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Biotopic presentations aka "specialty tanks" entail the blending of habitat, physical and chemical modeling to match life found in a given environmental niche. Many arguments have been advanced encouraging aquarium hobbyists to set-up their captive displays along the lines of these environmental and biological niches. Indeed, settings that seek to mimic a given part of the world's seas in their physical and living make-up have many advantages. Being more natural, biotopic presentations provide conditions that are complementary to the life forms utilized; that in turn correlate better with each other that the typical hodge-podge collection of most set-ups. The approach of just buying, mixing what is pretty and available is ill-advised in many cases. Not appreciated by many aquarists are the many ways and means of negative chemical and physical interactions that exist amongst aquatic species. Leather Soft Coral (alcyoniid) terpenoid production; overgrowing/shading and digestive dominance, Sweeper Tentacle et al. stinging amongst cnidarian species are but a beginning of a list of the several kinds of mechanisms marine life uses to compete for habitat and food resources. You might think, "All will be fine if I secure livestock from one area and type of environment". But simply selecting and arranging your livestock from a given geography, environmental type and trying to provide similar conditions found there will not eliminate such "aggressive behavior". Sea life in all localities in the wild interacts amongst itself in myriad deleterious ways as well. Prudence in placement, order of introduction and maintenance must still be employed by you to minimize to acceptable degrees such influences. On the positive side, biotopic presentations are superior in matching the physical needs of mixed livestock. Obviously, organisms that hail from a particular area and environmental niche share lighting, water movement and other habitat considerations. A further benefit of biotope approaches is that they provide foods in the way of DOC's (Dissolved Organic Carbon), meiofauna and macrophytes that and more that again coordinates as nutritive webbing in ways, degrees more beneficial than a random mixing of livestock. A ready example of this phenomenon may be the keeping of nudibranchs. Most of these Naked-Gill Snails have such specialized, restricted diets it is only prudent to collect them with such living foodstuff and culture them together. Clearly, biotopic designs are the best means of such co-husbandry. Lastly, a note re the "human" potential of attempting biotopic set-ups. Much is to be gained by encouraging these adventures in aquarium keeping. Knowledge and pleasure of discovering how environmental niches and their biota "work" to put it generally. About the Red Sea: Make-Up, Features of Aquarium Importance Along with the principal Hawaiian Islands and Mexico's Sea of Cortez the Red Sea is an area of high endemism, with some one quarter of species of shallow water marines only found in the locality. What's more, for aquarists, the Red Sea's inhabitants are stunningly more gorgeous and notably easier-going, in comparison with the same species whose ranges extend into the Indian, Pacific and other oceans. And what a resource! The Red Sea is about 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) long, and more than 2,000 meters deep in places, with intact coral reefs along almost its entire coast. As time has gone by, development of infrastructure in some countries adjoining it, normalization of international relations and desire for hard currency exchange has driven the evolution of marine livestock collection and improvement in cost, quality of product from the region. Of pertinence to marine aquarists is the Red Sea's general physical make-up. Due to it's narrow inlet to the Indian Ocean to the south (and a bit from the Mediterranean Sea via the Suez Canal to the north), the water here is more salty, registering a specific gravity of about ten percent more (1.0275) than the "standard" found in most of the worlds seas. Being relatively narrow and long, with constricted in/outflows, and oriented north/south, the Red Sea has restricted tides (typically 0.5 to a meter) and though flow rates can be exaggerated locally, circulation is not as brisk as many other seas, regions. This being stated, especially for reef flats/plateaus water movement in a typical aquarium (with a handful of turns per hour) is certainly more dynamic than the vast majority of captive conditions. Light intensity is high here, particularly in shallow waters of course. On calm days with the sun directly overhead it is brighter than almost any artificially illuminated aquarium I have encountered, and there are few days that it isn't very bright at mid-day. More light rather than less is the general rule with Red Sea aquariums. Reef Flats of the Red Sea: As stated above these are nearly continuous along the coast of the Red Sea, varying in width from a few to several meters in width, with occasional expansions along peninsular leading edges, the few islands and submerged reefs. Depth varies little, most tides adding, subtracting only a foot or so any given day. The reef flat or plateau is rarely completely exposed in the Red Sea.
Biota of the Reef Flats of the Red Sea: Here we will list and describe the species of most use and availability to aquarists. Of course there are many more species than can be practically detailed here and some species that should not be offered to the hobby do make their way into markets. As a precautionary measure we'll include a table of ones that are often for sale, but shouldn't be due to historically dismal survival records. Rest assured, your eyes do not deceive you. The life here is really this colorful and beautifully marked.
Here's my "warning list" of too historically touchy, inappropriate species that are offered to hobbyists hailing from this region and biotope.
Survey of Best, Available Species of Red Sea Reef Flats:
Algae: On the Reef Flat are mainly of the Encrusting Reds called Corallines, with some transient (chewed or scrubbed away) filamentous Greens.
Stinging-Celled Life, Phylum Cnidaria: Due to the vagaries of variable wave action, insolation (light and heat from the sun), and other factors, the upper reef flat is a place of harsh and dynamic circumstances. As you can appreciate species diversity and abundance are more limited here than just "over the edge" of the reef lip and slope. Nevertheless there are robust species that dominate this zone. Mainly the Stony Corals, Order Scleractinia, of the following families. Family Acroporidae: There are three genera of Staghorn Corals in the Red Sea; Acropora, Montipora and Astreopora. The first two are the predominant life forms on the reef flat and may continue to be so "over the edge". Genus Acropora: Some seven to fifteen species are described from the Red Sea, depending on which reference one follows. A. lamarcki (formerly corymbosa), A. hemprichi, A. humilis are regularly occurring, abundant species. A. haimei can be found in very shallow water, dominating at times.
Over to: Part 2 Red Sea Reef Flat Biotopes Or on to/down to the next level: The Red Sea Reef Slope |
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