The record
What the contests wrote down.
These two entries are the best window this dataset has onto what the hobby looked like before the Nature Aquarium style swept it. Bark, cork and bogwood do the work that Seiryu stone and a vanishing point would do today. The substrate is bark and clay under 5 to 15 centimetres of fine gravel. The terraces are built from bogwood and stones. The entire background and both side panes are covered in cork, planted over with java moss12. Lighting is 295 watts of Philips fluorescent tubes in one tank and 348 in the other12. The plant lists are long and Dutch in temperament, heavy on Ludwigia, Hygrophila, Crinum, Cryptocoryne and Rotala wallichii12.
The stocking is a period piece in itself. The first place tank holds Congo tetras, rummy nose tetras, bristlenose catfish, Otocinclus, Siamese algae eaters, three species of Apistogramma, clown loaches and silver hatchets1. The second place tank holds six discus2.
The most useful thing on either page is what one judge wrote. Kaspar Horst called the winning tank the top of its group and possibly of the whole contest, and described it as very nicely formed in Dutch style with modern elements coming from Japan1. That sentence, written in 2000, is the moment the two traditions meet, recorded by a judge at the time rather than reconstructed later.
AGA 2000, entry 42, no recorded title
AGA 2000 · 1st1
- Placing
- Best of Show and 1st Place
- Contest
- AGA
- Year
- 2000
- Category
- Aquatic Garden, >284L
- Entry number
- 42
- Country, as recorded
- Norway
- Tank
- 160 × 55 × 60 cm
- Volume
- 530L
- Lighting
- Total of 295 watts. 5x 58 watts philips flourescent. 3x philips 950, and 2 x philips 965.
- Filtration
- Eheim power filter (innerfilter)and Eheim cannister filter.
- Hardscape and substrate
- Substrate is made by bark and clay at the bottom, covered by 5- 15 cm 2-3 mm gravel. Terracses is made by bogwood and stones. The back is filled in with corkbark covered in javamoss.
- Plants
- Vesiculariana dubyana Microsorium (javamoss) Glossostigma elatinoides Hemianthus micranthemoides Ludwigia repens Ludwigia perennis Limnophila sessiflora Crinum natnas Crinum thaianum Cryptocoryne balansaee Hygrophila strichta Hygrophila "synnema" Anubias nana Rotala wallichii Myriophyllum tuberculatum
- Animals
- Congo tetra Red-nose tetra Bristle nose catfish Otocinclus sp Siamese Algae eaters Apistogramma agazissii Apistogramma cacatuoides Apistogramma nijsseni Clown loach Silver hatchets
What the judges wrote, quoted and attributed
“Absolutly the top in this group if not in the whole contest. The aquascape is very nice and well formed in Dutch style with modern elements coming from Japan. Skilfully using of Vesicularia dubyana ...”
“This is another beautiful tank with bold use of color and texture. Unfortunately the red plants appear to have been inserted as an afterthought as opposed to being carefully worked into the planting. ...”
“Very nice tank! With a nice harmonic composition and impressing plant growth! Use of space is very well done!”
AGA 2000, entry 41, no recorded title
AGA 2000 · 2nd2
- Placing
- Second Place
- Contest
- AGA
- Year
- 2000
- Category
- Aquatic Garden, >284L
- Entry number
- 41
- Country, as recorded
- Norway
- Tank
- 160 × 55 × 60 cm
- Volume
- 530L
- Lighting
- Total of 348 watts. 6x 58 watts philips flourescent. 3x philips 950, 2 x philips 965 and 1 philips 940.
- Filtration
- 2x Eheim cannister filters.
- Hardscape and substrate
- Substrate is made by bark and clay at the bottom, covered by 5- 15 cm 2-3 mm gravel. Terasses is made by bogwood and stones. The hole background and sides is covered by cork with javamoss.
- Plants
- Vesiculariana dubyana Javamoss Cryptocoryne wendtii"Tropica" Didiplis diandra Heteranthera zosterfolia Hemianthus micranthemoides Ludwigia repens Ludwigia perennis Limnophila sessiflora Crinum natnas Crinum thaianum Cryptocoryne balansaee Hygrophila corymbosa "compact" Anubias nana Rotala wallichii Myriophyllum tuberculatum Bacoba carolineae Hygrophila polysperma "Roseanervig" Lysemachia sp.
- Animals
- 2 Blue diamonds Discus 2 Marlboro red Discus 2 Red tourquise snakeskin Discus Bristle nose catfish Otocinclus sp Siamese Algae eaters Apistogramma cacatuoides Apistogramma hippolytae Clown loach 4 chocolade gouramies.
What the judges wrote, quoted and attributed
“This aquascape in Dutch style shows very nice contrasts to the other plant groups. Worth mentioning are the very nice contrasts of leaf forms and colours.”
“I really like the broad swaths of color and big groups of plants used in this tank. The groupings have been carefully arranged in height to create a lovely upward sweep to the aquascape. I find the ...”
“Very impressive tank! It is very difficult to make good growth in so many different plants and in the same time maintain cuttings to a so nice harmonic composition! Well done!”
Image rights
No photograph on this page is ours, and none has been copied.
Every picture-shaped box above is a CSS gradient with a declared aspect ratio. The layouts themselves stay on the contests' own pages, and every entry above links to its own.
At the AGA, copyright stays with the aquascaper and the association holds an irrevocable, perpetual, sub-licensable licence5. Because it may sub-license, the AGA alone could grant us permission. That is the one obtainable route and it has not been asked for yet.
At IAPLC, the entrant keeps copyright and ADA holds a use right, so two parties would have to agree before any image could appear here.
At CIAC, CIPS states that the copyright of the top hundred entries belongs to CIPS and CFAA, so the aquascaper cannot grant it even if willing.
Until one of those is answered in writing, nothing is reproduced. Nobody reading this site should ever assume an image here belongs to us.
The other profiles
More pages, chosen the same way
Pages are built out of the 49 people whose official record carries enough detail to support one6. They are the ones with the most official detail recorded about them, so the choice is reproducible rather than a matter of taste.
- AGA 2000, Best of Show and 1st Place. no recorded title. https://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2000/show42.html. Accessed 8 September 2026.
- AGA 2000, Second Place. no recorded title. https://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2000/show41.html. Accessed 8 September 2026.
- AGA Aquascaping Contest showcase archive, 2000 to 2023. Aquatic Gardeners Association. https://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/. Accessed 8 September 2026.
- Frequently asked questions. AGA Aquascaping Contest, no date. https://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/faq.html. Accessed 8 September 2026. The statement that entries 4 to 10 are displayed in tank volume order rather than placing order.
- Photo release agreement. AGAIAC, Inc., no date. https://agaiac.org/photo-release-agreement. Accessed 8 September 2026.
- Profile eligibility record. content/winners/profile-eligibility.json, generated 8 September 2026. This person carries 18 substantive fields beyond a name and a placing, above the threshold of four, and so is one of the 49 aquascapers for whom a page may be built.
Continue
Where to go next.
The winners
The other forty four people, and the full record of one hundred and seventeen placings.
The world competitions
The two contests behind the placings, and what each of them scores.
Styles and history
The schools these tanks are built in, with founders and dates.
IAPLC
The contest scoring sheet, where half the points go to whether a fish could really live there.