Last article was part one of my aquascaping tour in Portugal.
In the first visit of the tour we went to Aquaeden, an amazing shop located in
Malveira. In today’s article we are going to pick up where we left off.
After leaving Aquaeden we headed back to Lisbon, the
destination was the “Parque das nacoes” (Nations park) to visit the “Florestas submersas”
exhibit. This was my fourth visit to Takashi Amano’s amazing 40 meter long
aquascape.
The first visit was in the first weeks after it
opened and it blew my mind away. It was the most impressive aquarium I had ever
seen, second visit was at 5 months old, the purpose was to see the scape in a
more matured state, it was still and impressive moment, however it did not have
that blown away feeling of the first.
The third visit was this year in March as part of
the scapetour Europe, I didn’t expect the visit to blow me away, the main
reason for me to do a third visit was really the scapetour, the chance to meet
aquascapers all over the world. Thad didn’t disappoint, it has been the
highlight of my aquascaping year, and it opened the door to an international community
of aquascapers, this blog owes much of its success and visibility to that
visit, as before that it was relatively unknown.
I met so many amazing people most of which I am
still in regular contact until today, so I can say that it did blow me away,
only if in a different level.
But I digress, at the center of that third visit
there was Amano’s masterpiece and it was amazing to see the same blown away
look in the face of my fellow aquascapers, but the tank also surprised me as,in
a way, it was like rediscovering something you had lost.
See the first two visits had been at the beginning
of the exhibit, the third was almost two years after, and it was astounding to
see the fully matured tank now.
So, for this fourth visit I decided to go alone, my
wife having seen it two times already had no interest in going again, and for
me I wanted to be able to have the experience of going alone, just me, the
scape and my thoughts.
Another goal was to do a video on it, I did videos
of the first two visits for my AQUADesign youtube channel, however I did not do
it on the scapetour as I was there to spend a good day with my fellow
aquascapers.
I felt a video of the fully matured aquascape was
in order.
We left Aquaeden at around 12.45 and headed back to
Lisbon, as it was lunch time and we were both starving, we decided to stop at
the Vasco de Gama shopping center just a few minutes from the exhibit.
Getting to Lisbon was easy, finding parking spaces
in the area and move around the traffic was a bit more complicated, so my
suggestion is if you want to come to the exhibit, take public transport as it
will make the experience a lot more relaxing.
We sat for around 45 minutes having a nice Portuguese
Lunch, and then I made my way into the exhibit.
As I was booking my ticket at one of the machines,
a friendly staff member told me to make sure to check the main exhibit (salt
water) , for which you have to pay a ticket regardless if you do, as there had
been a few new additions including a new tank.
Sadly, or not I had to decline the offer, as my
tour was already behind schedule and to be honest after seeing it for at least
10 times already, I don’t think I can bear another sight of it. But if you are
on your first visit to the oceanarium I thoroughly recommend it because it’s
beautiful.
So, I made my way up the stairs thinking of what I was
expecting to find, to be honest it’s only been 6 months since scapetour, so I was
expecting everything to be just the same as the tank was already fully matured
by then.
But as we know an aquascape is a living thing and
as such there was some differences that captured my eyes immediately, others
made themselves evident over time.
It was obvious from the get go that there were some
differences in the plants and fish.
In the plants, the difference was that the tank
felt even more matured than before, I will have to elaborate on this, different
plants have different rates of growth, and maintenance at this exhibit is
always on going, so it means that not all the plants get trimmed down at the
same time.
So, you may come in at a time where some plants
have just been trimmed recently so they may not look at their best.
It was obvious to me that I came at a time that
most of the plants were at their best, colours seemed even more vibrant, some
plants looked even taller and bushier than before. Not because of the tank
maturing, as after more than two years it’s hard to get it more mature than it
already is, just because I came at a different stage of growth of the plants.
The scape felt even more grown in than before,
another difference the epiphyte plants on the wood, which I remember in the
last visit were not looking as good as my first two visits and in some areas,
there was less of them and were starting to show their age.
This time however most of the wood was covered in
very healthy ferns, I am not sure if it’s the result of the ones that were
there just having grown in again, or new ones being added, but I am 100% sure
they are looking much healthier than last time.
What also became apparent was the changes in fish, first
obvious change was the introduction of Angelfish, I am not sure but they looked
like altum angels. There were quite a few of them swimming in together.
