Apisto Biotopes, AGA Contest

[Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>]

Fredrik Ljungberg schreibt:

> Since it is AGA organizing this thing, could it be that they
> put too much emphasis (sp?) on plants rather than the whole?
> If someone entered a serious biotope aquarium from Lake Malawi
> or Tanganyika no one would have a chance since these biotopes
> are well documented and relatively easy to reproduce. Comments!
> How much difficulty count for (as in difficulty of reproducing
> a certain biotope)?

Good question.  Though there may have been a little bias for the judges,
who are mostly used to judging planted tanks, it was definitely not my
intention, nor the intention of the other organizers.  From day 1 last
year, I always emphasized that there need not be any plants in the
aquarium... Look at two of the tanks used to create the bumper graphic at
the top of "Last year's Contest", or the tank Kathy and I entered
(unjudged)
http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2000.cgi?&op=showcase&category=1&vol=-1&id=97

which was sort of done as a joke (when you scan in 75 planting plans with
their little numerical codes for each plant, you start thinking it'd be
fun to do that with a tank with no plants!), but also done to remind
people to think "outside the planted box" next year.  Sure enough, we got
one Tanganyikan biotope that won 3rd place (by a very narrow margin) that
was all rocks.

...and then Max Gallade wrote:

> I knew that the chosen plants weren't from Amazonian origin.I wanted to 
> create "that natural look"of a small creek with what I had available to 
> me.None of the plants/decorations were bought for this setup.Everything came 
> out of my existing tanks.
...
> If you look at photos of natural Apistogramma biotopes you hardly ever see 
> any plant growth ,just a lot of leave litter and tree roots reaching into 
> the water column.

Yes, you're right on here Max.  To be truly biotopically-correct for a
blackwater stream, you would have had to locate Kapok roots and native
South American leaves, and probably wouldn't have had any plants in there
at all.  Not really practical... oak leaves and bogwood are a good North
American substitute. I didn't use true rocks from Lake Tanganyika in my
tank either. :)

One thing I'd like to sometime see or try in an Apisto biotope tank is a
fake root/tree that extends all the way to the top of the tank, like in
those mangrove swamp tanks you see sketched in books but never in real
life.

  - Erik

-- 
Erik Olson
erik at thekrib dot com





-------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the apistogramma mailing list, apisto@listbox.com.
For instructions on how to subscribe or unsubscribe or get help,
email apisto-request@listbox.com.