Nature Aquarium Style Aquascapes

[John N.]

Nature Aquarium Style

Takashi Amano has made this style very popular with his books, and his aquascaping competition. Most aquascapers look towards this style as the one to master and achieve. It is based on mimicing and capturing nature in one's aquarium, hence the "nature" terminology. The Nature Aquarium Style is designed to keep aquascapes simplistic and natural looking. However, despite the simplistic approach, aquascapes following this style are far from simplistic look

Here are some examples designed by Takashi Amano from AFA.








Please discuss the techniques involved in creating a Nature Style Aquascape, and feel free to share your own Nature Style aquariums. (Click here to discover other aquascaping styles)

-John N.

[Pat7676]

That last one is amazing. Looks so natural and peaceful.

[dougz]

I'm really liking the Iwagumi style, and I would argue the center one falls more into that category..

Odd number of rocks, only 4 types of plants, one species of schooling fish..

[John N.]

Food for thought about this style from the master himself, Takashi Amano. These are an old set of questions that never got published in an article over at APC.

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"These are the questions I posed to Mr. Takashi Amano of Aqua Design Amano for an article I was planning to write. Mr.Amano's responses where translated by Mr. Mihir Sapru, International Marketing Director for ADA. I hope you find it of interest." - Art Giacosa

Q: In your opinion, how much interest is there in Japan for the Nature Aquarium style and why do you think this is the case?

Amano:The Nature Aquarium style occupies about 80% of advanced and intermediate aquarists in Japan. Japanese people have always been fondof gardening. In Japan, the beauty of Nature no matter how small or large, has always been a part of Japanese culture. I feel however, that a deep love for Nature, natural scenery, and the desire to have a piece of it in ones home, is a concept that exists in all human beings, irrespective of culture. The Nature Aquarium began as an aquaristic response to this desire. It is an art form, like painting, gardening or photography, in which it requires a person to create a natural ecosystem, in all its natural beauty and efficiency, in a glass aquarium.


Q: Do you believe that there are different schools of thought on the subject, e.g. Dutch, German, Japanese? If so, what do you believe the differences are?

Amano: I don't really know. I'm not sure if it can be called "Schools of Thought," but there is something called the Dutch Aquarium, however, I believe that it is a style followed by a handful of dedicated aquarists. When I visited Europe I did not see anything that was actually called a "Dutch Aquarium".


Q: What do you believe is the most important thing to consider when preparing to set-up a nature aquarium, e.g. layout, fish, plants? Are there hard-and-fast laws to this or is it based on instinct and luck?

Amano: Setting up a Nature Aquarium relies on a delicate balance of all factors. This I believe can also be said for any form of art. What is the most important thing to consider when painting a picture, the canvas, the brush, or the paint?


Q: If there was one advice that you would give a hobbyist who is about to set-up his or her first nature aquarium, what would it be?

Amano: Never give up! The Nature Aquarium is something that can not be mastered in a day, for to master it, one would have to understand nature itself, and this is a long road full of trials and errors. To the beginner this is the best advice I can give: observe Nature, endure and learn from your failures. In my years as an aquarist, I have probably made more errors than anyone else in the field, and this is why I now can have confidence in what I create.


Q: You are world-renown for the creation of what is known in the U.S. as the Nature Aquarium concept, if you could sum up that concept into a paragraph, what would it be?

Amano: Observing Nature, Learning from Nature, & Applying what you learned, in creating Nature within the aquarium. I have always said: Without first loving he smallest creations, one can not claim to stand before Mother Nature.

What lies at the heart of the Nature Aquarium concept, are the little things: the minute details, the icroorganisms. The ecosystems of Nature all start from bacteria, and the breathtaking landscapes of Nature, all start from a single stone.

In a sense, the Nature Aquarium is a way of thinking about one's aquarium. It is looking to Nature for the answers to all one's questions about the health, efficiency and layout design of one's aquarium.

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-John N.

[dougz]

Interesting..

Thanks for posting this!

[Anti-Pjerrot]

Always good to read again. Still inspirering to this day.

...all start from a single stone.

First we layout the soil - then we layout the stones. Branches, mosses, ferns other plants...

[StanChung]

Amano if I remember correctly did mention something about nature aquarium being about envisioning landscapes as aquascapes and not to be rigid about plant and material choices as in biotope type scapes.

So his idea of iwagumi does fall into this scope IMHO.

[captaincaveman]

I want to know how he balances out the ferts and CO2...... I have a hard time with that in my tanks

[Mellonman]

Originally Posted by John N.

Here are some examples designed by Takashi Amano from AFA.

The last one wasn't designed by Takashi Amano but by Masashi Ono

[plantbrain]

In my years as an aquarist, I have probably made more errors than anyone else in the field,

I really identified with this one: I learned a great deal from this but it does require you to go out and learn, you learn by doing. the more you do, the more you learn and the better you become.

This made the most sense of anything I've read from Amano and seems more in line with him in person also.

Regards,
Tom Barr