After critiquing the ADA entrant tanks during his presentation at the 2008 Aquatic Gardener’s Association Convention, Takashi Amano proceeded to discuss some tanks of his own. He spent a long time showing the exact progression several of his tanks have gone through from empty tank to finished aquascape. Afterward, he did show a number of pictures of his finished layouts.

He started by showing a picture which was featured on the cover of Tropical Fish Hobbyist and given the title “Amano Magic!” He stated that it they called it magic because to the human eye it’s believable that this could be a natural habitat for those angelfish. He then said that this was incorrect.

He stated that it’s easy to fool a human eye, but the true test of an aquascape is whether or not the aquascaper has fooled the fish inhabitants that this is a natural environment. This could be discerned by looking at the coloration and interaction of the fish in the tank.

He showed a number of his tanks, such as my favorite one above, which are truly extraordinary, both in aquascape and photography. He flipped through a number of aquariums, demonstrating different types of aquascapes.

Some were more heavily planted, with moss covered wood as the focal point. He didn’t spend any time talking about the photography side of his aquarium pictures, but clearly he knows what he’s doing. I’ve read elsewhere that the ripple effect on the water’s surface was created using a hairdryer.

Amano also described how to create an iwagumi aquarium layout, such as in picture above. This is a more traditional iwagumi scape, utilizing only one or two types of plants, allowing the rocks to be the focal point.

He also showed that it was possible to create a nice iwagumi with more plants in more of a hybrid way, utililizing background and accent plants. Of course, the rocks are still the primary focus of the scape. Rock positioning and selection either make or break this type of scape.

This final aquascape was one of the ones that he showed from start to finish. As you can kind of see above, he started with a bare tank, and used poster board to keep the Aquasoil and Bright Sand separate. The two substrates were further separated by moss covered stones, and accented by driftwood. The tank is then planted, and allowed to grow in. After a rather harsh trimming, the plants grow back more bushy, and a few months later, you have your final aquascape below.

Mr. Amano ended his presentation talking about some non-aquarium-related work that he has been doing, nature photography. As you may know from his beautiful picture-books of the Amazon and Rio Negro, Amano is an expert photographer. He had two of his works displayed at the G8 Summit recently held in Japan with many world leaders.

The particular photograph displayed in the background above is of a huge tree in one of Japan’s ancient forests. He then answered a number of questions from convention attendees, and finished his presentation. Overall, it was a very insightful presentation, which some beautiful aquascapes on display.

The obvious headlining speaker at the Aquatic Gardener’s 2008 Convention was Takashi Amano. Aided by his translator, Mr. Amano gave a very insightful view into the mind of a judge for his ADA Aquascaping Contest. As someone who has entered these competitions before, this information is very helpful for when I design my future aquascapes. Therefore, I wanted to share a number of slides from his presentation, as well as, his comments for what the entrant could have done better to receive a higher placing.

#31: The driftwood is too centered. If moved to the right a little bit, it would be been more balanced.

#32: The large rock is too far to the left, throwing off the balance of the aquascape.

#43: The wood is too centered, and too close together. Spacing the wood further apart would have helped.

#44: Not enough negative space in this aquascape. It looks too cramped.

#48: There are too many stem plants around this tree stump.

#49: The photographer used a wide angle lens when shooting this tank, making the driftwood appear distorted.

#61: The rock on the right is laying down too much. It should be pointing up at more of an angle to be balanced with the other rocks.

#63: The rocks are too much in a line. They should be staggered a little bit to look natural.

#69: The plant selection in the foreground and background are too different, making it look like the two don’t go together.

#72: The plants on the left don’t match the plants on the right. While both look very nice, they don’t go together.

#75: Nice scape, but the two pieces of driftwood nearly touch, which is distracting and unnatural looking.

#79: The left side is too heavy, and not following the principles of the golden ratio. Also, the slope of the trimmed plants on the right and left don’t match. The right slope is too steep.

#81: The moss is overgrown, and needs to be trimmed.

#85: This scape would be better if the skinny piece of driftwood just left of center was removed entirely. Lots of entrants used too much hardscape to their detriment.

#87: The mossy rock on the left is too close to the front of the glass creating a dark area.

#94: The driftwood is unnatural and doesn’t match. The left pieces are skinnier than the right — they should be the same size.

#98: Nice pieces of wood, but the whole scape should be shifted, as the wood is too centered.

#106: The left side is too heavy, too oppressive.

#110: Very progressive layout, but it’s lacking much open space.

#117: Too much rock was used in this aquascape.

#122: Lacks focus, with no particular place being the focal point. Plus, the rocks are misplaced.

#123: The driftwood is far to large for this aquascape.