BIOTOPE AQUARIUM DESIGN CONTEST 2014
We present to you the results of Biotope Aquarium Design Contest 2014. Congratulations to all participants to excellent results, and thank you for your invaluable contribution to the development of the biotope aquaristic. On pages of some aquaria you can find comments by the jury members. Just click on thumbnail of an aquarium and you will go to its page with its detailed description, photos and video. Prize pool is EUR 2,400 Enjoy viewing!
Sponsor of the contest:
FINAL ROUND. RESULTS
The final round of Biotope Aquarium Design Contest 2014 was held on November 26th-29th in St. Petersburg, Russia, during ZooSphere 2014 exhibition. The contestants had the aquaria, all the equipment, fishes and plants and had to set up their biotope aquaria during those three days.
1st place
Burster Creek, Jardine River wetlands, Cape York, Queensland, Australia, 180 L
Croatia. Petra Bašić
2nd place
Slow flowing forest duct of the Nun River basin, in the north of Bayelsa State, Nigeria, 180 L
Russia. Svetlana Kirillova
3rd place
Subbasin of Valle Nacional River, Oaxaca, Mexico, 180 L
Mexico. Victor Manuel Ortiz Cruz
4th place
Tamnang River, Si Phang Nga national park, Province Phang Nga, Southern Thailand, 180 L
Russia. Vyacheslav Veriga
5th place
Llullapichis River, province Huanuco, Peru, 180 L
Croatia. Ivan Frank
QUALIFYING ROUND. RESULTS
During the qualifying round of Biotope Aquarium Design Contest 2014 the participants sent to us the photos of their aquaria with the descriptions. On September 25th, 2014 the members of the jury chose five participants, who went to the final round of the contest to St. Petersburg on November 26th-29th, 2014.
1st place - 548 points
Backwater in the rainforest in the lower Ogun River in NigeriaSouth American Blackwater Stream, 60 L
Russia. Svetlana Kirillova
2nd place - 540 points
Profundulus oaxacae habitat, 140 L
Mexico. Víctor Manuel Ortiz Cruz
3rd place - 528 points
Waterhole near Douglas Creek, 140 L
Croatia. Bašić Petra
4th place - 504 points
A mountain stream in southern Primorye, 100 L
Russia. Vyacheslav Veriga
5th place - 495 points
Tributary of the river Mamberamo, 200 L
Russia. Natalia Zakharova
6th place - 484 points
Flooded forest in the bend of Rio Tapajos, 180 L
Russia. Svetlana Kirillova
7th place - 466 points
Lake Tanganyika, 400 L
Turkey. Cevher Savranbasi
8th place - 460 points
New Guinea, 112 L
Poland. Jakub Kijak
9th place - 456 points
Rainforest creek of Warey River, Batanta Island, New Guinea, 240 L
Greece. Dimitris Ioannou
10th place - 437 points
Congo, 200 L
Poland. Jakub Kijak
11th place - 432 points
Rio Tapajos Biotope, 300 L
India. Abrar Ahmed Khan
11th place - 432 points
Congo Rapids Near Brazzaville, 568 L
USA. Marcus Beilman
11th place - 432 points
Green Dream of Tanganyika, 500 L
Turkey. Mert Kinali
14th place - 429 points
Banks of Malebo Pool, Congo, 260 L
France. Emmanuel Bultel
15th place - 422 points
Malawi Biotope: The rubble zone, 1400 L
Germany. Alexander Görz
16th place - 420 points
Río Guarumo – Panama, 130 L
Great Britain. Tom Austin
17th place - 418 points
Rio Shanushi tributary near Yurimaguas, Peru, 182 L
Croatia. Ivan Frank
18th place - 405 points
Rio Abacaxis, shore of the lake Lago Glemende, 300 L
Great Britain. Pawel Nowotko
19th place - 400 points
Rio Shishita, Rain Forest, 180 L
Portugal. Claire Moreira
20th place - 397 points
São Gabriel da Cachoeira do Rio Negro, 160 L
Belgium. Philip Shaw
21st place - 387 points
Everglades National Park, Florida, 60 L
Russia. Evgenia Moiseeva
22nd place - 378 points
Archipelago, 240 L
Romania. Adrian Calin
23th place - 376 points
