It's Practically Essential for Fish Keepers. (Practical Fishkeeping - Magazine)

Member Name: azana

Product:	Practical Fishkeeping - Magazine
Date:	05/08/09 (122 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: informative, useful

Disadvantages: high cover price

Practical Fishkeeping is a monthly magazine aimed at fishkeepers and covering freshwater, marine and pond fish topics. It also has a very active forum at www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk, where you will also find articles previously printed in the magazine and plenty of advice for new and more experienced fishkeepers.

I started buying this magazine about 6 months ago when starting in the hobby, fishkeeping is more popular than you might think, being one of the biggest hobbies in the UK. This magazine aims to cater for beginners and the avid hobbyist alike in my opinion.

With a cover price of £3.60 this isn't the cheapest of magazines, but a subscription, details of which can be found on the website, is about £46 for one year and good value if it happens to come with a free gift that you need - in my most recent copy a CO2 kit worth £27 was offered with the six month subscription. It can be hard to find this magazine in shops, I have found WH Smith to be my best bet, it isn't stocked in many newsagents even though the magazine this is allegedly "Britain's best selling aquarium magazine", according to the magazine's website.

In an endeavour to improve my fishkeeping knowledge I have actually worked my way through at least a year's back catalogue of this magazine which is due for an image makeover this month (September 2009 issue due out August 5th), after a recent change in editor. The fomat in all the magazines I have read has been similar; there is generally a glossary of useful terms for beginners - useful if like me you were wondering what "hypoxia" or "brackish" meant. There are different sections about fish in their natural environments, Q and A sections, fishy product reviews and also generally interviews with people who have outstanding tanks. I found the series of articles for beginners that were published in the 2008 editions (these are on the website) really useful as starting out. The magazine will also keep you up to date with new products and news stories, such as the recent focus on fish stock issues in the wild. There are also reviews of different shops that you might use to buy products if you are an aquarist.

The subject matter probably sounds really, really dull if you have absolutely no interest in fishkeeping at all, but if you are getting into the hobby it is all very interesting and educational. My friend who has been helping me with my new hobby enjoys the magazine too, so clearly it appeals to the expert too. I do find there is rather a lot of information on marine fish, which are never going to be something I would keep, but I still find it quite interesting and I always enjoy looking at the beautiful photos that illustrate this magazine. .

The enthusiasm of the writers of this magazine for this hobby is clear, and so I can forgive them the odd typo and rather strange writing style. I am looking forward to seeing how the magazine develops over the next few months as they have surveyed 2,500 readers and have promised to take their opinions into account. As I said before at £3.60 for 115 pages or so (including adverts) this isn't the cheapest of magazines but it is definitely worth tracking down if you are a fishkeeper, or considering taking it up, and the website is excellent and practically a public information service in it's own right.

Recommended, but only if you have any interest in keeping fish!

www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk

Summary: an aquarist's magazine