Marine Atlas
Nature Photography Educational Textbook Marine Aquarium Saltwater Fish Reef Ecology Ichthyology Reference Vintage Nature Guide
First-edition 1994 hardcover of the legendary Marine Atlas by Hans A. Baensch and Helmut Debelius – the German reference that single-handedly raised the bar for marine aquarium books. 1,200 colour photographs, range maps, water-quality charts, disease diagnostics and captive-care formulas are packed into 1,050 gilt-edged pages, giving salt-water hobbyists, students and professionals one-stop access to virtually every ornamental fish, coral and invertebrate traded in the 1990s. Because no comparable photo archive existed in English before this volume, copies quickly became the bench-copy in universities and public aquaria around the world; today it is the vintage title most requested by serious reef-keepers who want the “original data” behind modern hybrids.
What makes the book collectible is the clarity of its field-to-tank workflow: each species plate shows the animal in situ on the reef, an inset of the accepted colour morph, and a concise table listing salinity, pH, compatibility, adult size and captive breeding notes. The extensive introduction on reef ecology, filtration mathematics and quarantine protocols still outperforms many contemporary manuals, while the systematic index cross-references common names in five languages—an indispensable time-saver when shopping European or Asian suppliers. Even veteran aquarists return to Baensch & Debelius for the reliable feeding regimes and medication dosages that remain accurate three decades later.
This copy retains its glossy dust jacket, tight sewn binding and clean, unmarked pages—no ex-library stamps, no inscriptions, no underlining—so every photo pops as brilliantly as the day it left the Mergus press in Germany. Light shelf rub on the jacket and a couple of turned corners at the rear testify to gentle reference use, but the book stands square and solid, ready for another generation of marine enthusiasts. For anyone restoring a classic reef set-up, curating a nature library, or simply hunting the cornerstone volume that launched the modern marine-atlas genre, this first-printing Marine Atlas is the copy to own.
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