They don’t seem to stick to specific areas of the
tank like other residents, as I found them swimming throughout the entire length
of the tank even the sides.
It was also obvious that a good amount of the
original fish population of the tank is gone, a lot less schools of neons and
cardinal tetras can be seen as opposed to before, though they are still present
this time I did not get the feeling,
that there were thousands of fish in the tank.
It was obvious the amount of small to mid-sized
fish in the tank is now more even than it was in the previous visits.
Amano shrimps can still be found everywhere grazing
on the sand helping keep it clean.
Last time I was in the exhibit for a full day,
today only had about an hour and a half, so after spending my time recording
footage and taking pictures I finally sat down to relax and let the scape and
its nice music sink into my mind.
Despite the sense of novelty being gone, it’s still
one of the most relaxing experiences I have ever experienced. A sense of age as
timeless as nature is felt when looking at the tank and its residents, I have
seen the videos of this tank being built, I have even met some
of the people that took part in its conception, one in the person of Rui Alves
just a few hours before this visit.
Still I can sit in front of it and almost forget
that its man made, if not for the glass and surroundings I would almost believe
that this is nature in its truest form. Takashi Amano himself defended man should
have a closer connection with nature, that over the decades that link had been
broken.
It’s a bit sad, that we revere man made nature, but
fail to notice the one that was here before us and still to this day surrounds
us.
The exhibit was supposed to finish soon, though
during the scapetour we were told that they were looking at keeping it for as
long as It was possible to maintain the tank healthy, that may explain the
changes in type of fish, so it’s now about two and a half years old and its
fully matured, I couldn’t stop myself feeling some sadness that Mr. Amano never
got to see it this way.
I’d like myself to believe he did, that in his mind
he had a full picture of how the scape would look fully mature, it also helps
enhance the brilliance of the man, at least in my mind.
But the reason I brought the length of the exhibit
to the discussion is because by now it would be expected that the world and its
mother would have seen it, meaning, whoever wanted to see it would have seen it
and so attendance would be declining and it would make sense to think about
shutting it down.
This is not the case; the exhibit was full and as I
was wandering around trying to do my video I found it harder to do it this time
than in the first visits.
Interest in this exhibit is still going strong and
two days after my visit I had even more confirmation of that as IAPLC 2017
winner Josh Sim was in Portugal and attended the exhibit together with Rui
Alves from Aquaeden.
I know that being able to keep it healthy is always
going to be a factor in the longevity of this aquascape, but it’s clear to me that
interest in seeing something like this is high, so I wonder with Mr. Amano gone is
anywhere in the world someone whiling to take up is mantle and make another
one,? Will aquascaping and the Nature aquarium start featuring more regularly at
public aquariums around the world?
There would be no better way to bring
in aquascaping into a wider audience.
I have written about Forests
underwater before in this blog, two times here to be more exact, I also have as
many videos of it in my youtube channel, some may have come to this article
expecting more technical details about this scape, I felt that all that has
been discussed many times, even by myself. I wanted this part of my article to
be about a personal reflection on the significance of this project, my article
is also about aquascaping in Portugal, and I think you cannot deny the impact
this project had here, but also in the world. There’s no aquarium capable of uniting hobbyists, nor one that as broken its physical boundaries
and really brought the aquascaping community together like this one.
Its more than the sum of its
parts, more than the tons of lava rocks, wood and aquasoil, more than the
equipment that powers it and the plants that give it colour.
It’s even more than Takashi
Amano the man, more than his legacy in the hobby, which was already indisputable
before this came to life.
This was his parting gift,
even though he didn’t know it at the time, so I must ask again.
Is there anyone out there
willing to take his mantle and give us the next Forests underwater?
I hope there is, this should be
a stepping stone for aquascaping, not its pinnacle.
This may not be my last visit,
but I believe it’s my last article and video on it as there’s nothing more for me to
say about it.
After some time of reflection I left
the exhibit, we then proceeded to drive south into our next destination. The
next article will be about Solucoes aquaticas (Aquatic solutions) , a shop in the south bank of the Rio tejo (Tagus river). Two my knowledge the only shop dedicated to aquascaping in the
south of Portugal, and the closest to my hometown.
Following are the videos for the video on today's article as well as my first two visits. If you like the video and would like to see more, please consider subscribing to the AQUADesign youtube channel.
4th visit to the Florestas submerses in lisbon
Video of the first visit to forest underwater:
Video of the second visit:
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