5 Facts You Never Knew About Aquascapes | aquascapes

In the affectation tanks of Aqua Backwoods Aquarium, there is no neon gravel, no miniature artificial castles, no alveolate abundance boxes brindled with glitter. Instead, owners and brothers George and Steven Lo accept created accustomed replicas of miniature underwater worlds: a angled allotment of driftwood draped with aphotic blooming moss, a abundant bouncing fern-filled forest, a peaceful blooming meadow and, in a tiny 5½-gallon tank, a jewel box water-filled terrarium.

Small angle and shrimp dot these environments, but like a army of birds or agriculture beasts in a mural painting, they are alone acknowledging characters. Here, the underwater plants get the attention.

Aqua Backwoods Aquarium is the aboriginal boutique in the United States to specialize in the appearance accepted as "nature aquarium" — the abstraction that rather than artlessly apartment a bright accumulating of fish, an aquarium should reflect the beauty, beheld accord and alike astriction of a agrarian landscape. Plants are the capital element, but driftwood and stones are acclimated as able-bodied to actualize a added accustomed feel. There are added types of buried aquariums, but this architecture aesthetics was developed in the backward '70s by Japanese attributes columnist Takashi Amano, whom George Lo describes as "like a god."

Nature aquariums are added accepted in Asia, but the trend is demography basis in the U.S. The movement owes its actuality to Amano, who has put out four abundant books about freshwater aquascaping. He began experimenting with aquariums in his aboriginal 20s, aggressive by a adolescence arena in the Yoroi wetlands in Japan and after during trips to abutting rain forests in the Amazon, West Africa and Borneo.

"When I swam in the river, I begin abounding amphibian plants blooming and angle pond in schools," he wrote in an e-mail. "Here the plants are the abode for spawning, and ambuscade abode for fish." Underwater, he begin a apple area plants angry sunlight into oxygen for fish, area attributes begin balance. "I capital to actualize a amplitude area plants and angle coexist in a accord central an aquarium tank."

Amano's aquascapes are so activating and abounding of movement they attending as if they are activity to access out of the tank. Sometimes they do. It is not aberrant for his plants, stones and driftwood to pop appropriate out of the top by design.

"Based on my experiences, and analysis to abutting regions, I accept my blueprint is accepting abutting to the angel of attributes and accustomed habitat," Amano said. "In a sense, the blueprint looks added accustomed than nature, I think."

Last year, George Lo placed 20th in an all-embracing antagonism sponsored by Amano's aquascaping company, ADA. No beneath than 1,342 bodies from 51 countries submitted photographs of their aquascapes.

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