Tetras, Bettas and Guppies Are Most Popular Fish for Aquascaped Tanks - PetProductNews.com

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Tetras, Bettas and Guppies Are Most Popular Fish for Aquascaped Tanks - PetProductNews.com Posted: 29 Mar 2021 12:00 AM PDT Aquascaping has been around since the 1930s, but it has become an increasingly popular hobby in the past two decades, according to Aquarium Friend, a website designed for all levels of aquarists to learn about the fish, plants and equipment needed to start, maintain, improve and enjoy an aquarium. To better understand aquascaping and the reasons for its increasing popularity, and help the aquascaping-curious learn about a potential hobby and decide if it's a good fit, officials recently conducted an online study of 1,089 aquascapers worldwide. The findings may give retailers a peek into what these hobbyists are seeking. The hobby isn't only increasing in popularity, it isn't showing any signs of slowing down either. According to the study, 70.8 percent of aquascapers have never thought about quitting, and out of those who did quit, more than half (52.3 percent) restarted aquascaping again later. In terms of spending, 47.2 percent of aquascapers spend $100-$500 to start a new aquascaped tank, while 2.6 percent reported spending more than $5,000 to start their tank. "Despite its glamorous tanks and beautiful designs, aquascaping is a surprisingly financially accessible hobby, especially when compared to the initial start-up costs of a non-aquascaped tank," officials said in the report. "A new freshwater aquarium can cost up to $500 to get started. This similarity is due to the fact that a lot of the costs are similar between an aquascaped and non-aquascaped tank—aquarium, substrate, lighting, decorations, etc. The main difference is the focus on plants, hardscaping elements and design. In non-aquascaped tanks, there are often decorations (bubbling treasure chests, skull caves, etc.) and plants purchased but the end goal is not aquascaping so the decisions differ in design." Aquarium Friend The most popular aquascaping plants, according to the study, were anubias, java fern, amazon swords, java moss and ludwigia. "These plants are all relatively easy to care for and can be used for a variety of layout options (foreground, midground, background) for planted tanks," officials said. "Given that design is an important part of aquascaping, we expected to see a distribution of layout options. They are also affordable, with most plants costing $5-$10 per plant. Lastly, they're common freshwater aquarium plant species, which means they're widely available at most aquarium stores, both in-person and online." Aquarium Friend Aquarium Friend The study also revealed that 96.4 percent of aquascapers include fish in their tanks, the most popular being tetras (neon, ember, cardinal, black skirt and rummynose), bettas, guppies and shrimp. "Create your own design" was the most popular aquascaping style among 39.4 percent of aquascapers, according to the study. Other popular styles: nature (29.7 percent), jungle (11.7 percent), Walstead (6.1 percent), Iwagumi (5.4 percent), Biotope (4 percent), Dutch (3.3 percent) and Taiwanese (0.4 percent). In terms of monthly care and upkeep, the study revealed that 68.8 percent of aquascapers spend $0-$50 a month on their tanks, and 38.9 percent of aquascapers spend five-plus hours a month on maintenance. As to who actually is aquascaping, the study found that 23.9 percent of aquascapers identified as LGBTQIA. This is higher than the general population estimates which range from 3.5 percent to 12 percent, according to officials. Also, the majority of aquascapers are "relatively young," officials said, split almost evenly among millennials (35 percent) and generation Z (32.4 percent). Aquascapers over the age of 50 came in at 9.1 percent. The study sampled 1,089 aquascapers globally. Respondents were spread throughout the world (71.2 percent based in North America, 11.2 percent in Europe, 4.3 percent in Asia, 8.4 percent in Australian and New Zealand, 3 percent in Africa, 1.6 percent in the Middle East,and 0.4 percent in South America) and gender (42.3 percent women, 54.8 percent men, 2.9 percent non-binary). The complete study can be found here. For more of PPN's coverage on aquatic trends, read:

