The 13th ABCV Show - Behind the Scenes
The 13th ABCV Show - Behind the Scenes
Written by Monday, 09 September 2002 01:00
Have you ever visited a cichlid show? Or have you ever been at a common aquarium show? Have you ever asked yourself how much work, time and energy is involved in setting up such an event? Or how it's organized and where all this expensive material comes from? Up to now I participated in two ABCV shows and one Daphnia show, so I'll take you on a tour through all the buildup steps of the 13th ABCV cichlid show held from June 16 - 24 2001, to give you an idea what needs to be done to make it a success. Setting up such an event is only possible by a well structured club with enthusiast members that are ready to cooperate. There are some people who will take a full week off to work on the show. Because of the limited financial resources of a club, the materials are carefully bought, collected and built over the years. The tanks used at the club are self-made plywood ones, which have a great advantage when it comes to transportation: their weight is only half or a third of the usual glass tanks. Imagine how many people would be needed to move a full glass 1600L aquarium?
All this collective hard work results in recommendations from famous visitors.
" Of all the shows I have seen around the world, the show put on by the Belgian Cichlid Association easily tops every one of them. The tanks are beautifully setup, the cichlids are in great condition, and the variety and rarity of the species is astounding. I have taken many photos of cichlids during previous show that I have only seen at their show and nowhere else. The efforts and enthusiasm displayed by these hobbyists is unmatched by any club and certainly worth the trip, from wherever you come. It is also a great place to meet fellow hobbyists and exchange ideas on keeping these fascinating fishes. Y'all come, you hear! "
Ad Konings
The build-up started with the transportation of all the materials needed. Stands, tanks, stones and rocks, sand, filters, front panels, glass cover plates, electricity equipment, entrance and other signs all had to be brought from the storage depot to the show hall. It's the toughest and most important job where a lot of people are needed. This year we had the problem that the hall was only available after the weekend. This made it especially difficult because of the shorter build-up period and limited helping hands. Like in most other parts of the world on Monday most people have to go to work. Luckily the persons who were present worked very hard, so all materials were moved by that evening.
A few club members stayed in the show hall to start constructing the stands. Also the tanks were carefully sorted to ensure they were put in the right place. Because of the universal size of the front panels it was possible to mix the aquariums depending on cichlid origin to offer the visitors a nice variety of interesting cichlids from all continents of the world. Pallet boards were used to spread the weight of the full tanks and beer mats served as levelers. Rudy connected the electricity board that is needed for extra safety and power need. Can you imagine the power consumption of more than 30 heaters, light equipment and pumps working at the same time? Also a combination of electricity and water is always very risky, especially on such shows where people bring own materials that sometimes are close to the point to be regarded as dangerous. Their best equipment is mostly used for the aquarium back home which is, of course, understandable.
No time to waste on the second day! The tanks needed to be decorated. The rocks were carefully placed. Things to be taken into account were at first the visual appearance and secondly the safety for the fish. It would be such a waste to loose a fish that would get stuck and die by a wrongly dimensioned cave. The Middle- and South American cichlids also needed some bogwood. For the big tanks you really needed large branches and roots to make some effect. Then came the sand. As always this had to be washed very profoundly to prevent cloudy tanks. Especially on a cichlid show this is very important because these tanks serve as an example for new hobbyist visitors. This year there were several leaking tanks that slowed down the buildup dramatically. Such tanks need to be emptied, disassembled, glued and reassembled. My show aquarium also leaked a bit but this stopped after a few days. At the breakdown the tank started leaking again when it was almost empty. Strange.......
A very important detail for the participants of the show was having a cycled filter ready at home to prevent the fish being exposed to harmful ammonia and nitrite levels. Such a show is in itself a very stressing period for the fish, which is also the reason that some people decide not to participate. Feeding the fish sparingly during the show period or even give no food at all is also a common practice as they can stand at least 3 weeks without eating. The most common setups were canister filters combined with a trickle filter as they are easy to bring and provide a good oxygen saturation of the water. I brought a thoroughly cycled Eheim interval canister with an integrated heater that cleared up my tank in less than a day. Some other club members even brought a fluidized bed filter. At this stage the lamps are installed and plugged into the separated sockets that were controlled by a central timer.
When every tank was decorated it's time to mount and paint the front panels. People that were too late with their fish had to release them in the tank from the back side. These black boards cover all technical equipment, so all attention goes to what's most important: the cichlids. Also the last details were taken care of: entrance signs painted, posters thumbtack, books arranged for selling and finally the hall cleaned.
The opening then! After a speech of our chairman Walter Deproost it was time for a drink and an admiring look to all these gorgeous cichlids in the 36 beautifully aquascaped tanks. This year's show was very important for me, as I would receive the whole MCH team who would be were my guests in a tour through all the cichlid sights in my neighborhood during te last weekend of the show. We visited shops, the show and some hobbyists at home and had a wonderful time. But all good things come to an end, both the visit and the show were finished by Sunday of that weekend. After the departure of my guests it was time to break down the show. Luckily for me my fellow hobbyist Joeri Wilmssen helped me to move all fish and equipment back home with his delivery van in no time!
In the next pages you can see some more pictures of cichlids in the 13th ABCV show.
Photos by the author.
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