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Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V3 #1135
on 01:48 PM 7/6/99 , Tom Wood wrote:
>While the Amano tanks are beautiful, there is nothing natural about them and
>the amount of labor involved to keep the contrivance looking good is
>definitely un-American. <g> One of his books even shows a tank that mixes
>Discus with Madagascar lace plants. A fish that needs higher temps with a
>cool water plant? I don't buy it. And tying a floating plant down to create
>little bushes is just plain dumb. IMHO, IME, YMMV, etceteras.....
I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks so. Amano's tanks are beautiful
works of
art in their own right, but they don't seem the slightest bit "natural" to
me. The Riccia
carpets are the best example of this. People spend hours and hours trying
to find the
best way to get a floating plant to stay on the substrate, when a natural
look would
be to float it...
To me, a "natural" tank would look like a chunk of an actual river or
stream bottom. There would be a few species of plants, haphazardly mixed
together and propogating like crazy, and bits of various types of algae.
My tank is about halfway between this look and the more organized "Dutch"
scheme. At least the algae is very natural. :)
But as for "the amount of labor involved" being un-American, I'm not sure.
Most Americans have, outside their homes, huge carpets of a single species
of plant, and trim the entire thing weekly or more often so that it is 3-6"
tall instead of its natural height. They add chemicals or pick at it daily
to ensure that no other, more natural species grow there, and they trim the
edges so square that it looks like it was cut out with scissors...
--
michael moncur mgm at starlingtech_com http://www.starlingtech.com/
"Every journalist has a novel in him, which is an excellent place for it."
-- Russel Lynes