How to properly set up a biotope aquarium – Kamil Hazy

Kamil HAZY

A biotope aquarist with experience in international competitions. Advocate of systematization of environmental aquaristics. Organizer – together with ”Aquarium Magazine” – of the Polish Biotope Contest. He offers services of consulting and arrangement of biotope, habitat and environmental aquariums. He believes that aquaria are primarily intended to meet the needs of their inhabitants.

HOW TO PROPERLY SET UP

A BIOTOPE AQUARIUM

How to properly set up a biotope aquarium? This seemingly simple question needs quite a lengthy discussion, which can develop into even longer process of analyzing available options.

Corydoras hastatus

Let’s start with the fact that in order to make the tank arrangement look natural, we must search for inspiration in nature itself. This can be done in two ways – by taking trips to the places we want to recreate in the aquarium and study the biotope ourselves, or by relying on the work of people who have visited these places for us and taken photographs or videos. The third way, which is indirect, is to go to a nearby river or lake and look for a habitat whose appearance matches the type of habitat we want to recreate. For it is well known that all over the world inanimate matter is identical in principle and can arrange itself similarly. Washed out roots of trees on river banks in Europe, Asia or South America will look almost identical, and the differences will be limited only to the species of trees that grow on these banks. Once we know what different types of habitats look like, what materials are used to create their outline, we can begin to determine what groups of organisms inhabit them. This issue is a little more difficult, but again, observation of nature and reading publications about the flora and fauna of rivers and lakes in general, which contain basic information about the ecology of aquatic ecosystems, will be helpful. Once we have gained the basic knowledge, we can begin to determine the specific biotope that has inspired us and that we would like to recreate in our aquarium. Let me stress at the beginning there is no one single approach that would be better than all the others and that will work best with all the biotopes. Unfortunately, it is not that easy, although it is much easier than it was just a few years ago. The Internet gives us plenty of tools we can use, provided we know how to use them, of course. The number of available books that professionally present biotopes and their inhabitants is also growing, but they are often expensive and not always available. Unfortu-

nately, the print runs of specialty books are often too small to meet the demand (despite the cost, many enthusiasts collect such valuable stuff). The process I have outlined is one of several possible approaches to the subject, and probably every advanced biotope aquarist has his or her own patents for acquiring harder-to-reach information. I’ll try to explain my workflow a bit, by giving you a specific example, which will make it easier. When searching for information about different biotopes, it might be useful to apply one certain pattern of behavior, but in many cases – to be successful – you have to modify it and be creative. The fun in biotope aquarium keeping lies precisely in this creativity in searching for information, composing plant and animal stocks, creating arrangement that provides suitable niches for the organisms and finally observing how they use these niches. Skipping any of the pieces of this puzzle may seem tempting, but in the long run it will reduce our satisfaction, limit our knowledge, and in some cases can cause problems leading to giving up the hobby. I will skip the process of selecting aquarium equipment itself, as I would like to focus on searching for stock. So let’s assume that we already have an aquarium and accessories, and we also know what size organisms will be adequate for the tank we have. In a dozen or so steps, supported by pictures, I will now describe how to find information and how to compose an interesting stock for a biotope tank using an excellent tool – the Internet.

STEP 1 Choose which fish will be ”the star” of your tank, i.e. the species from which you will start your search and around which you will build your biotope. Choose the fish that you like best, that will not be too large for your aquarium and for which you can ensure suitable water parameters. You must also consider species characteristics when selecting the number of stock. In this respect follow the basic principle of environmental aquaristics, which is the welfare of the fish you want to keep. For the purposes of this article, let’s assume that our ”star” will be Apistogramma trifasciata. STEP 2 Go to www.gbif.org and enter the Latin species name of our ”star” in the search engine. After a while the search result gives you a description and a map with the range of the species, marked mainly on the basis of scientific observations. In the search results you can also find further information about the species you are interested in, often also the name of the

person who confirmed the presence of the fish in a given place. At this point please remember that information from the gbif.org website should always be verified, because as in all databases, also here (admittedly sporadically) mistakes happen. Another similar website is www.discoverlife.org.

