Hello from the balmy shores of Oklahoma! (books?)

The_Damped

Blue Ring
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Sep 21, 2011
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Hi everyone, I've been lurking here for only about a week or two. I'm usually not the type to join a forum. However, this seems to be a wonderful community, everyone seems quite genuine and knowledgeable. I'm not sure it can really be considered a forum though, I've yet to see any flame wars and condescending moderators, you guys will have to work on that!

I did a brief search and didn't really seem to find this question and I didn't really see an appropriate sub-forum to post in so I guess I'll just put it here. I'm gonna order a couple books from Amazon so I figured I would see if anyone would like to offer up any must reads. I'm not really looking to order a cephalopod library, I kinda like to read books as I get them. Though, I have been guilty of breeding dust bunnies with unread books! I've already got a few decent sized books I'm digesting on an unrelated topic.

I really would like to fill out my knowledge on ceph life and biology and marine environments (artificial and natural). I am a layperson but fairly scientifically inclined, plain English is fine but I do like the information to be specific and accurate. I don't like sifting through ambiguous hearsay. That being said I doubt anyone from this forum would recommend something to that extreme.

These are the two books that I am ordering shortly:
Octopus: The Ocean's Intelligent Invertebrate
Water Chemistry for the Marine Aquarium

I have many questions that I will be asking in the short future, I just want to be better informed before firing them off. I look forward very much to conversing with all of you!

Adam
 
:welcome: to TONMO

I'm not exactly sure what you want to know about cephs but my two favorites are

Cephalopods: Octopuses and Cuttlefish for the Home Aquarium
This one was written by two TONMO staff members and focuses on keeping them in the aquarium.

Cephalopods: A World Guide This is a book used to help identify the diffrent species of octopus, squid, cuttlefish, and nautilus. Lots of great knowledge here, but its not a book you really sit down and read cover to cover. I use it a reference book when ever i need info on a particular species, like size, habitat, egg size, and of course what they look like.
 
I just received all of the above mentioned books except the world guide (for financial reasons I will get this in a month or two). These books probably shouldn't take as much precedence as I would like to give them. I will update again after I've taken an opportunity to spend some time with them. (in case anyone is interested) In the mean time if anyone else has any must reads please don't hesitate to suggest them!
 
So I read Water Chemistry for the Marine Aquarium first. It's a really small one and I was able to read it in my free time yesterday. It's got a lot of filler pictures (including a cuttlefish and a chambered nautilus). Overall, I think it functioned as a good primer for someone new to marine systems. I believe even if you are familiar with marine systems but have a very rudimentary knowledge of chemistry the book might be interesting, as it does get a bit into this.

I think the best advantage of this book over getting the same info on a related forum or a series of guides on the subject was that it really doesn't repeat itself (much). I wouldn't recommend it as anything but a newbie's guide to saltwater tanks.

(oh on a side note, invertebrates are referenced throughout the book many times but almost exclusively specifically in reference to corals and anemones.)

For what it's worth.
 
Cool review... I might use the "promote to article" function for this one, so that it can be browsed from our book reviews section... or ceph keeping... bah, I need to better manage site navigation here! Too much info! I'll have an information architecture brainstorming session before the end of the year, promise :smile:
 
Cool, I hadn't even noticed the book review section (checking it out now). You are definitely not overstating the amount of information here! Everywhere I look I find more stuff! I imagine keeping track of it all must be a daunting task, indeed.
 
Believe it or not, one of the best and engaging books I have read on octopuses and is still quite relavent is Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Philippe Diole's Octopus and Squid The Soft Intelligenece. It is a softback with color photos and you can pick it up very inexpensively (a couple of dollars + shipping) on eBay or used on Amazon. The other that will appeal to your science side (and not a fast read) would be Cephalopod Behaviour by Roger T. Hanlon and John B. Messenger (pricey and worth doing some looking for a discount). Norman's book is always open on my desk but it is hard to come by now that it is long out of print. Watch Amazon for a used one (rare) as well as eBay (also rare) our members snatched up the last decently priced copies last time we all went hunting. Nancy and Colin's Cephalopods Octopuses and Cuttlefishes for the Home Aquarium is a nice summary of much of the keeping discussions on TONMO and (obviously) specific to keeping cephs in the home.
 
Awesome! Thanks for the suggestions! Hanlon's recent interview on NPR is actually what sparked my interest in Cephs. I have by now gotten through most of Nancy and Colin's book, it's got a surprising amount of fresh information in it. I honestly expected it to be fairly redundant to the forum. If I ever sit down and focus I imagine I'll wrap it up pretty quickly, but I seem to be a lot like an octopus, always wanting to have my hands on eight different things at once (soft intelligence, maybe I'm like an octopus in other ways too, I never was that sharp :P).

Also, Tony, it occurred to me after reading that last post that before I even meandered on the forum I read through the articles and some of those similar sections, finding them via Google. So, yeah, maybe fuller sections like that, even if forgotten by the forum residents, will still attract outside attention.

Thanks again!
 

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