Friday, July 25, 2008

REEF FISHES VOLUME 5 ON THE HORIZON!

Front and back cover of Volume 5.

Example of a couple of pages from the Paracheilinus, flasher wrasse, section.

OK, I admit it. I have been a bad blogger. For over a month I did not contribute to my incoherent musings. I am sorry, but I think I have a good excuse. I have been diligently working on the latest Reef Fishes volume – this one on the wrasses (family Labridae). Yes, scarids (parrotfishes) are also included in the title, but they shouldn’t be as they do not get equal coverage in this volume. I apologize to you parrotfish fans from the get go. Unfortunately, because of space limitations, I could not include comprehensive coverage of both the scarids and the labrids. Since the later group is more important to the aquarium community, and I find them more interesting, I decided to invest the bulk of the book into the wrasses. The book is actually larger than it was supposed to be. It is 400 pages (the pomacentrids book was 256 pages). Of course, the labrid family is a big one – over 600 species – so I suspected that the publishers would be willing to devote a few more pages to them. But I exceeded the proposed size by at least 50 pages. The book should be available in a couple of months - I will certainly let you know on this blog. I hope you like it. Be assured, I will be adding to the blog more regularly until the next book is nearing the due date!

3 comments:

Jake Adams said...

Very nice Scott. I have been a fan of the series since I got my copy of the first Reef Fishes in the late nineties. It is awesome to see progress on new fish families.

Anonymous said...

Rumor has it the newly described Thalassoma blundelli is in this issue. At least that is the rumor I got from the author.

Adam

Scott Michael said...

Thanks Jake and Adam for your comments. Yes, the series continues.. let's hope that all volumes will be published in the next couple of years. Regarding Thalassoma blundelli: is this the species that is endemic to the Great Salt Lake and has been observed frequenting UTE games? Cheers Guys!