Fish Care

Hi there Betta lovers.

I had an epiphany yesterday as I read through posts on some online forums that I frequent. Someone had asked for a book recommendation about Bettas. There were several responses but one brazen poster caught my attention when he posted something to the affect of “why would you waste your money on books when you can find everything you need to know on the web.” As an avid reader and lover of books, as you can imagine, I gasped in horror. Maybe I’m old fashioned but I’m not quite ready to give up on the printed word just yet.

The aquarium hobby is complicated and I believe it is important to open yourself to all your resources, be it books, magazines, the web, LFS clerks, aquaria clubs, friends or neighbors. The web is a phenomenal resource and as creator of Nippyfish.net I utilized the web as my way to reach out to the Betta community as well. It isn’t perfect though. Anyone can create a website and believe me, they do. There is a ton of dangerous and false aquarium advise out there and it can be really difficult for the Newbie to sift through it all. The advantage books have is that authors have to dedicate a good amount of time and effort to creating them. Publishers have to be found and money needs to be spent. Of course, no aquarium book is perfect, but they certainly have their place in the hobby and a rather substantial place in my living room.

With that said I am announcing some accompaniments to Nippyfish: A Betta Blog. In addition to the usual Q&A I will also be providing informal aquarium related book reviews. I will share with my readers some of my favorite books related to Bettas, plants, decorating, and of course other species and general aquaria. (Yeah right, like there are species other then Bettas!)

I also thought it would be helpful to define some common aquarium terms and acronyms. For instance, Newbies ask all the time what LFS means. For those of you who don’t know, it stands for Local Fish Store. I will hit on some technical terms too.

In addition to book reviews and terminology, I will also offer links and reviews of some of the dozens of online aquarium forums I frequent. I probably read posts on over 30 or 40 different web forums and no two are alike. I will discuss things like knowledgeability, organization, response time, specialties and of course, friendliness.

I hope everyone finds these additions helpful and I want to thank everyone who has been amazingly supportive of Nippyfish.net and Nippyfish: A Betta Blog. Helping people with their fish problems is my most favorite form of volunteerism and it is so validating when I hear back from you guys. I know I am learning more every day about the hobby from you guys and I’m so grateful. Please keep those email questions coming.

Best regards and happy Betta keeping,
Christie