Freshwater aquarium evolution

I had been thinking myself about the future of the hobby, and Netmax'
foray into the world of hoods made me want to share my thoughts.

I suspect the next evolution in freshwater tanks will take a sizable
amount from the reef tank. In reef tanks, people try to complete an
ecosystem, including deep sand beds housing critters, live rock with
anaerobic bacteria eating nitrate and offgassing nitrogen, scavengers,
cleaners(both for the environment and for the fish) and more nasty little
critters than you can count. The word is biodiversity and it boils down to
the fact that complex systems adapt to changing conditions better than
simple ones do.

I predict that the new push in freshwater planted tanks will be the
inclusion of many many "critters" that will provide a more complete
ecosystem in the aquarium. Critters like this will include nematodes,
copepods, snails, bacteria, and lots of other fauna. We already have
started this trend with algae control- shrimp were mostly a novelty not so
long ago, now we have many varieties of algae eating and filter feeding
fish to choose from. Freshwater clams are being found in more tanks, an
many species of snails that were once considered undesirable are now
being sought out (MTS, nerites).

The next step is to find critters that prefer decaying plant matter as
their primary food source. I know there are some pond snails that fit this
bill, but sites vary on how to identify such a snail. I am sure there are
fish and invertebrates in this group as well. After that, most of the rest
of the organisms will be scavengers and in turn food sources for hungry
fish. If done properly this can even open up new species of fish to
moderate aquarists- a freshwater pipefish for example requires very tiny
live foods to survive. Typically this means newly hatched brine shrimp,
but a sufficient population of such critters may suffice.

Substrates will need to change- things like mud which has traditionally
been unacceptable may need to be reevaluated, or perhaps new commercial
muds will be made that are suitable for aquaria. Plain old gravel will
simply not suffice for most of these creatures. Anaerobic conditions, once
greatly feared by aquarists, are now considered beneficial in moderation.
The bacteria in nature that converts nitrate to nitrogen and oxygen are
usually anaerobic. Tanks will also start to have deeper substrates, much
like the deep sand beds of reef tanks.

Technology will also be driven in this direction. The most notable item
would be the common water pump found in most applications. While a
whirring impeller certainly moves water around, it can decimate many
microscopic creatures. In fact, my reading on breeding freshwater nerite
snails indicates that they do breed in freshwater, but the larvae are
typically eaten or destroyed by impellers before maturity. Pumps that
operate on a bellows principle (basically a bag of water with two one-way
valves) as well as corkscrew impellers will become more popular as the
tiny life in the tank is considered.

Eventually I suspect this will lead to refugiums for these critters,
located above the tank so water can siphon down to the main tank with
minimal fauna mortality. Such an environment could allow for
selfsustaining colonies of critters that occasionally wind up in the main
tank to serve as food for other creatures. If one trickled it slowly
enough, I imagine infusoria could be constantly streamed into a tank for
fry or very small fish to consume. Fish like discus which like to eat all
day will have a constant chance at food, and many creatures will be able
to breed on their own without intervention, raising their young in the
same tank they started out in. Filter feeding organisms will become far
easier to care for and thus more widely available.

Anyway, it's just a thought that's been kicking around my head, but I am
interested in what others here might think of it.

~Empty