Aquarium Inf

Aquaristics

Aquaristics - definition

According to the definition relates to aquarium husbandry and care of the animals and water plants, in plastic containers, both amateur (time), as well as professionally. The aim of playing in this way the natural environment of fish or plant is to observe their development, behavior and develop their knowledge in this field. Because aquatic aquarium hobby can be divided into:

  • freshwater aquarium
  • marine aquarium
  • salt water aquarium - the fish and plants that periodically or completely require a salinity of water (they are mainly species living in natural conditions in estuaries and deltas of rivers, including mangrove forests, coastal zones - where fresh water mixes with sea water ).

Development of the aquarium in the world - from consumer culture to the decorative

The first mention of keeping the fish in plastic, open containers for consumption date back to Sumerian times, around 2500 BC Further archaeological evidence from the period of ancient Babylon and Egypt (about 500 BC). In Roman times, keeping fish in captivity was not just to keep them fresh on the table, but also served as entertainment features. They were kept in large, marble, open pools - often connected with the sea. With time, hit the roofs of houses in smaller, marble basins, where in about 50r.ne replaced with one of the walls of a pane of glass to facilitate observation of specimens held.

Decorative and selective breeding appeared only about IX-X century AD in China. It is here that was started breeding golden crucian carp (common goldfish), which concerned the categorical prohibition of eating. Initially, it was kept in ponds, then began to enter the stores and are kept in earthenware, porcelain vases later. In time, they were getting smaller and smaller vessels that resemble the shape of the current "glass balls." Gradually, with the development of shipping, goldfish began to conquer other countries. And so, about the sixteenth century came to Japan, and as early as the seventeenth century, the first specimens can be seen in Europe (probably the oldest record of the culture comes from the diary of an Englishman Samuel Pepys, who in 1665r. Mentions that he had a chance to see in one of his Friends goldfish held in a glass dish). Goldfish were kept in small glass pots, jars, ceramic bowls. In time, they were more ornamental tanks - typically made of a front pane of glass, the other walls made of wood or metamorphic rocks (the shale) that were matted together with a special resin. The bottom was also metal or metamorphic rock. These tanks were only heated open flame, usually natural gas, located at the bottom of the tank.

Breakthrough in fish farming and wider dissemination of this phenomenon has brought the nineteenth century. In 1836. English physician N.B. Ward developed and popularized glass, portable containers for growing plants and transport (now a mini greenhouse). He also suggested the use of these boxes for storage of tropical animals. His idea realized in 1841r., When it created a body of water with plants and artificial fish.At the same time experimented with the creation of the first artificial marine tanks. For the first creator of such a stable reservoir is considered AnneThynne, which has successfully for three years, starting from 1846., Cultivated in the corals, sponges and algae.

Experiment to create a stable freshwater tank with fish (this time real), plants and other aquatic animals (in this case, snails) continued the English chemist Robert Wardzie Warington. His observations and findings were published in 1850. in the journal "ChemicalSociety's". Its main finding concerned the relation between science water plants and animal organisms. From his observations indicated that between plants and fish delivered on specific bio-gas balance (found nothing other than the fact that plants release oxygen through the water, which is essential to animal life, and downloading by carbon dioxide, which is exhaled by animals) . At the same time observed that the water in the tank evaporates and must be completed.

Warington their work and experiments continued on, this time with marine aquariums. He developed a model of the tank completely glass (except the bottom) in a cast iron frame. This project aroused great interest and was asked to help create a public aquarium in Regent Park. During this period, he worked with the English naturalist and explorer Philip HenrymGosse, who asked him to help provide material for further study of the marine - plants and animals. Warington continued to work on the development of techniques for maintaining water quality using a balance between the world of fauna and flora. In this way, Goss provided a chemist two jars of seaweed, making its total contribution to the project. In 1853. the first public aquarium opened for the people of London, whose creator was just Warington.

Interestingly, until 1854, to determine the plastic containers for holding fish and plants used the terms "aquatic vivarium" or "aqua-vivarium". This state of affairs changed only P.H. Goss, who in his published statements used "aquarium".