STEP 3 Using the occurrence map, find which river basins your species inhabit. In our case, we have a choice of the Rio Paraguay and Rio Guapore basins. We just got the first narrowing of the area from which we will be recreating the biotope. For further consideration, we assume that this will be the Rio Paraguay basin.

STEP 4 As our search focuses on South America, where most publications are in Portuguese and Spanish, I use the phrase ”peces del Rio Paraguay” in the search engine. Of course, the first instinct for most of us would be to look for information in our native language (there’s usually no time to waste on that when we’re looking for information about non-local biotopes) and then in English. English is partially useful when we have problems with using a phrase in the most common language in the area. You can, of course, try searching in different languages – I encourage you to see what results it may produce.

STEP 5 In the search results, we are most interested in PDF files, because they contain the most in-depth information, which on many pseudo-professional websites is heavily narrowed down to the author’s choice of more important things. Especially useful are pdfs (files of scientific research done on the site) from sites like www.researchgate.net, www.scielo.org, www.academia.edu, etc. Remember not to narrow your search only to the first page of search engine results – sometimes the real „gems” can be found on further pages. It should also be mentioned here that it is worthwhile to search for information through search engines like Google Scholar.

STEP 6 Once you find several interesting publications, search each of them for confirmation of the occurrence of your ”star fish” in a given area and at the same time you will get a list of fish that also occur in the same area. For example: I selected the publication Conocimiento de la Biodiversidad Paraguaya en el Río Paraguay, which was on the second page of search

results. In this material I found our fish on page 34. So I have confirmation of its occurrence in Rio Paraguay.

STEP 7 From the publication, I choose companion fish for our biotope aquarium, of course taking into account the size of the tank and the mutual relationships between the fish, together with the niches they occupy in the tank. Fish from the species Corydoras hastatus and Aphyocharax rathbuni, for example, will be excellent companions for Apistogramma trifasciata.

STEP 8 Look for a publication that lists the plants that occur in Rio Paraguay. Do this by typing in phrases such as: ”Aquatic plants of Rio Paraguay” or ”La vegetación

acuática Rio Paraguay”. I was lucky, because in the publication where I found the fish, I also got a list of plants occurring in the studied area, starting from page 11.

STEP 9 The same way we search for works in which we find parameters of water flowing in the rivers of the region we are interested in (ideally, of course, we should find parameters of the exact place we want to reproduce). It is difficult. As difficult (and often even more difficult) as it is with fish and plants, so it won’t be a huge misuse if we assume water parameters average for the region, rather than for the specific, smaller river we are recreating.

STEP 10 Despite the general knowledge you have gained previously about habitat types and what they look like, your next step is to search the web to find underwater photos and videos of the region. With some luck, you may come across the work of enthusiasts such as Tai Strietman, whose films can be very useful in recreating a biotope for fish from the Rio Paraguay catchment.

STEP 11 On websites with more general information (for example fishbase.org, seriouslyfish.com etc.) look for basic information about the species chosen for your aquarium, so that you can take into account the needs of your fish when arranging the tank. These generalities can often be very useful.

STEP 12 Look for people who have arranged a tank with a chosen biotope before you, and ask, observe and tell them about your plans. The information obtained in such a way will certainly enable you to start more easily and ensure greater success while keeping your aquarium.

STEP 13 In search of inspiration concerning the arrangement itself you can also look through the websites of the biggest biotope competitions in the world. However, I would caution against starting with this step, as you may then run the risk of repeating mistakes made by a contestant.

STEP 14 Arrange your tank using all the information you have gained and have at your disposal.

Apistogramma trifasciata – female

STEP 15 Enjoy observing your fi sh, draw conclusions and, if possible, share the knowledge gained in this way to make it easier for other aquarists to start with a similar tank.

By following these steps you can enjoy a correct biotope aquarium. Nevertheless, remember that the arrangement and selection of fl ora and fauna is only the beginning. However, I am sure that after passing the stage of searching, the maintenance of the tank will simply be a pleasure for everyone, and the animals in such a tank will feel great. That would be it when it comes to basic rules. I could expand on each of the points with additional information and descriptions, but I want everyone to fi nd their own way. Have fun searching for information, collecting it for others, and helping each other to discover underwater worlds. Keep on biotoping!

Photos: Kamil Hazy