Source: ANGFA News, Issue 51, December 2013, pages 10–11. Authors: Numerous (Edited by Paul Humphries and Keith Walker), ISBN 9780643097438, CSIRO Publishing, 440pp, $130, Hard 27x21cm. Reviewer: Glenn Briggs. View original scan (PDF)

This book is not really subject to your “standard” ANGFA News book review, as this is certainly not a new book of more typically reviewed subjects such as identifying fish of Australia or New Guinea, or how to keep natives in aquaria etc.

This book is probably primarily aimed at science students, no doubt aquarists or natural history buffs were not even considered as potential target readers. But nevertheless any native fish enthusiast will find a huge amount of interesting information in this book, particularly as it covers many aspects of our fishes’ natural history and the influence of the Australian environment on our fishes, aspects that we often don’t stop to contemplate.

You will also find out why did the Spangled Perch cross the road (i.e. swim across a flooded road) – who said scientists don’t have a sense of humour!

With 423 pages in total, this book comprises 13 chapters, each chapter done by separate contributors. Many of these chapter authors are well known to ANGFA members because of past contributions to ANGFA and our publications or have contributed many scientific papers (eg Mike Hammer, Peter Unmack, John Koehn, Angela Arthington etc.).

A list of the chapters is listed below, this gives some indication of what sort of topics are discussed in this book. You will not find a lot of “pretty pictures” in this book (in fact, no colour photos at all), but you will find a lot of intriguing information on the ecology of our native fishes, with many black and white photographs, diagrams and tables, to help explain significant points of each chapter. But readers with non-scientific backgrounds are warned – a dictionary of scientific terms is a great help when reading this book!

Chapter 1 The ecology of Australian freshwater fishes: an introduction · Chapter 2 Biogeography · Chapter 3 Evolutionary processes and biodiversity · Chapter 4 Habitats · Chapter 5 Movements and migration · Chapter 6 Trophic ecology · Chapter 7 Reproduction and early life history · Chapter 8 Age and growth · Chapter 9 Dynamics of population · Chapter 10 Assemblages · Chapter 11 Fishes from elsewhere · Chapter 12 Conservation and management · Chapter 13 Looking ahead

“Spangled Perch crossing the road” answer: It is in their genes! (It has a very strong urge to disperse far and wide as soon as flood waters arrive.)