Q&A with Takashi Amano

Q)　 What got you into the aquariums and Nature Aquarium?

A) 　I used to dive into the river when I was little and I saw bunch of little fish swimming around and hiding in the aquatic plants. When I got closer, I could see shrimps and other little organisms, too. I was really moved by the way they were living together. Now, I have been practicing Nature Aquarium for more than 30 years including the first 10 years of a lot of trial and errors.

Q)　 When you create a new layout, do you do any kind of drawing or planning out on paper?

A) 　I go right into the aquascaping without any design. So, I look at the layout materials like rocks and drift woods in my hands, then place them and start thinking of what plants would work with. For example, I can complete a large Iwagumi layout with 180cm tank in 15 minutes. With planting and filling with water, normally takes 1 hour. However, at the very beginning, I used to take hours just to put the rocks together. I used to work hard till 2~3 am, placing all the rocks, and I say to myself, “Now it is perfect.” I go to bed, and next morning when I see it again, it is not good! So, for someone just starting out, you should really think what kind of aquascapes you would like to produce and keep working at it until you can convince yourself that you got it, or it is just the way you want it.

Q)　 What is your opinion or techniques on using the cosmetic sand in Nature Aquarium?

A) 　One of the main reasons of using cosmetic sand is to provide the light to the very densely planted layout. When I create a layout with darker atmosphere with shaded plants, I use cosmetic sand in front to add brightness to it. Cosmetic sand is bright and white colored, so it tends to attract algae.

Q)　 How important is the placement of foreground and background? Is there the particular ratio we should follow?

A) 　There is no particular ratio from foreground to background of the aquascape. Foreground is where you have the short plants. For the Iwagumi layout background, you have rocks built up quite high. On the other hand, in the driftwood layout, you often have stemmed plants planted at the back. All in all, it is not about the ratio or just how it looks, but you need to consider how to grow and maintain the plants in the long-term. For instance, with rocks built up at the back, if you have a thick layer of soil, plants grow much better, and you can maintain the layout for longer period.

Q)　 How do you create the ripple effect to the top of the water when you take photographs?

A) 　I use a hair dryer. About 15 years ago, I came up with this idea for photographing an aquascape. I have been applying this method for 15 years now.

Q)　 Do you have a plan to publish a book about salt water aquascapes?

A) 　I have been maintaining my salt water aquariums for 4 years. Coals are growing and multiplying that I have not had a chance to produce any other sea water aquascape. So, at this moment, I do not have a plan to publish a book of marine aquascape.

Q)　 After 8 years of the layout contest (IAPLC), do you see any difference in the vision of Nature Aquarium between Asian and American aquarists?

A) 　Asian aquarists tend to follow my technique and aquascape a lot. My method is to recreate the nature, so I pay close attention to the nature. They tend to follow the same style by recreating the nature. On the other hand, western aquarists tend to develop their unique view and method. They tend to have aquascapes more like gardens, with more landscaped look. It could be the difference in the culture developed over time. For the contest, we have judges from all over the world, and it is interesting that sometimes would pick the works of European aquarist as the best work, whereas western judges score works of Asian aquarists better.

Q)　 How your home aquarium has evolved since 2004?

A) 　It is has been maintained well with some changes. What has been changed is that now you see the repetition of very dense area and trimmed empty area. I also have more Characins (tetras) since the time I had the aquarium set up and had pictures taken. I used to have a lot of altum angel (pterophyllum altum), but they do not live in strong current. I had a very strong current going through that aquarium. Unfortunately, as the altum angel aged, they started to have hard time with strong current. So I had to remove them out into other aquarium.

Q)　 What can we do as an individual to help saving the planet as your photography was displayed to the world leaders at G8 Toyako Summit in 2008?

A) 　The most important thing is that we get interested in the environment and environmental issues. We can learn about natural ecosystem form the aquarium. For instance, when CO2 is supplied, there is a plant absorbing it, generating the oxygen into environment like making a cycle to maintain the ecosystem. Now, on the earth, what is happening is that we produce a lot of CO2 although plants are diminished and decreasing, creating the upset. Actually, initial plan for the G8 summit was that I create a large aquascape instead of pictures. However, the idea was not realized since there was a possible security problem.