[AGA Contest] Re:Biotopes

["Steven Pituch" <spituch@ev1.net>]

My intent in presenting these guidelines was to simplify, not make the
biotope category more complicated.  Not sure if it helps now after I've
studied the feedback so far.

Just to clarify.

The three biotope classifications are presented to the contestant to help
give direction.  If the contestant studies these classifications and then
can classify his/her entry then he has a better understanding of biotopes as
defined for the sense of this contest.
The classifications are not meant to be judged separately.   I still believe
that the biotopes should be judged as one category regardless of size or
classification.  So there's no change in this area from previous contests.
Also this is part of the documentation that is meant to make the biotope
entries educational.

When aquascapers order plants online they normally don't consider the fact
that some of the plants offered for sale are illegal in many states.
However, people who
are interested in biotopes often are the type of people who would rather put
their boots on and walk through the ditches along a road collecting their
own plants.  Once again this is an educational thing.  There are many
prohibited plants.  For example in Texas if you get caught with 10 water
hyacinths in your pond, you are liable for a $20,000 fine ($2000 per stem or
plant, see: http://www.ntwgs.org/articles/illegalAquatics.html).   Biotopers
tend to study the plants they collect, so they appreciate learning about
prohibited plants, as they are usually prohibited for a good reason.   I
also don't want the contestants to repeat the mistake
I made with my previous entry, showing water hyacinth floating in my
aquarium, and giving my address as Texas!

I think that if the AGA were to eliminate the biotope category
it would disappoint a significant number of its members.  You have to
realize that most of us on this list are very much into aquascaping in some
way or another.  However, even though the AGA contest is not, the AGA itself
is a planted aquaria club.  There are members who don't enter the
contest but do enjoy looking and reading about other people's biotopes.
These are members who are less competitive and enjoy growing aquatic plants
versus aquascapers who are in it for the art-form and competition.

I do think also that eventually aquascaping will develop towards more
biotypical arrangements.  Just read Amano's article in the Oct-Dec 2003 TAG.
If
everyone wants to imitate Amano you may see more aquascapes that look less
surreal and more natural with open top tanks, emergent growth and submerged
growth imitating more the way plants grow in nature.  So biotopes may
influence aquascaping eventually just like the advances made in technology
to promote the high quality of aquascaping are used by almost all aquarists.

There are some of us who are just not ready skill-wise or emotionally to
start heavy into aquascaping, and who enjoy keeping local plants and
learning about them.  I don't think it is as important to a biotope
contestant to win a prize as much as it is nice to just show your work to
others and describe what you did to create your biotope.  Once again I think
the biotope category is more of an educational tool than a competitive piece
of art.  I am still amazed about the mindsets of _some_ of the aquascapers
(novice and experienced) that  I have been conversing with on the forums in
regards to
plants.  To many of them the plants themselves are really not that
important.  They are only spots of color and form to be used to create a
work of art.  They care about growing them only so they look good in their
composition.  A lot of the novices are convinced that the judges don't care
about
longevity, and just plant the tank and wait a while and take the pictures
before the algae sets in.  Why worry to learn about nutrients if the tank is
not intended to be permanent?  Its gotten down with these few people to just
being competitive.  I
think the trouble aquascapers have with the biotope category is that it is
so different from their specialty.  But that's what gives the AGA some
balance.

Let me just give one example of a biotope entry that I am hoping someday to
enter in the contest and provoke some interest within the
non-aquascapers in the AGA.  Paul Krombholz and I, after a lot of planning
went on a trip on the San Marcos River and with much difficulty obtained
some "American" Cryptocoryne becketti.  I also did a lot of research
regarding the
accusations by government officials that an aquarist probably dumped the
plants in
the river, and now it is threatening to make Zizania texoma,
Texas Wild Rice, extinct.  What I discovered is that a commercially run
aquatic
nursery was run _in_ the river in the 1960s and 1970s.  I also found out
that Texas Wild Rice has a lot more problems, than just from a few
Cryptocorynes, and most of these problems are man-made.  But in spite of
this newspapers and television have blackened the reputations of aquarists,
and
with all this bad publicity even threaten to make Cryptocorynes illegal in
the
US, as I have been told by officials that they don't want anyone in
possession of Cryptocorynes.  And think of the possibly wasteful tax-payer's
expense of removing miles of this plant from the river, even though they
admit they can't get rid of it all, and there are indications that it is not
harming the rice.

I have been working on growing wild rice (Zizania aquatica substituted for
Texas Wild Rice) and
cryptocorynes in the same environment to demonstrate how they effect each
other. I'm talking about a true San Marcos River biotope tank.  However
before the biotope is
actually ready for photos, with everything I am learning,  it may take a
couple of years to mature.  But wouldn't this
be an interesting entry?  And it would have some social and environmental
importance as well.  True, it wouldn't be an aquascaped work of art, but it
would represent another part of our hobby that has some following in the AGA
that seems to be increasing a bit in popularity.

So its true that it is an aquascaping contest, and the biotope category did
not develop
like the other categories.  If we really want to make it a pure aquascaping
contest then we should get rid of the biotope category.  But I think then
the AGA
contest would not represent the overall membership as well as it does now.
If you look at TAG, you see that the articles aren't just about aquascaping.
Many articles are about the plants themselves such as where they are
collected, the joy of collecting, and how they grow.

I don't really mind if the biotope category was eliminated (I'd be a little
disappointed).  But it is counter-productive to have it exist in its
present ambiguous form.  In any event we need to create a non-planted
aquascaping category.  If it is decided that the AGA contest should continue
to have a
biotope category, and if the biotope category is to survive, it
needs some sort of encouragement in the form of some guidance.
Otherwise we should get rid of it.

Regards,
Steve Pituch

PS: this is a reference to something that tries to show of the magic of
biotoping:
http://users.ev1.net/~spituch/Steve's%20Page/Aquarium/Expedition%201/Expedition%201_16.html


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