Re: [AGA Contest] A straw dog

["roger" <roger@spinn.net>]

On Fri, 23 Apr 2004 12:02:32 -0700 (PDT), S. Hieber wrote
> Which would leave us with what I think
> you are suggesting, a category where the entries are
> intended to be only biotopes. This is much narrower than
> the original cat.

If you take Erik's recollection that by the original design "natural
aquariums" were just poor-mans biotopes then it really doesn't narrow things
down.  If we are actually clear about the definition then it might narrow the
scope a little because people who had a different concept of "natural
aquariums" might not enter.  That might be a good thing.  Losing a few entries
would be a bad thing.  Different folks among us might find the balance in
different places.  That I think is a reason for the discussion. 

>  Can the eschewed entries be fairly
> compared in the the size cats? While not as limited as
> biotopes, they are meant to be representational and suffer
> limitations that others don't -- giving new meaning for
> some aquascapers to "dutch treat." ;-)

Some of them, absolutely would be fair entries in the aquatic gardens
categories.  If a theme tank has a region as loose as "the Amazon Basin", or
"Sumatra" or even "Pantanal" then the limitations aren't very limiting.  In
fact in the garden categories they might get a few extra points for "selection
and use of materials" by pointing out that the tank is a theme tank.  It all
depends on the judge.

> Speaking of which, similar arguments could be made to
> separate out Dutch styles from American and Amano styles,
> each havving a diff set of strctures, and some more than
> others. But do we have enough entries to make that move
> yet?

I don't think those styles are defined well enough to separate them into
categories.

> My concern isn't that Biotopes can't be distinct cat, but
> that the number of entries will be too few to warrant a
> category of it's own.

That's a legitimate concern.  As it stands right now I think most of the
people who believe they are doing biotope tanks are actually doing grossly
regional theme tanks.  I don't know why the concept of a biotope tank can seem
so easy when people talk about marine biotopes and so obscure when they talk
about freshwater biotopes.  A recent thread on the AB forum is an example. 
The conversation started with something like "I just bought a Madagascar Lace
Plant and thought I would give it a Madagascar biotope.  What else grows in
Madagascar?"  I suspect that those people -- if they are interested in the
aquascaping contest -- will continue to enter their theme tanks in the
biotopes category and risk the consequences.  Maybe some day one will actually
win the category.


Roger
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