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I'd like to devote some time to talking about a book. A very important book, as it happens, that was, for many years, the definitive reference work for the freshwater fish keeper. It's an old book, and much of the information on such matters as filtration technology is now well and truly out of date, given the advances that have been made in the years since the book first appeared, but it still offers a LOT of sound advice, and furthermore, shows that some people were way ahead of their time when it came to thinking ecologically.

I've referred to this book many times in my posts - usually in colloquial form as "The venerable Innes book", reflecting the fact that the first edition appeared way back in 1938. The book in question is Exotic Aquarium Fishes, by Dr William T. Innes, a copy of which is almost certainly a staple of the fishkeeping libraries of more senior aquarists.

Why do I continue to refer to this book, even after 30 years or more of solid fishkeeping under my belt? Especially as there is much information that is out of date (for example, the taxonomic arrangement of fish Orders)?

The reason is simple. Innes compiled in the one volume a series of pearls of fishkeeping wisdom that are timeless. Above all, he exhorted his readers to approach problems in fishkeeping using the basic premise of 'thinking like a fish' - in other words, asking what the fish needs and wants, and proceeding from that point. Given the number of people who still find that simple idea hard to grasp (a shocking proportion of those being part of the fish supply industry - sigh), for Innes to promulgate that idea back in 1938 was little short of revolutionary. Innes also advocated, though not in such explicit terms as stated here, the principle that an aquarium whose ambient conditions mimic those in the wild as closely as is feasible is likely to be a successful aquarium. While the book doesn't mention such modern words as 'biotope', the basic idea that an aquarist is likely to enjoy greater success when taking cues from Nature is very definitely present between the lines in a wide range of items of advice presented. For example, the maxim 'feed small amounts often' wasn't coined by him simply to ease maintenance issues, though of course it has that beneficial effect too - Innes realised that 'small amounts often' is the way that many popular aquarium fishes feed in the wild. Of course, applying that maxim has, as a happy corollary, the reduction of the amount of uneaten food going to waste and rotting in the aquarium, and with fishes such as large Barbs, this is a particular benefit.

Likewise, Innes proposed, as one of his fishkeeping axioms, that an aquarium is an entity that requires the aquarist to devote time to its maintenance. Even though he was attracted to the idea of a harmonious balance (indeed, he cites that the idea of the 'balanced aquarium' could be traced all the way back to an author called Warrington way back in 1850!) he recognised that our intervention was necessary in the aquarium - without our periodic attention to such matters as cleaning filter floss, gravel vacs and water changes, the fishkeeping enterprise is that much more fraught with woe. Indeed, the following quote (on page 343 discussing the Paradise Fish, macropodus opercularis and its status as the earliest domesticated tropical fish - it was first kept in 1868 by Carbonnier in Paris) should make interesting reading:

It is now difficult to realise that in about 1850-1850, especially in England, the household aquarium was a new and fashionable fad, and that many books appeared on the subject. Judging from the now comical misinformation contained in most of them, it is little wonder that the mushroom growth soon passed and left no trace, except for a few musty books. One of the earliest of them (Warrington, 1850) contained the first correct statement of the principles of the "balanced" aquarium, indeed an epoch in itself, and one worthy of commemoration.

Innes of course refined this idea, recognising that a complete and perfect balance in the confines of the aquarium was likely to be impossible to achieve, and thus guided his readers toward harnessing Nature where appropriate to minimise our workload, and attending themselves diligently to those tasks required of them for successful fishkeeping. Again, a revolutionary conceptual development for 1938, and one which still manages to escape the notice of several more recent authors!

One of the common myths, which still persists even in some textbooks today, was roundly exploded by Innes - the idea that using an air pump and an air stone somehow forces air into the water. As he explained all those years ago, this is patently untrue. What happens is that the movement of the bubbles creates a current in the aquarium, bringing water from the depths of the aquarium to the surface, where it can engage in gas exchange with the atmosphere. By ensuring that all of the water in the aquarium can thus engage in gas exchange, as opposed to the water in the top inch or so (as is the case with a stagnant water body), the airstone increases the efficiency of a natural process that takes place even when an airstone is not present. It is no fault of Innes that the myth still persists, given his assiduous efforts to state the correct details of the gas exchange process, and quite a few more recent authors would do well to study the relevant passage before passing on scientifically incorrect information to fishkeeping newcomers ...

