I do not want to start a debate over how respected an authority Axelrod was (he's no longer in the business), but I can say that the Atlas had more misidentifications and bad information at the time of publishing than any similar book. It is regularly re-issued with virtually no changes solely to protect the copyright.
It is very poorly organized; finding information on a species practically requires using the index to find which page it's on, as they are not in alphabetical order. But using the index requires knowing which name was being used at the time. Misidentifications are more than just out of date names, usually they were never right to begin with. In some instances, they've used a picture of the same fish twice, reversed the negative, and called it a different species. (It's all right, the two species look almost identical anyway!)
New editions rarely have all the name changes in effect since the previous edition. If you are looking for S. fryeri, I'd suggest looking in the index for Haplochromis ahli. You may not find it under that name, either, as the Axelrod Atlas is very poor in Malawian Haps and Mbuna, as they have added few, if any, photos since the original edition. At the time that was published, there was a fraction of the species we now have available.
I recommend either the Baensch Atlas, which has several volumes, or the Aqualogs, which are very specialized. Many of the names are out of date, but the real misidentifications are not that common in either one. The Aqualogs also show several photos of the same species, which helps tremendously in identification. Many fish, especially Cichlids, can change color and pattern faster than a woman changes her mind! :lol:
