A Review on Those Published Books About Piranhas
by Frank Magallanes - December 4, 2002
A Review on Those Published Books About Piranhas
by Frank Magallanes - December 4, 2002
INTRODUCTION
One of the most common complaints by hobbyists is the type of pictures and materials that are being sold by book publishing companies that identify piranhas for the aquarium trade. These books have literally become bibles for the majority of fish hobbyist that collect piranhas. Unfortunately, most of these books are rife with invalid scientific names, drawings and sometimes photos are recycled under different species names. This is a true can of worms when you try to explain to hobbyists the errors and misinformation furnished by reading the material.
What I intend to do here is simple. It is not to judge the publisher or what he/she publishes. Rather, I will review each book as an educational tool on piranhas from my own collection and present the material by book title and page with current standings. Also I have added a newer addition. Click on the image to the left to access individual book review on some recently revised books. In the meantime, enjoy updating your older books older piranha book by making them new by having the correct names penciled in to those books.
I am sure there are other piranha books available in the open market. If any one cares to donate their book if it is not listed here, I will be more than happy to review it and make corrections via this web site. However, I will not be able to return your book to you. So carefully consider donating the book to this worthy cause.
I will start with the oldest book and the one often cited in piranha literature. Hobbyist herein are reminded that current ichthyologist do not follow methods or classifications by Dr. Jacques Géry because of the method used in creating subspecies and a new family as Serrasalmidae. Géry recognized only 12 species of piranha in the entire continent of South America and he lumped many into this subcategory thereby causing future Systematicians problems for reclassifying and reviewing piranha placement.
The books below were carefully examined and studied. The Piranha Book by G. S. Myers is a bit more complicated in identifying piranhas because in most cases, the locality was omitted to place the exact species name. This is a very common problem with many of these books, where the author or publisher did not take that issue into consideration on the captions.
THE LIST OF BOOKS
|
THE PIRANHA BOOK George S. Meyers (1972)
|
Characoids of the World Jacques Géry (1977)
|
PIRANHAS FACT AND FICTION John R. Quinn (1987)
|
|
|
|
|
PIRANHAS IN THE AQUARIUM Wolfgang Schulte (1988)
|
PIRANHAS Keeping and Breeding Them In Captivity Manolito Pinkguni (1996)
|
PIRANHAS A COMPLETE PET OWNER'S MANUAL David Schleser (1997)
|
|
|
|
USE YOUR BACKSPACE OR CLICK HERE TO RETURN RESEARCH PAGE
CLICK THIS LINK TO RETURN HOME
The OPEFE web site and its contents; is disclaimed for purposes of Zoological Nomenclature in accordance with the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, Fourth Edition, Article 8.3 and 8.4. No new names or nomenclature changes are available from statements at this web site.
Copyright© 1994-2012 Oregon Piranha Exotic Fish Exhibit (The OPEFE fish exhibit is permanently CLOSED as of 2000) Sutherlin, Oregon. Information posted on this web site is archival data on fish scientific classifications and other information. DISCLAIMER: The copyrighted material may not be used for any purpose other than private study, scholarship or research. Cited information requires credit and this link www.opefe.com. All rights reserved. All images shown (unless otherwise noted) is property of OPEFE.
