How the judging works
Ինչպես է դատվում
Five steps, and only the last one uses the published criteria.
One. Preliminary screening. The Steering Committee, not the judges, cuts the entire field down to the top 100 works3. In 2021 that meant 2,617 entries reduced to 100 by the organiser before any judge saw anything1417.
Two. Primary screening. Each judge ranks all 100 works from 1 to 100. A judge's first place is worth 100 points, second 99, and so on down to a single point3.
Three. The Best Aquarium bonus. The one work each judge liked most gets an extra 10 points3. Each judge's pick is published separately with a written explanation16, and those columns are the only judge writing IAPLC publishes at all.
Four. Secondary screening. Each judge takes their own top 10 and scores those again against six named criteria, out of 100 points3.
Five. The final score is primary screening plus the bonus plus secondary screening3.
The consequence is worth stating plainly. Only the top 100 are judged by judges. Everything below 100th place was ranked by the Steering Committee in step one3, and those scores are never published. An entrant who places 800th is told a number and nothing else.
Secondary screening, points out of 1003
- 50
- Recreation of a natural habitat for fish
- 10
- Long term maintenance of the layout
- 10
- The creator's technical skill
- 10
- Originality and impression
- 10
- Presentation of a natural atmosphere
- 10
- Overall composition and planting balance
Scale
2,617 entries in one year14, then a fall nobody has explained.
These are ADA's own published figures. The 2021 number is the all time record and ADA said so at the time14. Note what happens after it: entries in 2024 and 2025 ran at roughly half the peak98. Japan alone sent 653 entries in 2021 and 513 in 2025148. India sent 128 and then 66148. Armenia appears in neither country list148.
| Year | Entries | Countries and areas |
|---|---|---|
| 20011 | 557 | 19 |
| 20211413 | 2,617 | 84 |
| 202211 | 2,083 | 81 |
| 202310 | 1,850 | 78 |
| 20249 | 1,450 | 79 |
| 202587 | 1,533 | 77 |
Not verified
ADA has published no reason for the drop after 2021. The explanations circulating in the hobby, rival contests and the 2022 disqualification row, are guesses. This site does not repeat them as fact.
The record
Գլխավոր մրցանակակիրները
Twenty five Grand Prizes, 2001 to 20255.
Names and countries are printed exactly as ADA printed them. ADA writes "Chinese Taipei" and "Hong Kong, China"5. Those are the contest's own conventions, not ours, and we do not rewrite a record to suit anybody's politics. Where a name is a link, that person's official record carries enough detail for a page.
The shape of the list is the story. Japan took six of the first eighteen and has taken none since 2018. Malaysia has four, Vietnam three. Since 2019 the prize has gone to Malaysia three times and once each to Indonesia, the Philippines, China and Brazil5, in a contest run by a Japanese company where Japan still supplies about a third of the entries8. Why that happened is a matter of opinion rather than record, and this site will not pretend otherwise.
