The 2024 Interzoo in Nuremberg ended two months ago, but we took some time to put together our documentary on the world’s most important aquarium technology fair.

Unfortunately, the video, which we can call a documentary, lasts almost three hours. For anyone that doesn’t understand Italian, you can add subtitles and then choose English.

But back to Interzoo. The last edition, in 2022, was the post-COVID comeback, which is why it was very low-key, both in terms of the audience and the participating companies. Now we can say that the 2024 edition has returned to normal. There were many, many companies present at the fair, some with stands and some without, but we’ll see more of that later. And there were many people present, both casual visitors and friends we met on this journey.

As usual, there were six of us covering this wonderful event. We produced a lot of material, and today we are showing you the full video. In the coming weeks, or rather months, we will have a lot to talk about, examining every booth we visited.

Our Documentary Video on 2024 Interzoo

Do you want to see the booths we visited? Do you want to hear from the protagonists about the 2024 novelties? Do you want to see all the new products we discovered? Here’s our video that, in three hours, takes you on a tour of Interzoo. It will be like being at the fair with us. Then come back here for insights, comments, and details on everything.

As usual, from our editorial, in the coming weeks, many in-depth articles will be published to talk to you in detail about all the new products we saw, booth by booth. And we can guarantee that almost every booth had something interesting to show us, so we recommend not missing out on articles about even the unknown or semi-unknown companies because you might find some pleasant surprises.

Let’s Start with the Numbers

This is my ninth Interzoo, and I am firmly convinced that it is the most important pet equipment fair in the world. Many things have changed since I first attended this event, but one thing has always remained the same. Those who matter… come to Interzoo! Those who miss out… lose! And that is especially true this year.

The fair organizers reported that there were 37,000 visitors at this 2024 edition of Interzoo, much more than the 28,000 two years ago, and in line with the 39,000 from the pre-COVID event. There were about 266 aquarium-related companies, much more than the 170 of the last edition, although still below the 369 pre-pandemic numbers. Nevertheless, a 56% increase from the previous edition, and it couldn’t have been easy to achieve those numbers.

My travel companions, as usual, were fantastic, and the five of us managed to cover almost all the stands we had planned. Perhaps the absence of some of the major players gave us the opportunity to interact with virtually all the stands. But it was very hard to visit them all in just three days. We hope you will appreciate our effort and all our reports.

As we know and have always said, Interzoo is not just an ordinary fair. It is not the typical event where you go just to be present – companies are here to show what they are capable of. To showcase the market novelties for the next two years. Until the next Interzoo, that is. And the cycle repeats itself.

The trend of catalog absence continues, which for someone like me, who grew up with catalogs, is a big difference.

Still, significantly fewer aquariums to see compared to previous editions, both marine and freshwater. They were there, but in smaller numbers than a few years ago, as you can see in the various editorials linked a few paragraphs above. Korallen Zucht and WhiteCorals have been missing for a couple of editions, but especially the beautiful tank by Dejong MarineLife, which, although present this year, did not think it necessary to recreate an aquarium of that size, complexity, and beauty. Every year we took it for granted, but unfortunately, it wasn’t there this year, although the stand was. But we still saw some beautiful ones. Dinar Darum Lestari (pictured above) and AquaForest, just to name a couple.

A beautiful freshwater aquarium by Oliver Knot. Someone who undoubtedly knows his stuff. Look at this spectacle.

Few fish. We saw some particular fish at Dejong MarineLife, beautiful African Cichlids at the AMTRA stand, a new type of clownfish at the Two Little Fishies stand where we met GNC, but little else. This further confirms the transition from a public fair (years ago, it was open to the public on Sunday, and the set-up aquariums made sense) to a B2B fair, intended for retailers or companies. They don’t need to see a set-up aquarium to understand the value of an aquarium or accessory, making the creation of aquariums unnecessary. We have to accept that.

A much higher audience than the last edition, in line with the best previous years.

Below are some of the products we will analyze in the coming days and that caught our attention at Interzoo 2024.

We met many friends, producers, and personalities, many of whom we couldn’t photograph. Some you can see in this gallery.

In the following section we will see the thoughts of other DaniReef collaborators, namely Federico Ferrando Picchio and Simone Baglioni.

Now we hand the floor over to Federico Ferrando Picchio, a valuable collaborator at his first Interzoo.

Federico Ferrando Picchio and 2024 Interzoo

This was my first Interzoo. I left extremely enthusiastic and happy to have seen all the major brands in the industry. I found interesting innovations and, above all, many enthusiasts with whom to exchange ideas, thoughts, and opinions. 

A fair of this size allows you to see and evaluate all the best technology that the market offers today. I will definitely know what to use for my next tank.

I think it’s worth emphasizing that the thing that interested me was the extreme passion I found in the exhibitors. The willingness to show you their products by explaining all their philosophy and what goes behind the development. For sure, it will be an immense pleasure to return for the next edition.

Finally, we come to the thoughts of Simone Baglioni.

Simone Baglioni (Hioct999) and 2024 Interzoo

As usual, we find ourselves contributing to this editorial, just back from the latest Interzoo 2024 at the international fair in Nuremberg. We had high expectations for this event, and I must say we were not disappointed. We certainly saw an excellent turnout, with the fair aisles bustling from the first day and many, many visitors.

Equally good was the participation of companies which, slightly bucking the trend from the past and probably with a view to business economics aimed at cost containment, opted for not-too-large booths just to ensure their presence. We were a bit disappointed by the absence of some big Italian and international companies that did not attend what is the largest event in the sector in Europe. However, we consoled ourselves with some interesting innovations that we saw firsthand, such as the “ION Director” from GHL and the new photometric devices from Exaqua.

From the point of view of animals and the “live” context, this was a slightly subdued Interzoo. We perhaps expected a bit more, and even historic companies like DeJong MarineLife, which in previous editions delighted us with truly amazing setups, this year limited themselves to a small display tank with small but very interesting frags. In this case, the Dutch company preferred to focus on what has long been its core business, with some tanks of beautiful fish, all farm-bred in their own greenhouses, demonstrating that the path taken is that of a sustainable market that impacts as little as possible on the natural environment.

Nonetheless, there were some stunning tanks, among which, in my opinion, the one entirely populated with Euphyllia at the AquaForest stand stood out. We had the pleasure of reconnecting with some friends, like the always brilliant managers of Modern Reef, who further updated and improved their product lineup. Special mention to Royal Nature with their V-Corals farm, which integrates an interesting restocking program, and to our friends at Schego, who this year won the “Exhibitor Award 2024” for their consistent presence at Interzoo since 1951.

In conclusion, after a somewhat tentative previous edition, still too close to the pandemic, this Interzoo 2024 has given us many little gems which, together with the always impeccable organization, have contributed to making it an enjoyable and successful event.

If you have questions, doubts or curiosities, I remind you that you can leave a comment below the article.