In the same year and the following years a gradual dissemination of wider aquarium. All this thanks to a German naturalist Emil AdolfaRossmaessler, whose aim was to familiarize his countrymen with the subject of science. He has published in the family magazine "DieGartenlaube" (tabloidzie, but not in today's sense of the word) article about the sonorous title of "Ocean on the table" ("Der Ocean aufdemTisch" - 1854.), And then the article "Lake in the glass" ("Der See im Glas "- 1856.). These articles aroused great interest in just such a form of animal husbandry. Therefore, in 1857r., Rossmaessler published a book "Aquarium", in which he made detailed information about the configuration of the tank, to keep it in good order and guidance on goldfish care, gun pipelined and fish of the genus Misgurnus (piskorzy).

Colonial expansion, the emergence of new and colorful tropical fish species (initially wielkopłetwa great in 1869., And Siamese fighter in 1874.) Provided the aquarium flourish all over the world (mainly the evolution of aquarium equipment) and the development of the science of fish - ichthyology. However, for a long time it was a hobby only available for the wealthy people.

Important dates for the nineteenth century aquarium

  • 1870. - The appearance of the first Society aquarium in Germany.
  • 1876. - The world's first aquarium magazine "The New York AquariumJournal".
  • around 1908. - The first mechanical air pump, powered by running water.
  • around 1920. - The introduction of the first electric heaters in glass tubes to heat the water in the aquarium.
  • 1920. - Florida started commercial cultivation of exotic fish (so far kept in aquariums, specimens came from catches), which effectively reduced the cost of this hobby.
  • 1950. - The tanker aircraft used by ocean-tropical fish farming has become available for a wide range of aquarium.
  • 1960. - In the United States had the first glass aquaria connected in its entirety with a silicone adhesive.
  • 1970. - The development of the marine aquarium.

Aquariums and ichthyology - as varied fish systematics

Development of the aquarium was and is inextricably linked with the development of ichthyology. Ichthyology is the study of fish present, the scope of which includes systematics, paleontology, physiology, morphology, ecology, geographical distribution, as well as issues related to fish farming and management of their natural resources.

The first contribution to the development of the science of nature is attributed to Aristotle (384-322 BC). A number of his works devoted to the eg described the general structure of animals fish, compared it to that of other marine animals, described their customs, ways and time of procreation. He described a total of 117 species of fish living at that time in the Aegean Sea. Aristotle also applied the first classification of animals, which was a division of organisms according to their morphological characteristics, political activity or living environment. The membership of the group decided the presence of a given feature or lack thereof. Aristotle's work in the field of philosophy of nature continued by his pupil Theophrastus of Eresos. However, he has focused primarily on the world of plants.

In the following years and centuries, there have been publications and interest in the natural world, including fish, but mainly they were based on observation of Aristotle. Thus, among others, You can replace the work of Pliny the Elder "Naturalis historia" (a kind of encyclopedia), from the first century AD

New publications on strict fish appeared only in the sixteenth century. They focused mainly on the comparison of observations of the authors of the ancient works. The highlight of this period should be Rondelet Guillaume, who described about 244 new species ryb.Równoczesny colonization and development of its expansion into more and more areas favorably influenced the development of science and the emergence of new publications describing an entirely new species of fish (systematics of these specimens) or their environment. During this period, the fish were sorted by species name, which consisted of a generic and descriptive phrases numbering 12 words.

Peter Artedi, followed by Carlous Linnaeus changed this approach. The first of the men ordered the taxonomy of fish entering the "type" represents a group of species which differ in small but distinctive details and the resulting types grouped in the "family." The second of the men in the tenth edition of his life work "SystemeNaturae" began the identification of animals and plants by dwuimiennego biological nomenclature. Since then, the species used to determine only two parts: a generic form of the noun and epithet jednowyrazowego species (species identification).

Another revolution brought the end of the eighteenth century, when it considered the father of comparative anatomy Georges Cuvier introduced in their work (1795r and 1812) the distribution of animals on the additional cluster, and then joined the cluster in higher vertebrates or invertebrates category (in this case, these units were called branches and boughs - today's types and subtypes). In addition, comparative anatomy applied to create a natural system of classification of animals.

Conducive to the development of comparative anatomy further facilitated the discovery and examination of the remains of extinct zwierząt.Later development of the theory of evolution and natural selection (Charles Darwin's discovery), or the development of modern ethology (thanks Konrad Lorenz) favored the penetration of these assumptions for shaping continue to ichthyology. In this way, it reached the level of knowledge and the present day, which does not mean that it is already final.In Poland, the first descriptions of fish and their habitat made in their chronicles Jan Dlugosz (XV century), and the development of ichthyology in our country falls into the seventeenth century.