Aqua Forest Aquarium is a retail aquarium store located in the San Francisco Bay area that specializes in the “nature aquarium style concept.” The design creates living artwork through naturalization and strategically choosing and placing rock, wood, living freshwater vegetation, and fish.

Certainly, the focus is around the aquatic vegetation, which is accented with pieces of driftwood and/or rock. Species of fish complement the aquatic scene and seem to be as painstakingly chosen, as are the plants, rock, and wood. The fish are often schooling species, and the different species seemingly complement and contrast each other.

The style is reminiscent not of bonsai but penjing, the Chinese precursor to bonsai. Penjing refers to a potted landscape or tray landscape. Certainly, these aquariums are aquatic landscapes in glass trays. In addition, these aquariums, with their unique style, surely illustrate the fragility and wonder of aquatic environments. Here are some of my favorites below.

On the Net:
Aqua Forest Aquarium
Aquarium art by aquarist Takashi Amano
More images found here.

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::