we stumbled onto this amazing store on fillmore street.   this is so not the tropical aquarium my parents got me (and subsequently maintained for the next ten years) for my fifth birthday…    these are elaborately-designed  fresh-water aquariums that are miniature landscapes.   the fish animate them, but are secondary.

they’re all amazing, but the more minimal ones are my preference (surprise).

the store – 1718 fillmore street in sf.

the aquarium in the window that i fell for:

helen may be getting one of these for her next birthday…  and i’ll be maintaining it and doing pay-back…

i lifted all of these images from aqua forest aquarium’s website – aquaforestaquarium.com.

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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.

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