blown away with this little 229-page book. From the dedication to “wet-pet owners” to the simplistic breakdown of the book, I was hooked.

The text is divided into three sections that include: Basic Fish Keeping, Fish Health, and Fish Medicine, which represents the work of eleven contributing authors. The book reads as a textbook with short, concise and yet interestingly informative chapters. Although it may be considered simplistic to someone with advanced knowledge, it is a book which is suitable for someone who is just beginning their approach to the study of fish medicine. Each chapter while short in length covers a lot of ground (or rather “water”) with a surprisingly large number of references in support of each chapter. While the entire book was enjoyable, certain chapters stood out.

Chapter 5 introduces the reader to the husbandry requirement of ornamental fish and offers very detailed tables of various fish types as an aid to picking appropriate fish for cohabitation based on their ability to get along. Chapter 6 addressed bio-security and ornamental fish which gave the reviewer pause to consider how fish could be associated with bio-security. Fortunately the chapter cleared up all misgivings of fish as agents of bioterrorism and rather introduced the need for recognized pathogen entry prevention as well as providing an interesting diagrammatic flow chart for the journey of a fish through a quarantine facility, before its introduction to a new home.

By far, the most favored section for the reviewer was the section on Fish Medicine. This was partly due to the step by step chapters addressing all facets of fish medicine including capture of sick fish, transport, hospitalization, health history, physical examination, anesthesia, analgesia, euthanasia and diagnostic techniques. These chapters are supplemented with beautiful pictures that allow the reader to visualize a variety of medical issues. Due to the nature of the medical section, this book is one that is suitable for the practicing veterinary technician as well as veterinary technician students. The practicing veterinarian may not find this book as useful as the veterinary technician, primarily because it addresses many of the areas of expertise in which veterinary technicians primarily function including management of “wet-pet” patients; this text addresses care of ornamental fish health succinctly.

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell (2009). ISBN-13: 978-0-8138-1401-8.

From Koi magazine (UK), February 2010, Issue 143.