If there’s one thing about the reef aquarium hobby that doesn’t even compare to the freshwater world, it’s the huge number of competitions in various parts of the hobby. Sure we’ve got some localized coral grow-out challenges but it’s not even in the same league as the world class fish and aquascapes that are promoted by world class competitions of freshwater tanks.
Every year there are hundreds of competitions in the freshwater aquarium world featuring the best specimens of Angelfish, Discus, Stingrays, Flowerhorns and even livebearers competitions pit the best guppies, swordtails, mollies and platys from around the world. Perhaps better known are the various national and international aquascaping competitions for freshwater planted tanks known as ‘Nature Aquariums’.
The spirit of competition in the aquarium hobby is alive and well in Asia, and the China International Pet Show is one of the biggest cluster of aquarium competitions in the world. All of the aforementioned categories are represented at CIPS and more, and we were fortunate enough to attend last year’s event where the show kicked off their first year of doing a reef aquarium aquascaping competition.
While not directly related to our day to day reefing world, we’re dying to see a day when competitions in the reef aquarium world spur the advancement of fish breeding, coral breeding, aquascaping and more. Perhaps one day MACNA will incorporate designer clownfish & angelfish and short term aquascaping competitions but until then, we’ll have to enjoy this part of aquarium culture from our freshwater comrades.
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