Amano photos from the Amazon

[Wahter]

These are some photos from the third issue (Spring 2000) of Takashi Amano's "Suikei" magazine. This issue featured several photos from a trip to the Amazon (with plenty of underwater photos of various fish, but unfortunately no discus). Anyway, I have been told that discus do inhabit similar environments, so if you want to set up a 'real' biotope, make your tank look like these photos.

Enjoy!


Walter

[Wahter]

some wild angelfish...

[Wahter]

more wild angelfish...

[Wahter]

more angels

[Wahter]

more angelfish...

[Wahter]

a pair of festivums

[Wahter]

Lots of cardinal tetras. :)

[Wahter]

more cardinal tetras

[Wahter]

more cardinal tetras....

[Wahter]

more cardinals - and what are those fish swimming above the cardinal tetras? :o :o :o (piranahs).

[Wahter]

"Mr. piranaha, what big teeth you have!"

"The better to nibble a piece off your favorite discus, my dear!"

[Wahter]

Not today, this fellow lands on a dinner plate (but not as sashimi). I've seen some huge piranahs when Todd Wenzel gave us a presentation of his trip to Brazil; one was at least 12" long. (not sure what species of piranah it was though).

[Wahter]

Beer and piranahs! MMMmmm! ;D

[Wahter]

Meanwhile, above the water's surface looks like this...

[Wahter]

and this...

[Wahter]

And this...

[Wahter]

The photographer at work...

[Wahter]

Mr. Amano with his hosts (and holding their flag up). :)

Thanks for the post. Very enjoyable. I bet that's some acidic water. Wish I had a 1000 gallon tank full of it to use on my pairs.

[ChloroPhil]

Thank you so much Walter! Those are just the things I've been needing for my newest project.

[bottle-blonde]

that's wonderful! that's just about the farthest thing from bb, huh? lol

i read an article about how the acidic water is exactly why discus are so sensitive to disease. in water so acided very few pathogens can exist so discus just aren't exposed to disease. just one more reason to try to recreate their natural biotope. if your tank is set up something like that they would probably never get sick!

[Ralph]

Way to go Walter, thanks for posting the photos. I've always heard about the impossibilty of making a discus biotope, or about how ugly it would be. But I am more convinced than ever that it is a possibility after seeing the pictures, I just wish I was there too.

[brewmaster15]

Hi Walter!
Thanks so much for taking the time to post these beautiful pics here.
Do you have contact info for that magazine? I'd like to contact the them and just let them know we have the pics here.... maybe I could even get the photographer himself to stop in here.

If you have it that would be great.


thanks,
al

[Wahter]

Hi Al,

I met Takashi Amano in 2001 at the AGA meeting in Tennessee. He doesn't speak very much English at all. Mr. Nozomi Hayakawa is Aqua Design Amano's Manager in the International Marketing Dept. - he does speak English.

His email is:
ada@mb.neweb.ne.jp

I think that's a general email address though, so when I emailed him last year, I made sure I wrote "Attention Nozomi Hayakawa". Nozomi told me they usually attend Aquarama in Singapore, so if you're there... :)

Hope this helps.

BTW, I was able to buy some back issues of AquaJournal for about $8.00 each and that's including shipping from Japan.

Walter

[aloha_discus]

Aloha Walter, Mahalo for posting pics. I am very interested in recreating the Amazon look for my precious wilds thanks again.

Ike & Anne ;D

[jim_shedden]

Thanks Walter.................great stuff

jim

[b3dlam]

Great pics!!

It certainly provides a great deal of understanding of the environments that our pets come from! A picture tells a thousand words....

;D

[Steve Rybicki]

Beautiful photos! Thanks for sharing them.

[daninthesand]

i read an article about how the acidic water is exactly why discus are so sensitive to disease. in water so acided very few pathogens can exist so discus just aren't exposed to disease. just one more reason to try to recreate their natural biotope. if your tank is set up something like that they would probably never get sick!


Exactly what some well known breeders swear by. If you have the ability to keep your water acidic like that your disease problems are few. Muriatic acid perhaps. ;)

Daniel

[Ivan]

Fantastic pics. Thanx for sharing.

[skylsdale]

Fantastic! While I'm not really a fan of Amano's "nature" tanks, I definitely respect what he is able to do. These shots are beautiful! I've been into biotope aquaria for a while now and have found no shots from beneath the surface of the water, which is EXACTLY what I have been looking for.

Wahter, do you know if he has submerged photos from other locations as well?

[arpanlib]

thanx for sharing the lovely picture.

arpanlib

[Chaos]

Wow! Great pictures. So thats what their natural habitat looks like. Nothing like what I have seen in aquariums.

Thanks for the post.

[regal]

We've got to find out what type of trees these are, anyone have a clue?

