What is a biotope?
- Thread starter Krismo962
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Change occurs naturally, it's man-made changes with negative impacts that are frowned upon. Often a distribution of a species will change with shifts in its habitat over time, part of the evolutionary process.
Biotopes are cool as you can more accurately mimic the natural habitat of a fish, but the specifity of it will vary. Can do "Lower reaches of river A", "River A", "River system containing A", "Country containing A" etc. In my opinion a biotope should generally be a replicate of habitat containing fish that occur together there. When you start mixing fish that don't occur together from the same region you're looking at a geographically or regionally accurate tank.
Oh this is a fun thought exercise that I can overthink from a biology perspective!
Couple factors we need to think about here:
1) If the waterbodies have always been connected, why is a fish species just now starting to spread out and outcompete other species? Straying to other areas of a connected habitat is a key strategy of many fish species, and can happen either through a fish's own innate drive to spread out and find new territory/habitat, or through natural events such as flooding which can wash fish downstream.
A) Was there some sort of passage barrier preventing travel either upstream or downstream?
B) Has there been alterations to the habitat in the systems, this can be physical factors (change in substrate, water temperature etc.) or changes in species composition (are predatory fish species numbers dropping or are there more aquatic insects available)?
2) Have humans had any impacts that could have changed the previous mentioned factors?
A) Such as overfishing certain species of fish, destabilizing the balance of species in the habitat?
B) Or habitat degradation? Caused by activities such as dredging, removing wood from stream, or modifying stream channels/lake bed
C) Hydrological changes from pulling water of stream systems or damming of rivers (causing changes in flow patterns, water temperature etc.)
If anything that can be related to question two is considered a yes, then there really is no need to distinguish between an invasive species and a native species that is taking advantage of a human impacted situation. Both are having negative impacts on the ecosystem and stem from human activities.
If there is nothing from question 2 that can answer why there has been a change in ecosystem dynamics, then its an example of natural selection (survival of the fittest) at work.
Sorry kinda got sidetracked there, but that is question requires a bit of a complicated answer with a lot of variables at play.
In a practical sense, maintaining a biotope will combine species that will have evolved together to live in the same water conditions, chemistry, temp, and water movement, and these things can all determine the success or failure of an aquatic system..
But beyond that I consider biotope correctness as a simple part of my own purist nature. When I see a tank of clown loaches, pack in with Mexican cichlids, and S American Gymnogeophagines, it seems totally artificial to me, and has potential for water parameter, temp, and other future problems.
It may be fine for someone else, but to me, always looks off, an uneducated.
I have kept biotopes, and had this type bent for years, having a Lake Barumbi mbo type, with only fish from that lake, a Madagascan biotope, Mexican Cenote biotopes, etc etc.
For me, keeping fish is not just about a box with some colorful toys.
I like to delve into the research of evolution, water parameters, flow rates and all the things that made my fish what they are, how they have evolved, and are to maintain a healthy life.
My current tank is an eastern Panamanian biotope, with aquatic plants collected from areas the fish , and invertebrates come from, and found together in nature. These species are found in only a restricted area because of the geography of the country.
It has been set up for around 3 years, with mostly the same fish, and experienced few aggression problems, no disease (other than the few parasites they arrived with (now gone)), and mimics the seasonal changes that induce spawning or not at the proper times.
I also like to snorkel and dive in the area they come from so I can take things like the color of substrate, and topography into consideration.
Natural conditions often allow fish to look the way they should.
From many posts I've seen here on MFK about fish going "psychotic", or tanks crashing, or filled with "unknown" disease, it seems a little more respect for the reality of the way species have evolved to coexist may be warranted.
But beyond that I consider biotope correctness as a simple part of my own purist nature. When I see a tank of clown loaches, pack in with Mexican cichlids, and S American Gymnogeophagines, it seems totally artificial to me, and has potential for water parameter, temp, and other future problems.
It may be fine for someone else, but to me, always looks off, an uneducated.
I have kept biotopes, and had this type bent for years, having a Lake Barumbi mbo type, with only fish from that lake, a Madagascan biotope, Mexican Cenote biotopes, etc etc.
For me, keeping fish is not just about a box with some colorful toys.
