June 23, 2017

There is a season...

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven."- Ecclesiastes

Okay, that's about as biblical a quote as you'll ever read from me. (I was thinking of it in the context of the 1960's folk song, however...). But it's perfectly appropriate for our little piece today, I think.

So I read that today, there are apparently going to be 16 hours of daylight in North America.

Okay, cool.

Not really earth-shattering, as it's happened for eons this way. However, it got me thinking...Do we create true seasonal variations for our aquariums? I mean, changing up lighting duration, intensity, angles, colors, increasing/decreasing water levels or flow?

With all of the high tech LED lighting systems, electronically controlled pumps; even heaters- we can vary environmental conditions to mimic what occurs in our fishes' natural habitats during seasonal changes as never before. I think it would be very interesting to see what kinds of results we could get with our breeders if we went further into environmental manipulations than we have been able to before.

I mean, sure, hobbyists have been dropping or increasing temps for spawning fishes forever, and you'll see hobbyists play with light durations. However, these are typically only in the context of defined controlled breeding experiments. Why not simply research and match the seasonal changes in their habitat and vary them accordingly "just because", and see if you achieve different results?

We've examined the interesting igarape habitats of The Amazon, and how these seasonally-inundated forest floors ebb and flow with aquatic life during various seasons.

I think it would be pretty amazing to incorporate gradual seasonal changes in such a biotope aquarium, to slowly increase/decrease water levels, temperature, and lighting to mimic the rainy/dry seasonal cycles which affect this habitat. What secrets could be unlocked?