| Year | Aquascaper, as recorded | Country, as recorded | Layout title | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Josh Sim | Malaysia | A River......Somewhere | Official page |
| 2024 | Luis Carlos Galarraga | Brazil | Great Wave | Official page |
| 2023 | Zhemin Fan | People’s Republic of China | Place of origin | Official page |
| 2022 | Matthew Israel Manes | Philippines | Ascend | Official page |
| 2021 | YOYO PRAYOGI | Indonesia | Ancient Tree | Official page |
| 2020 | Siak Wee Yeo | Malaysia | Eden | Official page |
| 2019 | Josh Sim | Malaysia | Dream On | Official page |
| 2018 | Hironori Handa | Japan | Yururi (relaxing) | Official page |
| 2017 | Josh Sim | Malaysia | Congo | Official page |
| 2016 | Takayuki Fukada | Japan | Mighty Cave | Official page |
| 2015 | Takayuki Fukada | Japan | Longing | Official page |
| 2014 | Gregoire Wolinski | France | Passage | Official page |
| 2013 | Truong Thinh Ngo | Vietnam | Evergreen | Official page |
| 2012 | Zhang Jianfeng | People's Republic of China | Amazon | Official page |
| 2011 | Long Tran Hoang | Vietnam | Delicate World | Official page |
| 2010 | Pavel Bautin | Russia | Forest Scent | Official page |
| 2009 | Nguyen Tien Dung | Vietnam | Moment in Time | Official page |
| 2008 | Cheng Siu Wai | Hong Kong, China | Mount. Donha | Official page |
| 2007 | Chow Wai Sun | Hong Kong, China | Ashy Range | Official page |
| 2006 | Chen You Lin | Chinese Taipei | Autumnal colours | Official page |
| 2005 | Chen De Quan | Chinese Taipei | Towering Strange Peaks | Official page |
| 2004 | Lee Jong Ki | Republic of Korea | Pining for home town III | Official page |
| 2003 | Hidemasa Okuda | Japan | A scene of the Firefly | Official page |
| 2002 | Takehiko Honoki | Japan | The summer of einthovenii | Official page |
| 2001 | Mitsuhiro Machida | Japan | Little Negro | Official page |
Below first place, 2018 to 2025
ADA publishes the layout title only for the Grand Prize winner5. Everything below it is a name, a country and a rank6, unless 2021 is involved: the official Best Aquarium column that year gave titles and tank sizes for several top places16, and that is where the only IAPLC dimensions on this site come from.
| Year | Rank | Aquascaper, as recorded | Country | Title | Tank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20256 | 2nd | Gang Zhao | People’s Republic of China | Not published | Not published |
| 20256 | 3rd | Katsuki Tanaka | Japan | Not published | Not published |
| 20256 | 4th | HIDEKAZU TSUKIJI | Japan | Not published | Not published |
| 20246 | 2nd | Kam Pui Kwong | Hong Kong, China | Not published | Not published |
| 20246 | 3rd | Qi Lin | People’s Republic of China | Not published | Not published |
| 20246 | 4th | Bernat Hosta Rovira | Andorra | Not published | Not published |
| 20236 | 2nd | Gang Zhao | People’s Republic of China | Not published | Not published |
| 20236 | 3rd | Josh Sim | Malaysia | Not published | Not published |
| 20236 | 4th | Nobphacha Yimyou | Thailand | Not published | Not published |
| 20226 | 2nd | 范 哲敏 | People’s Republic of China | Not published | Not published |
| 20226 | 3rd | 赵 刚 | People’s Republic of China | Not published | Not published |
| 20226 | 4th | 富宏 观 | People’s Republic of China | Not published | Not published |
| 2021616 | 2nd | Minh Toan Nguyen | Vietnam | Storming | W120 x D50 x H50 cm |
| 2021616 | 3rd | CHAN HEE BOON | Malaysia | IMAGINE | W120 x D60 x H50 cm |
| 20216 | 4th | Eakthanat Isarathikul | Thailand | Not published | Not published |
| 20206 | 2nd | Steven Chong | United States of America | Not published | Not published |
| 20206 | 3rd | Sim Kian Hong | Malaysia | Not published | Not published |
| 20206 | 5th | Roger Goh | Singapore | Not published | Not published |
| 20196 | 2nd | Takayuki Fukada | Japan | Not published | Not published |
| 20196 | 3rd | 富宏 观 | People’s Republic of China | Not published | Not published |
| 20196 | 4th | Martial Hervy | France | Not published | Not published |
| 20186 | 2nd | Minh Toan Nguyen | Vietnam | Not published | Not published |
| 20186 | 3rd | Takayuki Fukada | Japan | Not published | Not published |
| 20186 | 4th | Hiep Hong | United States of America | Not published | Not published |
The panel
Ten judges from nine countries4, and the mix is deliberate.