Lake Malawi, Rocky Paradise, 400 L
Bulgaria. Nickolay Nikolov
24th place - 370 points
Coastal zone of Musa river in the Safia valley, Papua – New Guinea, 40 L
Belarus. Yriy Shamkalovich
25th place - 358 points
Underwater forest of Congo river – Yangambi population, 200 L
Romania. Visan Emil
26th place - 357 points
Rio Negro – Dark Forest, 160 L
Poland. Dominik Woroch
26th place - 357 points
Rio Paracon – Amazon, 300 L
Great Britain. Tom Austin
26th place - 357 points
West Africa, 130 L
Romania. Binder Marius
29th place - 351 points
At the bottom of the Amazon Basin, 200 L
Russia. Kamil Habibullin
30th place - 350 points
Rio Nanay, Fallen Tree, 180 L
Portugal. Nuno Matos
31st place - 343 points
The coastal zone of the African river, 250 L
Russia. Evgeniy Lukyanchikov
32th place - 337 points
Stream near Lake Biwa, 90 L
Russia. Tamara Davidova
33rd place - 335 points
Lake Xochimilco in Mexico City, 40 L
Russia. Svetlana Kirillova
34th place - 324 points
Lagoon Ocotal, Blue lagoon, 450 L
Poland. Bartosz Motyka
35th place - 316 points
Lake Tanganyika shallowness, 450 L
Turkey. Fatih Bolat
36th place - 315 points
Wild river in the forest, 160 L
Poland. Marek Michalak
37th place - 314 points
Everglade, 70 L
Belarus. Yriy Shamkalovich
38th place - 312 points
Rio Hondo, 300 L
Romania. Cristian-Stefan Bontas
39th place - 311 points
Rio Guapore, 45 L
Turkey. Tolga Eldurmaz
40th place - 302 points
Rio Negro Biotope, 700 L
Russia. Mikhail Yakunin
41st place - 294 points
North Bengal Himalayan hill stream biotope, 284 L
India. Sujoy Banerjee
42nd place - 287 points
Swamps of Louisiana, 56 L
Poland. Bartosz Strzała
43th place - 275 points
Guardians of Darkness. Lake Malawi, 283 L
India. Sabyasachi Patra
44th place - 269 points
Magic Dream, 120 L
Greece. George Pantazopoulos
44th place - 269 points
Chao Phraya river, flooded forests, 64 L
Great Britain. Pawel Nowotko
46th place - 266 points
River mouth in Lake Sentani, 170 L
Russia. Arseniy Kukushkin
47th place - 259 points
Lake Tanganyika community, 350 L
Turkey. Gökay Yagar
48th place - 243 points
Inle Lake, Burma, 60 L
Belarus. Yriy Shamkalovich
49th place - 232 points
Lake Malawi, at the bottom, 337 L
Ukraine. Sergey Revuckiy
50th place - 199 points
Rio Negro, beauty of the dark, 110 L
USA. Danett Williams
51st place - 180 points
Rio Negro, 180 L
Russia. Tatiana Yakunina
52nd place - 170 points
Narmada – India, 35 L
Russia. Elizaveta Fursenko
53rd place - 145 points
Sreng River, 280 L
Austria. Oliver Hardt
54th place - 143 points
Part of the flooded Amazon forest during the high water, 780 L
Ukraine. Yriy Yancher
55th place - 134 points
Eurasia, 200 L
Russia. Alexey Bondin
56th place - 128 points
Demonic Eurasia, 180 L
Russia. Alexander Michailovskiy
57th place - 123 points
Indus River – a large river in South Asia, 150 L
Russia. Sergey Antonov
58th place - 105 points
South America, 400 L
Russia. Alexey Bondin
58th place - 105 points
Eurasia, 450 L
Russia. Denis Gavrilov
60th place - 99 points
Backwater of Congo river, 20 L
Russia. Elizaveta Fursenko
61st place - 92 points
Stony-sandy biotope of Lake Malawi, 830 L
Russia. Ivan Viktorov
62nd place - 85 points
African biotope, 60 L
Russia. Alexey Bondin
63rd place - 77 points
Rio Subin – shallow river in the center of Guatemala, 60 L
Russia. Kirill Volkov
64th place - 68 points
Colosus, 225 L
Czech Republic. Rudolf Kuchar
65th place - 45 points
Rio Chico, 60 L
Russia. Natalia Berbich
66th place - 35 points
Rio Churun - the lost river, 450 L
Ukraine. Valeriy Sabadyr
