[AGA Member] Re:Biotopes

["Robert H" <robertph3@comcast.net>]

>>The contest, in all it's years, was never presented as a
Plant Aquascaping Contest but just an Aquascaping Contest.
A few nonplanted tanks are entered each year, as I recall
and I think it's usally the in the biotope category. <<

I was in on the group planning discussion of the first contest, with James
Purchase and the rest, and my impression as I remember  was  it was heavily
debated.  There has never been total agreement in the ranks if the contest
should broaden its scope beyond aquariums and plants, and it seems that some
attempts in that direction have not been hugely successful. Not that I want
to be accused of throwing negative energy out there, but that is the
reality.

As far as biotopes, it really depends on how purist you want to be. Biotopes
not only need to be better defined, but the judging criteria needs to be
better defined specificaly for biotopes. Should there be two or more
different classes of biotopes, such as a represenative biotope, (one that
generally represents what a typical regional or enviornmental biotope might
be)  and a literal biotope that must be as close an exact reproduction of a
natural biotope as possible with research documentation included with the
entry. How serious do you want to get with it? And if scientific accuracey
is part of the criteria of the judging, then you need a judge that is
qualified in that field. Someone who has researched biotopes, perhaps
someone like Ted Colletti.

Robert Hudson
www.aquabotanic.com

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