noga book

[jimg]

Does anyone have reviews on Noga's new book yet?

[jimg]

no comments?

[Eddie]

Not yet, been trying to find time to read through it. So far with just some skimming it looks alot like his first one but there several new chemicals/medicines listed in the treatment section. The layout is exactly the same as the first one and its about 200 pages more. I definitely think its a compliment to the first one but if anybody doesn't already have the first one, I'd say to just buy the second one.

Eddie

[jimg]

Not yet, been trying to find time to read through it. So far with just some skimming it looks alot like his first one but there several new chemicals/medicines listed in the treatment section. The layout is exactly the same as the first one and its about 200 pages more. I definitely think its a compliment to the first one but if anybody doesn't already have the first one, I'd say to just buy the second one.

Eddie

That's what I was waiting to hear! I don't have the first as was wondering if I should skip it and get the new one. Thanks

[Ed13]

That's what I was waiting to hear! I don't have the first as was wondering if I should skip it and get the new one. Thanks
Same here! It's basically and expansion of the first?

[Eddie]

Same here! It's basically and expansion of the first?


More or less, its an updated version. ;)

Eddie

[Ed13]

More or less, its an updated version. ;)

Eddie
Cool, thanks Eddie!

[seanyuki]

Reading Noga's first book is like attending biology class in high school and trying to understand the stuffs lol....but the second book is much cheaper and is lying in somewhere in house.:p

[Moon]

I got it last week and will keep it as a reference book. It's well laid out and the colour pictures of the disections help a lot. It's not a book that I would sit down and read through.

[Eddie]

It's not a book that I would sit down and read through.


I agree, definitely have to have an objective in mind.

[Moon]

The following review appeared in the KW Forum by Tiana:

It's finally here!

After a long wait, the second edition of Edward Noga's awesome book was released June 28th. Yesterday, my copy arrived.

If you aren't familiar with this work, let me explain: it is THE reference book for diagnosing and treating piscine illness, whether the fish are from warm or cold water, fresh or marine, ornamental, food or lab. Brilliant.

I'm going to assume that other folks have been wondering, like I was, if it really was worth looking to the new edition.

If you are familiar with the work and its contents, probably.

So, for interested folks, a quick review:

Who this book will appeal to:

Be aware that this is a text book. If you find reading heavy science or medicine (to check, go to PubMed and pick some recent publication. Even if you don't understand it, did you hate reading it?) abhorrent, this book probably isn't for you. A biology or medical background would be an asset. I was aware of this buying the book, and was not disappointed.

Does it bother you to have a heater referred to as a "thermostatically controlled electrical unit that maintains a constant temperature" or to have "head-to-tail" written as "cranial to caudal"? Does your brain want to escape your head when everything is written using anatomically correct orientations (combinations of medial, distal, lateral, dorsal, ventral, etc.) for instructions that end up looking like "on teleost fish...can be approached laterally or ventrally...contact made with the vertebral column...the needle is directed slightly ventrally and laterally to the vertebral column..." or "...usually located near the posterior edge of the gill chambers...may also be approached dorsally by directing the needle into the posterior portion of the gill chamber" or "...restrained in ventral recumbency ...inserted through the soft skin just under the caudal aspect of the dorsal fin as it is lifted dorsally...then directed under the dorsal fin but kept back and slightly off the midline"? If so...er, skip this text - unless you want to learn fast. Noga's book is absolutely written with an academic audience in mind.

No matter how good a reference is, it is useless if the reader can't or won't use it. In this case, the level of reading the user is willing to do will probably be the largest consideration in evaluating the usefulness of this book to an individual.

What this book contains:

So, the above is all and well, but if this is exactly the sort of reading you enjoy (or are at least willing to do), what will you get out of the book?

This four-and-a-half pound book is absolutely devoid of fluff; every single page of this five-hundred, nineteen page volume is packed with useful information. Bonus: very well organized to be user-friendly to a hobbyist without a full lab at his or her disposal.


Synopsis of contents:

Section 1:
• Introduction to broad groups of fish (pets, biat, food, lab, etc.) and culture systems (closed culture, flow-through, semi-open).
• A very good and quite through explanation of “The Clinical Workup”, including how to take, prepare and store different types of samples, “how to” clinical techniques (sedation, skin and gill biopsies, scrapings, fin clips, fecal exams, bleeding, ovarian biopsy, kidney biopsy, surgical procedures, and more specialized ‘others’), post-mortem techniques (euthanasia, preservation, culturing, sampling, submitting cultures, etc.)
• Interpreting findings and health management



Section 2:
• Amazing, and what I’d imagine most hobbyists would buy this text for
• In order of how things would be found, 103 problems, how to diagnose them and how to treat them
o In order, diagnosis by:
 Commercially available water test kits and similar
 External examination, wet mounts of skin/gills
 Examination of a gill clip or blood smear
 Bacterial culture of kidney or affected organ(s)
 *after this point, diagnosis relies on sacrificing a/the fish*
 Necropsy of viscera and examination of wet mounts, histopathology of internal organs
 Rule out diagnosis (viral diagnosis) based on absence of others and history, clinical signs, pathology, plus technology way above what we usually have access to
 Rule out diagnosis – way WAY above where most all of us will ever be tech and resource-wise
 Then idiopathic
 Then diagnosis my examination of eggs
• Includes how likely each illness is for each of four groups of fish: warm fresh, warm marine, cold fresh, cold marine, plus what genus/species are most likely to be affected


Section 3:
• Methods of treatment and related

And the new edition next to the old one?

My understanding is that there are three main differences between the second edition and the first.

1. Updated information. Anyone who has purchased a text book can offer evidence to the fact that this usually doesn’t mean much. Diseases may not change much (nor what we know about them, in some cases) but the treatments have. Updated treatments and up-to-date references make the second edition worth the extra cash
2. Colour! I can only imagine (in my worst nightmares) how difficult it would be to tell structures and organs apart in a picture of surgery/necropsy in a black and white photo. Same with staining procedures for samples for microscope slides – colour is often important in diagnosis. The new edition is in full colour – the older one wasn’t.
3. The book is so [much more] packed with information that it is nearly twice as long! Enough said


In closing

I can’t recommend this book highly enough. Absolutely packed with useful information, plus the “how to” that often gets left out in diagnostic works, I can’t imagine a more comprehensive text. The technical writing style may limit the audience to those with a science background with heavy use of jargon, at least for the first section concerned with the “how to”, but Section 2 won’t disappoint with such well-researched, well-organized, thorough information. Thank you Mr. Noga for another great work, and congratulations on making your excellent text even better!

[William Palumbo]

Sounds good, but maybe not for me. The review(post) alone was too long, and too much reading for me! Seriously tho, I will check it out at Barnes & Nobel...If not, I got my buddy Eddie for help!...Bill

[jimg]

Sounds good, but maybe not for me. The review(post) alone was too long, and too much reading for me! Seriously tho, I will check it out at Barnes & Nobel...If not, I got my buddy Eddie for help!...Bill

My exact thoughts too!

[Eddie]

Hey, thats why I'm here. If you need some info from the book, I have it on hand for those types of situations!

Eddie