what's up fish tank people fishtanktv.com dustinsfishtanks bringing
it to you we interrupt your regularly scheduled techno tetra Tuesday just talk
about my love for Japan and something that I saw when I was out Seattle last
time fish tank people I've never been to an ata shop alright
hej då style we're about to roll into a full ad a shop out here and I think it's
Bellevue Washington to a shop called aquaria the lady came out she was super
pumped oh man these tanks are insane ok so I've always had a love for stuff from
Japan and the Japanese people perhaps it's my love of samurai and doing battle
against yourself in the dojo perhaps it's all the wonderful wu-tang
references or perhaps it's their fish uh escapes in koi but more on that in a
minute most of you know I was a history major in my ninety four and a half year
old grandfather who was still barely kicking it was actually stationed in
Japan after World War two I want to stop for a second and I want you all to think
about something with me real quick okay now stick with me for a second guys am
getting back to fish tanks but roll it to a parking lot sometime full of cars
and look around what do you see you see more than half and my guess unless
you're in Detroit or something our Japanese made cars I'm sitting here in
my parking lot in my office there's a ha there's a Toyota there's a Toyota and
there's my old Lexus ok now I want you to think about something for a second
this is the history major in me using but it does all relate back to fish
tanks and that is this ok Japan we literally dropped an atomic bomb on
Japan okay like nuclear war us did and I wanna get into all the politics of that
but think about this this happened right after World War Two and Japan with
hardly any natural resources at all it's smaller than California folks rebuilt
itself in a very small amount of time into a world powerhouse in the
automobile industry not to mention many other industries as well TVs electronics
you name it think about that for a second think about it hard working in
the refined and dedication that these people have let's get back to fish tanks
before we get back into fish tanks I just want to hammer this point home here
I have a Lexus with 140,000 miles that's just now showing its age you all saw the
video of the day of my wife's minivan that I accidentally cracked a windshield
of I didn't even look at any other options when it came to buying a minivan
for my one wonderful family truckster okay there's a refinement there there's
a precision there now let's talk about the Japanese in their aquariums the
camera does not do this tank back here justice
all right this tank back here had some of the craziest stem plants most
perfectly trimmed that I had ever seen in my entire life
keep in mind folks this is a taller tank these were every bit over a foot tall
perfectly manicured and maintained like I said camera doesn't do to this
tank justice I've never seen a tank so well trimmed with my own two eyes have
you ever looked at the International aquascaping contest or international
plant layout contest put on by the amount of a DA Amano
it's the who's who in the aquascaping world okay people from all over the
world submit their entries that have to keep them a secret it's a big trade on
its the who's who in aquascaping world contest and guess which country a large
majority of the winners are from yes it's Japan you want to keep talking fish
with Japan how about koi they have been refining koi a fish that I love dearly
since almost 1820 breeding it rebreathing it refining it making a
bunch of different color combinations in the pattern okay there is a precision
with what the Japanese do especially with fish and obviously we cannot go
without talking about one of the most influential people in the aquarium hobby
mr. takashi amano himself founder of a da aqua design a mano may mr. Amano rest
in peace or on 88 it's a section I've never seen stem plants so perfectly
I mean drop me a comment what you think about this tank a case oil get the sob
story
ok so fast forward to my trip out to the Seattle area last week it is 10:30
Pacific time 1:30 a.m. Eastern Time and dusty is just now sitting down to dinner
with my boy Sean and the crew from fretts and everybody that's there ok I
stay sitting down for dinner I actually sit down the kitchen is closed I was
fortunate enough to have them order ahead order ahead some oysters for me so
I didn't get to slurp down some oysters and then my dinner consisted of everyone
else's food that was left on their plate boy isn't traveling fun but while I'm
there Sean who's slightly inebriated comes up to me he goes dude whatever
you're doing tomorrow don't book anything in noon my god dude yeah
whatever you know like I got fish rooms out the kazoo I'm gonna see lots of
great videos to take but yeah I won't book in the air what do you got going on
dude he goes he goes I'm gonna take you to an aquascaping demo tomorrow at noon
don't say anything don't say anything I'm like alright cool he does not
mention where it is and he doesn't mention who's putting it on ok he
doesn't say we're going to an ata shop and you're gonna have an aquascaping
demo put on by someone whose world ranking was number 83 at her highest
Sean fails to mention all this the shop we went to was called aquaria not a big
bunch of rental presents like probably would walk right past it if you weren't
looking for it it's in Bellevue Washington a home of I think Bill Gates
and a lot of other rich texts that live out in the Seattle area we rolled in
there and I was greeted by the owner Fiona
Fiona's English is not great but her aquascapes are amazing her shop
little tiny boutique shot probably only ten feet wide by 20 if you will and just
perfect every little thing in that shop was perfect I will digress a little bit
here I want to talk about some time that I spent with Oliver cañada and what he
is said about his time spent with Amano and over in
Japan and he said that the Japanese when they work on the plants before they put
them in the tank this is the way to the plants so they have a preparation
process and this is the way to the tank like you can't get the tank without
playing with the plants and working with them and making them do what you want
prior to putting them into the aquascape and this is abundantly clear he talks
about doing like 500 Riccio stones all at once clearly there is a handling and
a precision in a respect for the plants that I think that the maybe Americans do
not quite have as much we own a world right 83
Wow Fiona top 100
my name is Dustin and I only do plants I only do plants in fish tanks all know
cichlids only plants and when I was in college I read takashi amano this book
nature query and I said I can't believe this is how it possibly could go and
I've had planted tanks basically ever since then and I loved everything about
the whole amount of style and I posted aquascaping contests and tomorrow I have
an aquascaping contest where people compete for the best design and the
winner gets $200 and if anybody from your shop came here they'd probably win
I am super excited to be here I am recording this but yet so we're so
pumped to do this I've never sat in front of anything this cool this
exciting with this materials and I know that amount of the amount of style in
the 80s style is like the best so I'm super excited and I'm liking what I like
maybe at any sunlight chemicals through the wing
looking good do me a favor folks drop me a comment on what you think about this
shop the refinement of it and let me know what you think about just the
Japanese approach to aquascaping and the fishtank hobby do you have any stories
of people you know the kept insane tanks maybe you know somebody who's competed
in the 88 contest or maybe you've got an ad a tank yourself or maybe you've never
heard of ETA before drop me a comment on that make sure you hit the notification
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make it an awesome week tank on