Roundhouse Aquarium classes viewed around the world - Easy Reader Posted: 22 Apr 2021 07:39 PM PDT by Erin Waldner It's a weekday afternoon and Juan Lopez, an educator at the Roundhouse Aquarium on the Manhattan Beach Pier, is demonstrating a science experiment to a group of students in kindergarten and first grade. After explaining what an hypothesis is, Lopez tells the children that if he drops water onto his "stinky" sandal he thinks the water will go through it. "That's my hypothesis," he said, adding that the only way to find out if his hypothesis is true is to test it. He pours water onto his sandal, which he is holding. The water pools on the sandal instead of going through it. "So boys and girls, my hypothesis is not true," Lopez concluded. Lopez taught this lesson virtually, not on site at the Roundhouse Aquarium. The Roundhouse was forced to close its doors to the public on March 16, 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It reopened in early summer but just two days later the county shut down practically everything, including the Roundhouse.  However, the teaching facility continued to educate school children. The Roundhouse is part of a collaboration of approximately 30 science providers in greater Los Angeles who work with the Los Angeles Unified School District. They are providing virtual learning programs to meet some of the gaps in science instruction.  The collaboration is part of the new Expanded Learning Alliance — ExpandLA for short. Its participants provide out-of-school programs that range from sports to arts to science.  ExpandLA wants to create a system in which children and teenagers in greater Los Angeles have equal access to expanded learning opportunities. An ExpandLA task force began meeting in January of 2020. COVID-19 struck a few months later. In response, the organization sped up its timeline and put together the network of 30 or so science providers to teach STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) online.  The program is dubbed Season of STEM. Virtual classes began in the summer of 2020 and continued this school year. Juan Lopez leads an online class for young children at The Roundhouse Aquarium. The Roundhouse offers two types of virtual programs. It provides a program for the core academic portion of the day for fifth graders in the L.A. area. Students learn how different habitats, from the mountains to the sea, are connected. The Roundhouse teaches 18 to 20 classes a week. In addition, the aquarium provides after-school enrichment classes for students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Topics range from cephalopods to watersheds. With this program, the aquarium's scientists and marine educators teach approximately 20 classes a week from the Roundhouse. "The kids love it because they get to see up close the anatomy of a squid, for instance, and what its function is in the ocean," said Roundhouse Executive Director Grace Adams. She said students might also receive a virtual tour of the aquarium. Lopez began his after-school class on April 15 telling the children that the topic for the day was beaches. He asked the children to show with a thumbs up or down if they enjoyed going to the beach.  Lopez asked the children more questions. Do they have shell collections? Who likes to build sand castles at the beach? Does anyone like to swim or splash around in the ocean? One girl said she had never been to the beach. Lopez's classes feature "mystery animals." He told the students on April 15 that the mystery animal for that day can be found hiding under the sand, is usually spotted in the summer "and its eyes are on its butt." He asked the children to guess what animal he was talking about. The correct answer was a sand crab. After he conducted his sandal test, he invited the students to conduct their own tests with water at home. He gave them a few minutes to step away from their computers and look for the materials they needed. He then helped them test their hypotheses. The organizations participating in Season of STEM are developing online programs for the summer. Adams said they want to continue their collaboration in the fall but don't know yet what form it will take. In addition to the Season of STEM classes, the Roundhouse offers its regular education programming, although none is currently provided in person. The aquarium gave a live lesson on April 10 on YouTube titled, "Phenomenal Seaweed." It was geared toward children. "Seaweed is the absolute best," Val Hill told viewers. Hill is the aquarium's development and science director. The lesson is part of the aquarium's Earth Day programming, funded by Dive N' Surf, Port of Long Beach and Chevron. Virtual events have been held throughout April. Having explained that kelp is a type of brown seaweed, Hill stood before the aquarium's kelp forest tank and pointed out different kinds of fish swimming in the tank, including mackerel and moray eel. Hills picked up a live sea urchin, which lives in one of the aquarium's tanks, and showed it to viewers. She explained that sea urchins graze on seaweed. Adams said people as far away as India have been watching the aquarium's online programming. He said he hopes children who attended the aquarium's virtual classes this school year or tuned it to its regular programming will visit and see in person what they learned about online. Although the Roundhouse is still not allowed to hold in-person, on-site programs, it has reopened for visitors at a reduced capacity. The public must make an advanced timed-entry reservation online. ER

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