Aqua Design Amano Co., Ltd. hosted the International Aquatic Plants Layout
Contest 2009, and received 1,342 applications from 51 countries. In 2009
contest, we have seen a significant participant increase in Asian countries
like China, Vietnam, and India. The increase in such countries reflects
emerging popularity in planted aquarium hobby, and grand prize winner, Mr.
Nguyen Tien Dung from Vietnam symbolized this year’s contest trend.
I would like to thank all the applicants of International Aquatic Plants Layout Contest 2009. I also extend my gratitude to all the people contributed for promoting this international event, contest result announcement, and grading process. Each year we see increase in number of applicants and participating countries, and this is a proof many people in the world share a same hobby of planted aquarium. I am very delighted to this. Top prize winning layouts were occupied by the ones following basic layout style without being too eccentric. As number of applicant increases, we see more variations in styles, and many people pay attention to the new layout styles. But I believe many people thing about the basic point of planted aquarium layout again as orthodox style layouts were highly evaluated in this year’s contest. Next year marks the 10th contest milestone, and we continue to make our best efforts in pumping up this international event. We look forward to seeing many aquarists’ passionate layouts again in next year’s contest.