It must of course be borne in mind that Innes was writing at a time when the pace of life was slower. Moreover, in his day, patience, planning, and a willingness to learn combined with equal willingness to roll up the sleeves and do the chores were considered virtues, the sign of a good character, whereas now (in a lamentable inversion of 'progress') these very attributes, vital to the success of long term aquarium maintenance, are in some quarters derided and labelled 'uncool'. Fortunately, the good Doctor did not have to contend with MTV and planned obsolescence, which, combined with the instant gratification culture generated by remote control channel zapping across 2,000 cable channels, has done much to debase Western Civilisation, but that is a topic for another time ...

The passage of time, however, has been unkind in other ways to this tome. Little did Innes realise that his reference to 'comical misinformation' in the books of the 1850s and 1860s would, in turn, haunt one or two parts of his own work, the most glaring example being the section on Damselfishes, where he describes converting these marine reef dwellers to a freshwater existence! We may laugh at this as much as his readers may have laughed at the mistakes of a past century, and recognise that it is only the metabolic toughness of the Damselfishes which makes such a strange project even remotely possible, but to Innes' credit, he did say that a marine aquarium was by far the preferred means of keeping these fishes, the conversion to fresh water being an experiment not of his making.

But, such curious inclusions aside, the venerable Innes book still contains much of value. The idea that an aquarium is more than simply a glass box with fishes, but a complex system with interacting living organisms, brought together for better or worse by our hand, and more likely to be a happy home for those fishes if due care and attention to Nature is paid, remains his lasting legacy to the hobby. Indeed, Innes' book was the first to mention pH in a systematic fashion, was the first to describe undergravel filtration (though at that time he did not know about nitrifying bacteria, and the reasons for the success of the undergravel filter were only determined later), and was the first author to make an attempt (even though there are some hilarious misplacements in the book) to organise fishes by taxonomic order. He was the first author to devote time to explaining the rationale behind the classification of fishes, the first to explain the use of scientific names, and the first to provide guidelines on unciation, complete with (where known) etymologies of the scientific names in question. While taxonomy as a living discipline has advanced to the point where Innes' arrangement is now largely superseded, his work reflected the state of the art of his era, and represents a giant step forward from what had gone before. Even now, over 70 years hence, many of the basic ideas - that an aquarium requires maintenance, that an aquarium is a complex system, that there exist natural interactions between plants and fishes, for example, which can be harnessed to our benefit - remain timelessly true. It is not overstating the case to say that Innes' work is, in large part, the bedrock upon which modern fishkeeping is based, recognition of this coming in part through the fact that the Neon Tetrra, possibly the most popular of all aquarium fishes, was named in his honour.

So, if at some point you, the reader, happen to be fortunate enough to enter the fishkeeping Hall of Fame, for example, by spawning Chaetodon species in the aquarium for the first time, pause for a moment to consider that you succeeded because you stood upon the shoulders of giants - and Innes was among the most prominent of them all.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I like the review. Good job writing it...Must take you a long time to type?

10G- 6 Zebra Danios, 1 Upside Down Catfish
20G- 1 Goldfish
72G(maybe95)- Need Stock suggestions

Not that long. I can type at 70 wpm average, 120 wpm peak.

In any case, I thought a look at the venerable Innes book was long overdue, given that its appearance marked a major step forward in the fishkeeping hobby, and was the first attempt to deliver corect information on a comprehensive range of fishkeeping related topics in the one book. To many aquarists who began their fishkeeping careers in the 50s, 60s or 70s, this book was, in effect, THE fishkeeping bible. The fact that taxonomy has run away in recent years and exploded with new knowledge, dating some of its contents, does not detract from Innes' singular achievement as the man who got so much right in one place.

For those too young to remember when undergravel filters were home made affairs cut from plywood in the tool shed (yes, this WAS the case if you go back far enough!) a look at this book will also give an interesting insight into the history of the hobby, and show just how far we've come. of course, the fact that this Board exists and continues to shepherd blindly stumbling neophytes in the right direction means that we've still some way to go, but if it hadn't been for people like Innes, willing to do the spadework back then, we would not be in the position today to tell people, for example, how to keep Mandarin Fishes alive in a marine aquarium for an extended period of time - what we are able to do now is the result, as I said above, of us sitting on the shoulders of past giants like Innes and learning from that experience. An important lesson that applies in other areas of life too, and one that quite a few politicians across the world would do well to learn instead of preening their egos in front of the camera


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Another great article Cali.! I think you just tend to render people speechless with your articles. I mean............ what can you say, after Cali. has said it all?

You'd get along with my husband............ he usually ends up complaining about politicians by the time he's done speaking too.