The level of all entries has gone up. Beside 2 entries, all set ups are real Biotope Aquariums! All glasses have been cleaned and almost no technical items can be seen within the tanks. Most participants added a lot of specific information to the biotope and they really tried to follow the nature. “Lake Xochimilco in Mexico City” North America and “Backwater in the rainforest in the lower Ogun River in Nigeria” Africa are my favourites of all.
I must say that the standard of biotope-correct (or near to correct), has gone up very much in comparing to the previous 3 contests. What is still missing in some, very well written by Alexey, is the exact location of the biotope in the majority of entries, as a “Congo” (one of the 10 largest Rivers), “Amazon” or “Amazon basin” (over 7000 km long), “New Guinea” (second largest island in the world), “Rio Negro” (world’s largest black water river), “Wild River in the Forest” (there are over 100,000 in S.A.), or even “South America” or “Coastal Zone of Africa” (which are continents and not biotopes), and even similar wrong is just to say “Lake Tanganyika”, or “Malawi”, these and other such general texts on biotopes are simply wrong and make the best decoration loose many points, as these have really nothing to do with a small biotope, which is the essence of any aquarium.
This year there were less entries in the quality test than the last one, but their quality was much higher. There were just a few of entries that were not biotopes with fishes and plants from all around the world. I was pleased that the authors of the entries began to leave scapes for the biotope side. Yes, in nature there are places looking like scapes at first sight, but in the world there are million different habitats and most of them are simple and at the same time beautiful in their simplicity. Because they were made by the nature. An important omission of some authors is a short or a bad description of their entry, and sometimes a mismatch of what is described with what the jury can see in the pictures. This includes uncertain title: Congo, Amazon and others. Particular attention I paid to the behavior and condition of fish in the aquaria. If the fish behave abnormally (schooling fishes are dispersed to the corners, bottom ones are hidden in plants, fishes of the upper layers of water are hidden under rocks), then no design, no external beauty cannot make your entry a biotope and there will be no hope to a high place. Special thanks to the organizers and sponsors of the contest!
I really have to congratulate the contestants, organizers and everybody involved in bringing us this Biotope Aquarium Contest. The aquarium setups this year impressed me, again. I have been sitting in front of my PC for days and days looking at the entries. I think I scrolled all the aquariums about 20 times before I even started judging them. If you are one of the contestants, feel proud of your entry (I felt proud just when looking at them) and if you are a curious hobbyist observing them, enjoy what I consider “the best aquarium contest”. I feel biotope recreation is a growing trend which makes a lot of sense to me as a freshwater underwater explorer. I always admire or think highly of people in the aquarium hobby. In some way they are all nature lovers. The aquarium hobby is probably the maximum exponent of a continuous connection with nature from all around the world. When you keep African cichlids and simulate their habitat, you have a little piece of Africa at home, when you have a ram cichlid, discus or Apistogramma you have a little piece of the Amazon jungle in your house. We need more nature loving people like you in the world today. Biotope aquariums have brought me much closer to the hobby and made me fall in love with it all over again.