A new aquatic show is being planned to encourage more people in the UK to take up fishkeeping as a hobby.

It's understood that the Aqualife Expo event would take place over three days at the NEC in Birmingham in 2014. There would be an exclusive trade day followed by two days open to the public.

The country’s most prominent clubs and societies would be on hand to demonstrate the latest trends in fishkeeping and provide informative lectures throughout the event.

The show would take place alongside a home improvement expedition, which normally attracts 40,000 visitors. These visitors will be a mixture of current hobbyists and potential new ones.

One idea being muted is to place aquariums, ponds or water features around the home improvement expedition, providing a virtual reality snapshot of the beauty of fishkeeping.

Another idea is to allow trading during the public days of the show, with the profits to be re-invested in the grass roots of the hobby, in the form of a donation to the clubs and societies that keep driving the hobby and the industry forwards.