The 36th edition of the Interzoo of Norimberga 2018 finished one month ago, and here we finally are to give you all the details, starting with our usual in depth editorial about the most important aquaristic event of every two year period.

This year, because of the huge amount of photographs, we had to take more time to compose these articles, compared to what we are used to. We have 2,500 photographs and we also have a lot of videos! But we will find a way to show all of them to you.

Following this editorial, there are going to be other in-depth articles, between 50 and 100 if we can write all of them, to talk about the news we’ve seen. Booth by booth.

This is my 7th Interzoo and I’m firmly convinced that it’s the most important fair in the world about equipment and pets. Whoever doesn’t participate loses, and the those that count… come to Interzoo!

The fair said that there where 39,000 guests in the 4 days of the exhibition, about the same as the previous edition.

My travel friends were great, and between the four of us, we managed to visit all the booths we were hoping to. Interestingly, some Chinese booths didn’t want to be interviewed because they weren’t interested in publicity. We were the exhibition for 3 whole days. I hope you will appreciate our efforts and our reports.

You already know that the Interzoo isn’t a normal event, where many people go just for the sake of attending. The companies want to show themselves and their possibilities, hopefully establishing themselves as the ones to watch for the coming two years.

39,000 visitors, 13 pavilions, and 1989 companies.

This fair drove home the fact that LEDs are the way to light aquariums these days. We didn’t see any HQi, and just a few T5, in particular in the Pacific Sun booth. Very different from the last Interzoo, where the T5 seemed to be reborn. This year, it was definitely a fair of the IOT, that is the Internet Of Things. In other words, everyone seems to have connected products. From pumps to heaters, and from chillers to skimmers, everything can connect to the internet, and can be remotely controlled by smartphone. Until few years ago, this was the realm of science fiction.

At this point, there are hardly any physical controls left. All can be done by apps, smartphone, and the cloud. We, in total honesty, miss some of the old modalities, even if we’re passionate about technology; we worry that this technology might be overreaching at times, in particular for those companies that don’t have working technologies without being connected to the Internet.

There were fewer marine aquariums exhibited this year, and more fresh water aquariums, and there was a hole left by Korallen Zucht and WhiteCorals. The former didn’t participate, while the latter didn’t bring its usual incredible animals to show. But fortunately we had the amazing aquarium in the booth of Dejong MarineLife. Very beautiful, and lit with ceiling lights by Philips CoralCare, in place of the Lani lights from two years ago.

We saw a lot of fresh water aquariums with beautiful and unique Aquascaping. Pictured below is an incredible creation at the Anubias booth. Thanks to Oliver Knot, Giuseppe Nisi, and Fabio Lorusso. We will see it in detail when we talk about Anubias at a later date.

Few fish. Almost no Discus, and only a few Pterophillum, some Koi carp, but less than in the other editions. It seems that we’re distancing from fish and moving towards aquarium with just plants.

Pictured above is a wonderful specimen of Zebrasoma gemmatum at the DeJong MarineLife booth.

The eye of another equally beautiful Pterophyllum at the AquaFlora booth, in partnership with DeJong MarineLife.

The participation of the visitors seemed to be falling compared to our latest visit, even if the fair reported the same numbers. The general public wasn’t allowed to enter on the final day, which was different from what has always happened. The fair, has usually lasted 4 days, and included a weekend, but this year for the first time it was entirely on weekdays, from Tuesday to Friday. We had the perception that there were less visitors, especially on Friday, the last day. And some companies began to take down their booths in the early afternoon.

Below, you can see some of the products that really impressed us.

We’ll now see the opinions of DaniReef collaborators Massimo Morpurgo and Federico Turato.

First up is Massimo Morpurgo, administrator of the aquariums at the Museum of Natural Sciences of Bolzano:

Massimo Morpurgo and Interzoo 2018

Interzoo is always a very interesting experience! It’s huge: this year there were more than 2,000 exhibiting companies distributed through 13 pavilions. I visited the fair, sent by the Museaum of Natural Sciences of Bolzano, on Wednesday, May 9th in the afternoon, and on Thursday the 10th from when it at 9 a.m. to the afternoon, when I had to take the train and come back to Bolzano. So I was at the fair for a bit more than 10 hours, which is too little time. It’s impossible to see everything. So I obviously had to set my priorities.

To begin with, I visited producers of LED ceiling lights for aquariums with high water column (1 meter and over), which are so appropriate for the expositive aquariums of the Museum. Then I visited some skimmer and pump producers, where I had the opportunity to talk with some of the designers, and to ask them for advice on some technical problems I observed in the equipment at the Museum. I received information and support.

Gramma dejongi

I have been told that in the future, the European directives are going to impose, for security reasons, the production and sale of return pumps and 12 Volt skimmers exclusively. Moreover, I noticed that several companies have developed mechanical roller filters in paper, which, until a few years ago, were only proposed by a couple of producers. I believe that it’s a very comfortable and efficient system of mechanical filtration that, different from other mechanical filters, removes the organic materials from the water before it starts to mineralize and produce ammonia.

The fair is also the perfect occasion to meet personalities of the worldwide aquariology. For example, it was a pleasure for me to meet Julian Sprung, who is the author of a great number of books and articles, is a passionate aquarist, photographer, appreciated lecturer and entrepreneur, and a very open person with whom it is a pleasure to speak and share opinions.

I was amazed by the tank of corals of De Jong in which there were, among the various species, numerous  Gramma dejongi, a caribbean fish discovered by Arie De Jong which was named after him in 2010.

Now, let’s hear from Federico Turato:

Federico Turato HkK.2003 and Interzoo 2018

This was my second Interzoo. I had to get ready at the very last moment, and had some problems with the lens of my camera, but all in all, it was a great experience.

A beautiful exhibition, a nice welcome by the exhibitors (besides a few that wouldn’t even give us a minute of their time), but most of all a lot of laughs with friends throughout the days. I have to admit that I wasn’t impressed by any particular booth, but by certain details I noticed among all the booths.

Of particular interest to me was the bacteria in powder by Oceanlife for the colonization of the dsb bottom, the planarian trap by Preis, and a presumed biological competitor of cyan bacteria presented by EasyLife. Aquamedic exhibited a product for balling with pH control, while Easy Reef finally released its phyto gel, diluted for nano aquariums.

There was a wide variety of feed for fish and corals, but I’d lie if I didn’t admit that I was impressed by the tank of De Jong Marinelife.

I must add that everything I saw made me want to expand my nano aquarium for experimenting that amazing technique I cannot use because of the dimensions of my aquarium. The hard part will be convincing my wife!

[Translated by Agnese Poggi]