[Gnome]

Hi Al,

I met Takashi Amano in 2001 at the AGA meeting in Tennessee. He doesn't speak very much English at all. Mr. Nozomi Hayakawa is Aqua Design Amano's Manager in the International Marketing Dept. - he does speak English.

His email is:
ada@mb.neweb.ne.jp

I think that's a general email address though, so when I emailed him last year, I made sure I wrote "Attention Nozomi Hayakawa". Nozomi told me they usually attend Aquarama in Singapore, so if you're there... :)

Hope this helps.

BTW, I was able to buy some back issues of AquaJournal for about $8.00 each and that's including shipping from Japan.

Walter


Amazing picture, he even went down the river, Can't imagine w/ those Piranhas!!!
where we can buy the aquajournal magazine? or the suikei?
is the suikei magazine featuring biotope around the world?

[Wahter]

I bought my Aquajournals and the other Amano magazines from a friend who went to Japan and also I ordered them from Amano's company (I contacted Nozomi Hayakawa) for the rest of them. Shipping is the pricy part; I think that totalled to around $80.00US for 28 magazines and their calendar.

I think Arthur Westover has some back issues of Aquajournal for sale:

http://www.geocities.com/anwestover/

HTH,

Walter

[Debbie]

Great pics and thank you for sharing Walter. Discus natural environment is a far cry from sterile BB tanks.

[amirnezhad]

Thanks, These are realy fantastic pics :)

[P.W.]

Hi

Do anyone of you know from what river in the amazon these photos are from?

I noted some nice Dicrossus maculatus (?) on one of the pictures. A lovely picture to see for a dwarf cichlid freak like me! :-)

Best regards.

[Aquaplant]

These are wonderful photos! Some of them will be featured in the upcoming issue of The Aquatic Gardener, journal of the Aquatic Gardeners Association. (It features an Amano article every month. This one is about driftwood.) It's great to see more of these photos.

Cheryl Rogers
TAG Layout
http://www.aquatic-gardeners.org

[ChloroPhil]

Cheryl,

Welcome to Simplydiscus, it's great to have you here! I'm particularly looking forward to this next installation of TAG. That article on wood should be great. How's the aquarium Mr. Amano did? Could you post an update photo?

Offhand, is there an AGA membership discount for admission to the aquarium? :) I've been dying to get over there and see your exhibits. Maybe I'll even be able to get the local club to make a field trip of it.

Best,
Phil Edwards
Charlotte, NC

[Aquaplant]

Thanks for the welcome, Phil. Ya know, I don't know how that Amano aquarium is. If it is still up, I will try to get a photo to post, or print, or have to pass around at the next AGA convention in Dallas.

Do you mean a discount to the Tennessee Aquarium? Dunno, but there should be! I'll ask Charlene.

Cheryl Rogers
AGA Membership/TAG Layout
http://www.aquatic-gardeners.org

[ChloroPhil]

Darn..don't I feel the nut. I got you and Charlene confused...DUH!!!!!!!!! Sorry about that. :( I meant what I said about it being good to have you here though...:) Do you keep discus with your plants?

[Aquaplant]

LOL! I understand the confusion based on our names, but if you ever saw us together, there would be no doubt. We're as different as night and day!


No, I don't keep discus...yet...I don't guess angelfish count, do they? (Now I've done it...you're going to take back the welcome and boot me out!) I have a "South American" 30 gallon with various swords, cabomba, tetras and two angelfish. I think discus would be very cool but I'm a little intimidated by their requirements. So I'm lurking and learning.

[ChloroPhil]

Cheryl,

I've seen pictures of you and of Charlene separately but not yet together. I hope to be at the convention this year so I'll have to see. :) Don't worry much about not having discus I don't have any either at the moment. If you want to keep them in your plant tank go right ahead!!! If you can keep Angels you can keep Discus, they're pretty much one in the same. Besides, as they always say...Healthy plants; healthy fish.

[Wahter]

I have to agree with Cheryl; Charlene and her don't look a like. :)

[FischAutoTechGarten]

When I first started fishkeeping (serious fishkeeping) at 20, I made the assumption that Festivums, Serverums, Angelfish, Discus and Uaru share a common biotope and can be collected at the same location. (Well, I was largely mistaken.) So, I set out to create a tank housing all of these inhabitants, referring to it as my Laterally Compressed Cichlid Biotope (I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now). Eventually, I decided Uaru and Discus were too demanding and expensive so I settled on Silver Scalare, Green Severums and Silver Festivums as tank mates. I loved that tank. However in short time the Severum made salad of all of my Aquatic Plants and I eventually converted over to Discus.

It brings me so much joy to see these photos with Altums, Severums and Festivums all sharing the exact same body of water! The presence of Cardinals and Silver Tip Tetras is a bonus too as I had those in my original LCCB as well. Wonderful pictures!

What a great Hobby! :D

[jn4u]

Nice