I like to delve into the research of evolution, water parameters, flow rates and all the things that made my fish what they are, how they have evolved, and are to maintain a healthy life.
My current tank is an eastern Panamanian biotope, with aquatic plants collected from areas the fish , and invertebrates come from, and found together in nature. These species are found in only a restricted area because of the geography of the country.
It has been set up for around 3 years, with mostly the same fish, and experienced few aggression problems, no disease (other than the few parasites they arrived with (now gone)), and mimics the seasonal changes that induce spawning or not at the proper times.
I also like to snorkel and dive in the area they come from so I can take things like the color of substrate, and topography into consideration.
Natural conditions often allow fish to look the way they should.
From many posts I've seen here on MFK about fish going "psychotic", or tanks crashing, or filled with "unknown" disease, it seems a little more respect for the reality of the way species have evolved to coexist may be warranted.
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My thoughts on "biotope" tanks are disparate and complicated, but to be reductive about it:
I respect the attempt to create a naturalistic environment and some "biotope" tanks are beautiful, impressive, evocative. But let's be real, even the best "biotope" tanks are just simulations, typically with tremendous limitations, with the majority being inaccurate in some facet or another. You could argue on one hand that attempting a biotope in a tank is an attempt to make your fish feel "at home" to some degree-- personally I find it rewarding to have a wild fish quickly settle in and start behaving as though things look familiar or at least comfortable. On the other hand, you could argue "biotope" is just as much for our own sense of aesthetics or imagination (or lack of imagination), which in many cases is overly simplistic if not inaccurate.
I sometimes see people say "that's not biotope" based on inaccurate suppositions regarding the varied habitat of many locations or species and I often see people get things wrong because they have a limited notion of which fish live together or the variations in their wild habitat-- vs what you can read... or see in for yourself in underwater videos. To my point, which is biotope here? Thick mats of vegetation? Open sandy spots? Tangled twigs and branches? Bubbling springs? Rocky? Flat, broken chips and rocks or more boulder-like rocks? Decayed trees and hollowed out logs? Sand, silt, or mud?
I respect the attempt to create a naturalistic environment and some "biotope" tanks are beautiful, impressive, evocative. But let's be real, even the best "biotope" tanks are just simulations, typically with tremendous limitations, with the majority being inaccurate in some facet or another. You could argue on one hand that attempting a biotope in a tank is an attempt to make your fish feel "at home" to some degree-- personally I find it rewarding to have a wild fish quickly settle in and start behaving as though things look familiar or at least comfortable. On the other hand, you could argue "biotope" is just as much for our own sense of aesthetics or imagination (or lack of imagination), which in many cases is overly simplistic if not inaccurate.
I sometimes see people say "that's not biotope" based on inaccurate suppositions regarding the varied habitat of many locations or species and I often see people get things wrong because they have a limited notion of which fish live together or the variations in their wild habitat-- vs what you can read... or see in for yourself in underwater videos. To my point, which is biotope here? Thick mats of vegetation? Open sandy spots? Tangled twigs and branches? Bubbling springs? Rocky? Flat, broken chips and rocks or more boulder-like rocks? Decayed trees and hollowed out logs? Sand, silt, or mud?
Ill rather take anybodys decorated tank over anybodys barebottomed tank with nothing in it. Whatever biotope/aquascaping/whatever punk rock themed tank you got going Im happy looking at someone’s creativity in making their fish environment an environment to exist in. At the end of the day a biotope to me means someone did attempt to replicate what they envisioned/seen in the collection area with research. Im happy with that.
i guess that a biotype could also include rocks/sand/sticks as well as plant species/animal species being from the same region
en.wiktionary.org
biotype - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
I personally try and keep fish found in similar environments. I try my best not to continent mix but it happens whenever I see a fish that I feel will fit in appropriately with the rest. Display tanks with mixes like barbs/tetras and gouramis/SA can be a bit jarring at times. I do have a few 'thunderdomes' where I just mix some nice fish I am holding onto until I find a nice display to keep them in. As for the displays though I tend to stick to fish who's niches function well together. Natural elements such as real wood, leaves, and mulm seem to be nothing but beneficial to the fish, water parameters need to be appropriately synced as well. That's my 2 cents
