Customer Reviews
Covers more species in total than "Red Sea Reef Guide" - By: A customer, 09 Sep 2008 
From the books about coral reef lifein the Red sea I have seen & used this one, Coral Reef Guide Red Sea by Lieske & Meyers (2004), has the best coverage of species & groups I have wanted to identify. The closest alternative, or complement, I know about now is "Red sea reef guide" by Helmus Debelius (2 ed 2000 - 5 ed 2007). The latter has almost 900 scientific namesin the index, compared with around 1800 for this one (but some of these are genera, families, classes & other group names). The weights & sizes of these books are almost the same (384 pages vs 321in Debelius). Almost all speciesin Debelius book seem to be includedin this book. Apart from Debelius book the closest competitor to me seem to be "Reef fishes & corals of the red sea" by Harrison & Misiewicz (2000), which has some good text & pictures but covers about 250 species only.
To provide some examples, Lieske & Meyers book has 30 pages about Cnidarians (corals & more) vs Debelius 5 pages. Fishes, reptiles & mammals are coveredin 212 pages for around 600 species, vs Debelius 223 pages for slightly fewer species. If you are interested alsoin sponges, algae & seagrasses the choice is simple - 16 pagesin Lieske & Meyers & nonein Debelius. For Molluscs the figures are 40 vs 48. Counting pages can be misleading of course: for cone shells (a mollusc group) I prefer this book over Debelius, not only because it shows 13 species vs 3in Debelius, but also for more informative descriptions. There are other species or groups where Debelius provides more details.
So, if you are interestedin everything visible at the coral reefs of the Red sea, you surely want both this book & others. But if I had to choose one, it would be this one. For the next edition I would be happy to see even more species included.
An excellent guide for underwater enthusiasts - By: V. L. Marchant, 27 Jun 2007 
A really good detailed book for anyone who wants more information on the underwater speciesin the Red Sea. I am really impressed. The photos are clear & better than the drawings you getin many fish guides. The book also covers corals & mammals as well as fish & is very comprehensive.
The best for Red Sea divers - By: Scubagirl, 07 Jun 2007 Simply put, this is the best guide to the marine life of the Red Sea available today. Great images, reliable identification, clear & interesting texts, enormous scope, handy size, reasonable price - what more could one ask? Divers & u/w photographers planning to visit this specific area cannot do without it - one of its authors, Robert Myers, has also produced another landmarkin area-specific marine life guidebooks, the incredibly complete Micronesian Reef Fishes.
Indispensable guide - By: Ria Field, 13 Sep 2005 My partner & I took this book to Sharm El Sheikh for our first underwater excursionin the Red Sea. We used it everyday! It's full of great photos of fish and, by the time we came home, we could identify lots of different types of fish, coral etc. It also has information about the fish so that when you're looking at them you know a bit about them which I think is important. It tells you which fish are dangerous as well & how to stay safe. It enhanced my trip immensely & I would recommend it to anyone with a love of the natural world.