ADA says the panel is built to stop one person's taste shaping the result, and states the aim as avoiding the influence of an individual's likes and tastes over the contest outcome4. It includes aquascapers, plant growers, fish breeders, magazine editors and photographers. Only two of the ten are ADA-linked Japanese judges. Three are magazine people4.
| Judge | Country | Background |
|---|---|---|
| Adip Sajjan Raj | India | President of Still Water Aquatics |
| Albert Connelly, Jr. | USA | Publisher of Tropical Fish Hobbyist magazine |
| André Longarço | Brazil | Business manager, Aquabase Aquapaisagismo |
| Jiangang Diao | China | President of Beijing ADA Nature Aquarium World Gallery |
| Jörg Buhlmann | Germany | CEO of E.A. european aquatics GmbH |
| Oliver Lucanus | Canada | Nature photographer |
| Shogo Yamaguchi | Japan | Chief executive of AQUA LIFE magazine |
| Ulrike Bauer | Germany | Chief editor of caridina magazine |
| Yu-Fa Huang | Chinese Taipei | President of Easy Trading Co., Ltd. |
| Yusuke Homma | Japan | ADA SUIKEI creator |
| Prize | Given | Cash |
|---|---|---|
| Grand Prize | 1 | JPY 1,000,000 |
| Gold Prize | 1 | JPY 300,000 |
| Silver Prize | 2 | JPY 100,000 each |
| Bronze Prize | 3 | JPY 50,000 each |
| Honor Prize | 20 | JPY 10,000 each |
| Winning Work | 73 | Medal and certificate |
Not verified
The mapping of prize names onto world ranks below second place does not resolve cleanly. The list gives one Gold, two Silver and three Bronze1, which would suggest ranks 3 and 4 are Silver and 5, 6 and 7 are Bronze. But the official 2021 Best Aquarium column calls world rank 3 a Silver Prize and calls both rank 6 and rank 7 a Bronze Prize16. Treat the mapping as open until ADA answers it.
Three separate arguments
Վիճելի հարցեր
The contest publishes its own bad news, which is rarer than it sounds.
Three complaints get muddled together in the hobby press. They are not the same thing and only two of them are documented.
Only the top 100 are scored by judges. Everything below that was cut by the Steering Committee before judging began3, and those scores are never published. This is the most common complaint and it is simply true. Compare the AGA, which publishes signed written comments on many entries.
In March 2021 the Steering Committee published a notice asking entrants to improve their behaviour15. It listed what it cannot police: work made by someone else entered under a family member's name, one tank entered in several contests at once, old work resubmitted with the fish moved, and photo manipulation15. On duplicates it wrote that it is impossible for the committee to keep track of everything, and that it has no choice but to trust applicants15.
In October 2022 fourteen 2022 entries were disqualified for duplicating entries in other contests12. The affected world ranks were 10, 25, 26, 60, 67, 111, 151, 197, 231, 237, 246, 276, 293 and 60712. The rankings were not recalculated, so the 2022 world ranking has permanent gaps1112. The printed book had already gone to press with the disqualified works in it. Entrants were barred from the following year and asked to return medals and cash12.
Not verified
Takashi Amano died in 2015 and the contest continued without a gap year. Governance now sits with the IAPLC Steering Committee3, the panel became more international4, entries kept climbing and peaked six years later14, and the criteria still carry his idea. But we found no ADA statement describing any rule change made because of his death, and the death date itself needs re-sourcing to ADA or to a contemporary obituary rather than to an encyclopaedia. Anything this site later says about a change of direction after 2015 will be attributed to a named commentator, not stated as fact.
Practical
Ինչպես մասնակցել Հայաստանից
What entering actually requires.
No fee. One entry per person per year. Only your own work. No limit on tank size, and no category to hide a small tank in2.
The photograph must be of a layout that has not been published, taken within the previous year. JPEG, under 5 MB, at least 1500 pixels wide2.
No cropping, no mirroring, no retouching. Brightness, colour correction and resizing are allowed. Digital images only2.
Entries opened 1 April 2026 and closed 31 May 2026 at midnight Japan time, with results on 10 October 20262. The dates shift a little each year.
Photograph quality, and post. ADA has published notices about countries where international post was suspended, so confirm the postal route before expecting a physical prize.
Image rights, IAPLC
Two parties hold rights here, so we publish no IAPLC photograph.
