Inhaltsverzeichnis für January 2025 in Practical Fishkeeping

IT IS WITH great pleasure and excitement that we get to bring you the results from this year's IAPLC contest. In 2024 they received 1,450 entries from 79 countries around the world and after their rigorous judging processes, this year's world rankings have been released. Despite a decrease in the overall number of entries, the quality of this year's work is notably very high. Before we get into the top 7 ‘scapes I think it is important to remind everyone it is easy to look at these contests and create aquascapes that are solely for this purpose. I urge you all to rethink this, making an aquascape should be something that you genuinely enjoy doing and the submission of your creation to a contest should be your method of sharing…

IN THE AQUARIUM at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo we have a primary focus on freshwater fish, concentrating on conservation stories and fish adaptations. We have a small range of exhibits including: Mexican springs, Madagascar rivers and the flooded forests of the Amazon. As part of international conservation charity ZSL, we also have a large off show breeding facility that is the heart of our ex-situ conservation work. We have 26 species of high priority freshwater fish ranging from endangered to extinct in the wild. These include Mexican pupfish, Greek and Turkish killifish, various livebearers and Madagascan cichlids. The majority of the smaller species are kept in 200L glass aquariums with some larger, 400L grow on tubs. These are naturally themed with plants and hardscape, while filtration is provided mostly by simple…

AQUAEL ULTRASCAPE 60 Reviewer: Gabor Horvath Price: £320 More info: www.aquael.com UK distributor: www.alfltd.co.uk For a long time, it was considered to be a niche interest, but aquascaping has recently became such an important part of our hobby. More and more brands are deciding to design and launch aquariums and related equipment to tap in to this ever-growing market. There are no longer aquarist meetings without at least one aquascaping demonstration or talk these days. While some of the creations of the more experienced underwater landscape-designers are truly astonishing. There is, therefore, no surprise then that more people are joining the ranks of those who have a true piece of nature (or daresay a better-looking version of it) in their homes. These aquariums are great substitutes for a garden, allowing…

SOMETIMES ALL IT takes is just a chance meeting to fulfil one of your biggest childhood dreams. Ever since I read a book by a Hungarian hunter-writer about his adventures in the Amazonian rainforest, visiting that magical place has been on the very top of my bucket list. I had to wait for forty years for the opportunity, but when a Brazilian ichthyologist I met at Interzoo mentioned that one of his former students organises fish watching tours on the Rio Negro I knew I had to go. There was still the (not so) little issue of convincing my wife to let me go. She is usually very worrisome and the trip even coincided with her birthday so I expected some resistance, but, to my surprise, she had no objections.…

THE FISH THAT is the subject of the following article has been known in the hobby for more than 35 years. In February 1989, on one of his travels through Cameroon, Otto Gartner from Vienna discovered two new variants of what was then known as Pelvicachromis taeniatus. He named one of these P. taeniatus “Wouri”, which gave reference to the main river where this variant was caught. The first mention of this fish was made by Gartner in September 1989 in the publication Danio, where the origin name was misspelled as “Wouria”. Less than 2 months later the name was once again published incorrectly, this time being described as the “Mouri” variant. Let's hope that these kinds of mistakes stay in the past, since such names can be soon adopted…

DIVERSA PANEL LIGHT Reviewer: Gabor Horvath Price: 60x35cm unit. White £120, RGB £230 More info: www.diversa.info.pl/ UK distributor: www.alfltd.co.uk I have always wondered how some of the best aquascapes have a glow coming from the back of the tank. For a long time, I thought that they used a coloured flash when taking the pictures or some kind of wizardry when editing. I only quite recently discovered that LED panels which you can hang at the rear of your fish tank exist. Since then, I have been very keen to investigate these further. Then, at Interzoo 2024 I saw a slim LED panel hanging from the back of an AquaEl tank which I enquired about. As it turned out, this unit was made by Diversa (a Polish brand that works…

THE WORD IWAGUMI (岩組) roughly translates from Japanese meaning “stone arrangement” or “rock formation”. It has its roots in traditional Japanese gardening where stones are used to symbolise natural elements and concepts. They are very carefully selected and arranged to convey a sense of balance, harmony, and peace and can be viewed as metaphors for mountains, islands and other landscape scenes. This practice follows the principles of Wabi-Sabi, which is the art of finding value and beauty in imperfections and simplicity. Stones are usually positioned in odd numbers, the simplest of which is known as Sanzon-Iwagumi which features three stones. Odd numbers are less likely to create symmetry, something that is not so visually harmonious. It's the intrinsic relationship between these stones and their surroundings that create the overall sense…

STEP 1: A sufficient amount of soil is added for a depth of about 6cm at the rear of the tank, which will cater to the roots of the lily. STEP 2: The soil is smoothed out and sculpted so it is deeper at the back than the front. STEP 3: The wood is added just off centre to provide cover for the fishes and a focal point within the display. STEP 4: The Litorella uniflora are planted at each end of the tank, slightly denser on the right than the left so as to give a tapering sensation and a triangular layout. STEP 5: The Nymphaea is planted off centre at the rear, so its leaves will spread out but not block too much light for the Litorella. STEP…

TORCH CORALS ARE Large Polyp Stony (LPS) corals known scientifically as Euphyllia glabrescens. They are in the family Euphyllidae, which includes the beautiful but aggressive Galaxea, and Fimbriaphyllia, which hammer and frogspawn corals were recently moved to from the genus Euphyllia. Torch corals are a branching hard coral, which as their common name suggests, have a flaming torch-like bouquet of tentacles coming from a bony stem. Their tentacles are typically two inches in length, or longer, when extended, and when you combine their colour and movement (two of the most desirable traits in corals) it clear to see why they're very popular. Origin Torch corals come from the Indo-Pacific, and the ones we keep either come from Indonesia, the Great Barrier Reef, or Western Australia, although the Great Barrier Reef…

AMONG MEXICO'S VIBRANT and highly diverse aquatic ecosystems lives the unique fishes from the subfamily Goodeinae. Due to threats including habitat loss, invasive species and pollution, they face an uncertain future, with many teetering on the brink of extinction. In response to this, a team of conservation partners pulled together an ambitious plan to safeguard goodeids from extinction and ensure populations can bounce back and thrive. Created by a coalition of experts from the Universidad Michoacana San Nicolás de Hidalgo, the IUCN Freshwater Conservation Committee, SHOAL, Chester Zoo, and the aquarist-led Goodeid Working Group, the Action Plan for the Conservation of Mexico's Goodeid Fishes 2023-2033 seeks to tackle these challenges head on and turn back the tide on catastrophic population loss. Who are the Goodeinae? There are 40 species of…