Liwei Guan ／ People’s Republic of China
Age/ 51 years old
Occupation/ Office worker
Aquarium Experience/ 16 years
Hobby / Growing Bucephalandra sp.
Past Achievement / None

World Ranking 6
Autumn Rhyme
Aquarium Size W90×D55×H45（cm）

The creation of artwork with an awareness of visual impact, worked well.

AJ　Please tell us about the theme, motif, idea, etc. of this work.
The inspiration for this work came from a landscape painting inspired by nature. I tried to create an aquascape in harmony with the dynamic waterfall cascading down from a great height, fallen trees coming to life in the water splash, moss and epiphytes growing lushly after absorbing sufficient nutrients, and trees in the distance that had completely changed color. I called it “Autumn Rhyme”. If I can give the viewer a sense of creativity, visual impact, naturalness, and realism, then I have succeeded in half of my attempts. One of the ideas I adopted during the photo-shooting of this work was to position the camera point on the fallen tree in the foreground and release the shutter with a shallow depth of field. This created a contrast in size with the trees in the background, and the visual impact was such that the viewer seemed to be right there in the scene.

AJ　Please tell us the key points in selecting aquatic plant and fish species.
Rotala sp. ‘Hra’ was planted in the rear to enhance the image of a colorful autumn forest. Anubias barteri var. nana ‘Variegata’ was placed in the foreground to adjust the overall scale of the layout by the size of the leaves. In addition, a wide variety of mosses were planted to represent the image of mosses native to the actual forest. Moenkhausia costae were chosen for the fish. They swim in a school, and their light and elegant color makes them look very beautiful when combined with the landscape.

AJ　Please tell us about layouts and dreams that you want to create in the future.
I already have a rough idea of what I want to do next year, and I want it to create a strong impact. And of course, my dream is to stand in the center of the IAPLC podium!