Every winning image on the official site carries the line "© Aqua Design Amano Co.,Ltd."5 The entry rules say the entrant keeps copyright, and that ADA retains the right to use entries for one year after the world ranking is determined2. So the aquascaper and ADA both hold something, and both would have to agree before any image could appear here. No image file has been copied or downloaded. Every picture-shaped box on this page is a CSS gradient with a declared ratio, and every link marked as an official page goes to ADA's own site.
Of the three photograph contests, only the AGA can grant permission on its own, because its photo release includes a sub-licence right. That is explained on the AGA page.
Continue
Elsewhere in this section
- About IAPLC. The International Aquatic Plants Layout Contest, Aqua Design Amano, no date. https://iaplc.com/e/about/. Accessed 8 September 2026.
- Guidelines and rules, 2026 edition. Aqua Design Amano, 2026. https://iaplc.com/e/application/. Accessed 8 September 2026.
- Judges criteria. IAPLC, Aqua Design Amano, no date. https://iaplc.com/e/judging_criteria/. Accessed 8 September 2026.
- Judges, IAPLC 2026. Aqua Design Amano, 2026. https://iaplc.com/e/judges/. Accessed 8 September 2026.
- Grand Prize works, 2001 to 2025. IAPLC, Aqua Design Amano. https://iaplc.com/e/grand_prize_works/. Accessed 8 September 2026.
- Past works gallery, 2018 to 2025. IAPLC, Aqua Design Amano. https://iaplc.com/gallery/en/. Accessed 8 September 2026. Filtered by year using the site’s own year selector.
- IAPLC2025 world ranking announcement. IAPLC news, 30 August 2025. https://iaplc.com/e/2025/08/30/results25/. Accessed 8 September 2026.
- Total entries for IAPLC 2025. IAPLC news, 10 June 2025. https://iaplc.com/e/2025/06/10/iaplc2025-result01/. Accessed 8 September 2026.
- IAPLC2024 world ranking announcement. IAPLC news, 31 August 2024. https://iaplc.com/e/2024/08/31/results24/. Accessed 8 September 2026.
- IAPLC2023 world ranking announcement. IAPLC news, 26 August 2023. https://iaplc.com/e/2023/08/26/results23/. Accessed 8 September 2026.
- IAPLC2022 world ranking announcement. IAPLC news, 29 August 2022. https://iaplc.com/e/2022/08/29/results22/. Accessed 8 September 2026.
- IAPLC 2022 disqualification of entries due to duplicate entries in other contests. IAPLC Steering Committee, 21 October 2022. https://iaplc.com/e/2022/10/21/results22-02/. Accessed 8 September 2026.
- IAPLC2021 world ranking announcement. IAPLC news, 28 August 2021. https://iaplc.com/e/2021/08/28/results21/. Accessed 8 September 2026.
- IAPLC2021 breaking news on the total number of applications. IAPLC news, 14 July 2021. https://iaplc.com/e/2021/07/14/iaplc2021-result01/. Accessed 8 September 2026.
- Help us improve the moral behavior for the IAPLC. IAPLC Steering Committee, 1 March 2021. https://iaplc.com/e/2021/03/01/help-us-improve-the-moral-behavior-for-the-iaplc/. Accessed 8 September 2026.
- IAPLC 2021 best aquarium selection by each judge. IAPLC column, 29 December 2021. https://iaplc.com/e/2021/12/29/best-aquarium/. Accessed 8 September 2026.
- Top 100 works data 2021. IAPLC column, 29 December 2021. https://iaplc.com/e/2021/12/29/top-100-works-data-2021/. Accessed 8 September 2026.
- IAPLC. Aqua Design Amano corporate site, no date. https://www.adana.co.jp/en/contents/iaplc/. Accessed 8 September 2026.
Continue
Where to go next.
The AGA contest
The other model: scored categories and printed judge comments.
The winners
Forty five people and one hundred and seventeen placings, from the official record only.
Styles and history
Where the look the top hundred share came from, and in what year it was invented.
Designing the contest
What a first Armenian round should copy from this and what it should deliberately not.