Matthias, who was a member of the Kieler Aquarienfreunde as a teenager, was very familiar with this club and its members. So he teamed up with Benjamin Hamann from “ Das Biotop “ to demonstrate live how to set up a biotope aquarium at the VDA Federal Congress 2016.
On Saturday the Congress, which was preceded on Friday by an Associates Day, held an evening get together. VDA club members and visitors had dinner together and followed it with a very educational yet entertaining lecture from Dr. Ulrich Schmölke on the subject “guppies”. The rest of the evening was spent in specialist discussions and in getting to know each other. The “wild young things” went to the “Kleinen Kiel” at the waterfront with its wonderful view of the city and talked about biotope aquatics, catfish, new fish imports and such like until deep in the night.
The next morning we all met up to get things ready for the live setup. Thanks to the support of Tropica Aquarium Plants, we had some North American plants for it. A big crowd of aquarists gathered all around the JBL booth, impressed by the way the expert was reproducing a North American river course. In only 90 minutes a natural biotope reproduction of a shore zone was reconstructed in a 60 x 40 x 30 cm white glass pool aquarium. At the same there was an opportunity for questions about products and individual advice, to the great appreciation of the visitors. The focus was on the product ranges ProScape and ProScan, which were met with great interest.
Afterwards the aquarium, which had been setup for real aquatic field beginners, was raffled. A lot of parents took part for their children. In addition to the aquarium the necessary technical items ( JBL CristalProfi e901 greenline , JBL PROTEMP S 25 , JBL PROFLORA Bio160 , JBL AutoFood NOIR ) and a lot of food and care products ( JBL PROSCAN , JBL PROSCAPE Fe +MICROELEMENTS , PlanktonPur and much more) were sponsored. We were delighted when Franziska Brenseler, a schoolteacher from Neumünster, won the aquarium for her new project group. This means that from now on this biotope will be looked after by lots of children.
The VDA also took the opportunity to give updates about their association and also organised three educational lectures with well-known figures of the aquarium world:
- “Small Cichlids from African Rivers“, speaker: Uwe Werner, Ense-Bremen
- “Knifefish for Breakfast and Sorubims for Lunch – Bolivia 2015” speaker: Daniel Konn-Vetterlein
- “The Amphibian Ark” speaker: Jens Crueger
All in all I have nothing but admiration for the planning and the running of the event and we are looking forward to the Federal Congress next year. Our personal contact to VDA President Jens Crueger and his team ensures the further support of VDA activities on the part of JBL.
Now we would like to hear from you. Are you a member of an aquarium club or a project group? Just post your answers below in the comments section and tell us what membership in an aquarium club means to you.
You can find more information about the Association of German Aquarists here: https://vda-online.de/
The photos have been generously supplied by Fenja Hardel - AufmDach Fotografie .
