Shallow places of Lake Işıklı, Denizli, Turkey

Sven Kullander: For fishes, there may not have been much other choice for a relatively small aquarium than the Anatolichthys maeandricus. Nevertheless, I would have liked to see a comment why the other small species were not considered (Hemigrammocapoeta, Nemacheilus and Cobitis). So, this is essentially an Aphanius habitat aquarium. This set up is definitely a difficult one, because the original habitat has soft substrate, somewhat turbid water, and naturally growing plants and algae. It requires monitoring, and I am not sure if there are considerations related to annual climate cycles, but otherwise should be possible to re-create based on other swamp habitats. The main photo and video show happy fishes, and with the species chosen, something happens all the time. I was wondering about the option for the Anatolichthys to reproduce naturally in this aquarium, a topic not covered in the text. I doubt this is an aquarium that would attract by beauty, but it is an excellent illustration of what Biotope aquarium can mean, and may inspire others to work with local resources. It is also noteworthy that a setup like, far from the ordinary home aquarium, takes much talent from the aquarist, as there may be few models to learn from. I still think complexity has somehow been avoided by the monospecies setup. More species would have been more challenging, but I understand the focus on the killifish, which is iconic for the region.

Ingo Seidel: The biotope aquarium was set up very naturally and could well be a habitat in the lake. There are slight deductions in the evaluation, because the selection of fish and plants as well as the design looks a bit monotonous.