INTERNATIONAL AQUATIC PLANTS LAYOUT CONTEST 2009

Aqua Design Amano Co., Ltd. hosted the International Aquatic Plants Layout Contest 2009, and received 1,342 applications from 51 countries. In 2009 contest, we have seen a significant participant increase in Asian countries like China, Vietnam, and India. The increase in such countries reflects emerging popularity in planted aquarium hobby, and grand prize winner, Mr. Nguyen Tien Dung from Vietnam symbolized this year’s contest trend.

WORLD RANKING TOP 27

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Comment from Takashi Amano

I would like to thank all the applicants of International Aquatic Plants Layout Contest 2009. I also extend my gratitude to all the people contributed for promoting this international event, contest result announcement, and grading process. Each year we see increase in number of applicants and participating countries, and this is a proof many people in the world share a same hobby of planted aquarium. I am very delighted to this. Top prize winning layouts were occupied by the ones following basic layout style without being too eccentric. As number of applicant increases, we see more variations in styles, and many people pay attention to the new layout styles. But I believe many people thing about the basic point of planted aquarium layout again as orthodox style layouts were highly evaluated in this year’s contest. Next year marks the 10th contest milestone, and we continue to make our best efforts in pumping up this international event. We look forward to seeing many aquarists’ passionate layouts again in next year’s contest.
PRESS RELEASE 2009

INTERNATIONAL AQUATIC PLANTS LAYOUT CONTEST 2008

Aqua Design Amano Co., Ltd. hosted the International Aquatic Plants Layout Contest 2008, and received 1,170 applications from 47 countries. The grand prize winner of the contest 2008 is Mr. Cheng Siu Wai of Hong Kong.

WORLD RANKING TOP 27

1	2	3
4	5	6
7	8	9
10	11	12
13	14	15
16	17	18
19	20	21
22	23	24
25	26	27

Comment from Takashi Amano

Thank you very much for again sending us all of your wonderful submissions to the International Aquatic Plants Layout Contest from all over the world this year. The total number of participant countries was not quite as diverse as last year's, however we received submissions from new participant countries this year. The number of participants totaled 1,170 submissions from 47 countries. Each year the quality of the submitted layouts increases and this year's submissions were no exception. Most notably submissions made by Asian aquarists from Hong Kong and Taiwan stood out in particular. This year and last year's winners were from Hong Kong exhibiting their passion and dedication to the hobby of aquatic plant layout. Just like last year, the top 112 layouts received exemplary marks from each judge. It can be seen that these high ranked layouts make skillful use of driftwood and stone in their arrangement. We can also say that the aquascapes recreating a natural aquatic scene within the layout were highly graded this year again. All of our judges are looking forward to the passionate submissions to next year's contest displaying wonderful aquascapes from all over the world.