What’s a Biotope Aquarium?
The word Biotope refers to Habitat, as the name itself clearly explains what it means. Creating the Natural ecosystem of rivers or lakes in an aquarium is known as a Biotope aquarium. Below are a few points that explain what a perfect biotope aquarium should look like.
So many questions arise when it comes to Biotope aquarium
Which biotope do I like? Which continent? What kind of biotope: jungle, river, lake, rocky?
There are 3 major important things to be taken care if you’re planning to create the biotope.
1. Know the Ecosystem and Habitat
2. Plan your scaping
3. Proper selection of fish
Know the Ecosystem and Habitat
Creating a Biotope always starts with proper research and with help of specialized kinds of literature already available. We all have our own favorite fish (E.g. Discus or Angels) with the help of the literature and a few researches in Google we should first know how the ecosystem is? As well as communities of living organisms, from microorganisms in the soil to plants and fish, at the end of the article, I’ll share a few YouTube channel names that will help you to gain knowledge on different biotopes.
Know the Ecosystem and this includes the water values, incl. temperature, underwater photos, and descriptions of the dry and the wet season with effects on the biotope on animal and plant species that have their habitat there.
Plan your scaping
Make sure the layout of decorative elements used inside the aquarium is balanced. The visual atmosphere of the aquarium creates a sense of presence in the natural habitat.
A correct name consisting of:
The type and, if available, the name of the river or lake
The exact location of the biotope
The name of the country where the biotope is located
The visual characteristics of the biotope
Image CR Beta Mahatvaraj
Proper selection of flora and fauna
The biotope aquarium can be adapted by adding species from disparate areas that have similar water requirements. Always check compatibility! Some species from a particular habitat are not suitable tank mates. For example, the Peacock Bass will eat small tetras since they are their natural food in the wild.
Image CR Beta Mahatvaraj
Click here for an example of Biotope created by me.
You can refer to the below channel on YouTube and Facebook page to know what different biotopes look like
For South American Biotope: - ivan mikolji
For Central American Biotope: - lee nuttall
For South Indian River base Biotope: - Fishplore
Meenkaran in Facebook