Fish from Great African Lakes are more and more popular and more commonly found in our home tanks. Undoubtedly, the Lake Malawi fish, or to be more accurate – cichlids widely known as mouth-brooders – are the most common ones. They tend to be more popular than the underwater inhabitants of the Lake Tanganyika and Lake Victoria. Species known as mbuna cichlids are taking the lead in terms of popularity, while representatives of other groups are relatively worse known. Therefore I would like to present a fish from Haplochromis group – one of the most beautiful mouth-brooders from this group: Copadichromis borleyi ”Kadango”;
Mastering the use of substrate materials - Takashi Amano
Growing aquatic plants in an aquarium over a long period of time is one of the basic principles of Nature Aquarium. This is also called long-term aquascape maintenance. Long-term aquascape maintenance is the basis of Nature Aquarium since aquatic plants not only grow densely and become beautiful but also appear natural with the passage of time. (...) The first thing I focused on in order to grow healthy aquatic plants was the function of a root. (...) Natural soil contains organic matter from decayed plants and fallen leaves, which decompose with the help of soil microbes and turn into inorganic nutrients that plants can absorb.
Channa bleheri - Adrian Brożyna
Snakeheads are predatory fish that breathe with atmospheric air. They are found both on Asian and African continent. They may be both active at night or during the day and they live in all freshwater biotopes. (...) Snakehead group encompasses both fish that are no longer than 17 cm and giants longer than 2 m that weigh more than 30 kg as well. Almost all species exhibit extremely interesting mate-selection rituals. (...) The fish’s English name – rainbow snakehead – perfectly describes its coloration. Channa bleheri is regarded to be one of the most colourful representatives of the family.;
Reef or “fish only” tanks?. Part I - Piotr Stępień
It’s obvious that any kind of marine tank has its own individual charm that depends on aquascape consisting of live rock, invertebrates, fish and other marine organisms. Nowadays, aquaria most often display the combined beauty of corals and fabulously colourful fish found exclusively in seas and oceans. Is there any possibility to admire them separately? (...) Reef tanks are the most popular marine tank type in Poland – they encompass both different types of corals and fish. Such a combination undoubtedly leads to an unparalleled magic of colours and behaviour patterns. (...) “Fish only” tank is a very good alternative to a reef tank because it doesn’t demand so much attention of the aquarium hobbyist and keeping fish in good health is unproblematic because they have lower environmental requirements than corals..;
Discussion on the exhibition entitled “The present and past of the aquarium hobby”
- Wrocławskie Towarzystwo Akwarystyczne
(...) We meant to organise an exhibition that would tell a history of Polish aquarium hobby in an interesting way. We have decided to present fish that have “always” been kept – that is first fish that were imported to Europe and with which European (that means Polish as well) adventure with aquarium hobby began. Moreover, we prepared 2 series of educational posters. The first series dealt with Polish aquarium hobby history and the second one with WTA history.;
Shorthorn sculpin - Zbigniew Strzelecki
(...) An earnest aquarium hobbyist is not easily surprised by any marine aquarium, weird shrimp, brackish fish or a tank of the capacity that used to belong to the realm of dreams only. Many of us desire to be more original than the others and buy fish species that has only recently been introduced to aquarium hobby. (...) Shorthorn sculpin (Myoxocephalus scorpius) belongs to the Cottidae family and Scorpaeniformes order. (...) Is this sculpin worth keeping? Everyone has to answer this question individually but such a question probably concerns any other creature kept by a hobbyist..;
(...) Representatives of the Achatina genus are one of the largest terrestrial shelled snails. Achatina achatina is regarded to be the largest snail of the modern world. The species was recorded in the Guinness Book of Records. The largest specimen’s leg was almost 40 cm long, its shell was 28 cm high, 10 cm wide and it weighed 900 grams. (...) The development of “untypical” terrarium hobby, the more and more often visits at international European fairs, availability of snail species as well as non-problematic condition requirements in these soft-bodied animals influenced their rising popularity among exotic fauna fanciers in our country..;
Tortoise feeding - Wojciech Urynowicz
One of the most deeply entrenched myths concerns tortoise feeding. It affects both dealers and tortoise keepers. Many people still feed tortoises with the same food as the one that has been used about a dozen years ago. At that time we used to posses a totally different scope of knowledge on proper care of these wonderful reptiles. It happens quite often that zoos or even literature (usually books issued many years ago and only reprinted every year) set a bad example. This entire article is devoted to proper tortoise diet. I will try to prove why any other food is unsuitable for these animals.
Interview with Grzegorzem Porowińskim
17th international guppy competition and 1st competition at the 32nd European Championship of Guppy Breeders - Podbeskidzkie Towarzystwo Akwarystyczno-Terrarystyczne
Report. "Lekcja w przyrodzie" u Mariana Wojtaszka - Anna Skibicka
Last year he celebrated 30th anniversary of his adventures with aquarium hobby. He proved to be an excellent organiser of aquarium events and used to be awarded at prestigious Polish and international competitions. Now he decided to transform his farm located in the vicinity of the Przemków Landscape Park into aquarium hobby centre that would attract teenagers and Nature enthusiasts from all over the country.;
Discus fish - Artur Borowski i Robert Kaźmierczak
After publishing the article that described Diskuszucht Stendker GmbH discus farm it’s high time to continue our series of articles on discus fish. We will try to discuss options of keeping these beautiful fish, especially as they gradually become more and more popular among aquarium hobbyists. Many of our hints may diverge from the established standards that can be found in many books covering the topic. Nevertheless we will do our best to present our knowledge and highlight the modifications that make keeping discus fish easier. There are some issues that remain unchanged and can’t be avoided – we will try to discuss them in the following articles.;
Stuttgard – invertebrate hobbyists’ meeting - Paweł Szewczak
The “Wirbellose Meeting" took place on May 16th, 2009 in Stuttgard. The event encompassed lectures by distinguished experts that presented most recent information and photos from their trips in search of shrimps. It was spoken on shrimps such as “Black King-Kong”, “Red Ruby”, filter shrimps and “Panda”. The issues of breeding and conditions in which shrimps live in nature, zoo-geographical diversity as well as ways of feeding were addressed. All lectures were abundantly illustrated by photos.
How cichlids think? - Andrzej Sieniawski
The behaviour of cichlids is such an important issue that aquarium hobbyists that keep these fish should pay special attention to it. This time I have decided to discuss only this type of behaviour that is characteristic for cichlids found on American continent. It happens that behaviour pattern in these fish is significantly different than this of African cichlids – sometimes it differs only slightly though. Nevertheless, at times cichlid behave in a way that encourages suspicion that they actually think..;
Pet Fair 2009
The 11th International Fair of Pet Shop Merchandise PET FAIR took place on May 8th – 10th, 2009 in the EXPO Hall in Łódź. This international branch event has a long tradition and this year a number of visitors hit a record high of 8.2 thousand.
I have a pleasure to invite you to participate in the fifth edition of the competition organised by "Wodny Świat" website. This time we intend to diverge from the usual scheme.