We are so grateful to everyone who attended our Practical Fishkeeping meet-up event at Aquarium Gardens on April 7th 2025. Alex takes a look at what we got up to and how you can attend the next one...
Planning an event is always a daunting task, made even more so when you have never done something like this before. However, I felt that we, as fishkeepers, needed an excuse to get together and geek out for an afternoon. So, I ran head first into the challenge and I just had to hope that people would turn up when the day arrived.
The majority of these photos are by Anthony Hunt Photography.
Teas, coffees and welcomes
The aquascaping event at Aquarium Gardens was scheduled to start at midday. I only managed to get there 10 minutes prior because of the traffic on the unfamiliar roads. To say I was rather relieved to see people already beginning to arrive is a bit of an understatement.
My nerves around no one turning up immediately settled. After getting a drink (I had forgotten to fill up my bottle for the drive), I quickly helped to put out the remaining biscuits. My efforts were rather a token gesture as Dave and the crew at Aquarium Gardens had it all under control.
Conversations and introductions began while we all gazed at the wonderful aquariums within the gallery. We discussed our current aquariums at home, our plans to add more all while more people trickled in.
On the side of the aquascaping gallery, a lone empty fish tank stood solemnly on its stand. It would not be empty for long. Tai Strietman soon arrived and began to pick out the materials required to bring the aquarium to life.
Hardscape competition
We arranged to host a hardscape competition in the two aquascaping dojos situated in Aquarium Gardens. NT Labs kindly provided a bundle of their products as the prize and slowly people waited for their turn to get creative.
The aquascapes each person created showed their own unique style. They definitely utilised the huge variety of aquarium safe woods and rocks available in store to good effect.
Scaping with other people around you can feel a little daunting. It is something the majority of us do with just a podcast or some music for company, not in front of others. So I want to thank each one of you that took part for giving it a go and getting stuck in, it helped to make the day fantastic.
Congratulations to Rob Lowen for winning the contest. You can see his aquascape that George Farmer picked out as the winner below.
Tai Strietman's aquascape
As word spread around the hardscape room that Tai Strietman had begun scaping, it soon emptied. We all migrated into the gallery to see what he was going to create.
Here is what Tai has to say about the aquascape he created:
"My inspiration for this aquascape came from the early works of Takashi Amano, the godfather of aquascaping. From the mid 1980’s he was experimenting with using CO2 in planted aquaria.
His displays from this period tend to be less co-ordinated, a little more anarchic in plant choice. They had a riot of textures and tangles of stem plants providing cover for small fishes. This is what I hoped to emulate.
Instead of the traditional black background which he used at this time, I had the luxury of a Life Aqua light screen. This will make the display brighter and ‘fresher’. This meant that I wanted to focus on the greens, with just a hint of colour."
"I chose Micranthemum glomeratum, Bacopa carolina, Anubias nana 'Petite', Eleocharis acicularis, Marsilea hirsuta and Taxiphyllum barbieri. I have the intention of adding Glossostigma elatnoides as well (we didn’t have it in stock on the day).
For colour I used a few stems of Rotala rotundifolia ‘Blood Red’, a little Hygrophila lancea ‘Araguaia’ and a smattering of Myriophyllum brasiliensis (a bit of an experiment).
I plan to stock the tank with lovely blue emperor tetras (Inpaichthys kerri). Their soft purple hues should pop out nicely against the bright light background. I’m looking forward to seeing how this display grows out!
When waiting for the newly aquascaped aquarium, we all drifted back into our conversations. Tai took a well earned rest, flicking through the latest issue of the magazine.
The aquarium was looking fantastic but once filled Tai had identified a few tweaks he wanted to make before we called it a day. You can follow Aquarium Gardens on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube to see updates on how this aquarium progresses.
What is next?
I thoroughly enjoyed meeting everyone that joined us. On the drive home I could not help myself from continuing to think about aquariums. I just felt incredibly inspired from all the ideas we all spoke about.
I also want to apologise to anyone that struggled to park outside the store. This was something that was unfortunately out of our control.
Now it is time to plan the next one, and we welcome suggestions as to where in the UK we should host it. Hopefully, with each event it will grow and grow, as I would love to get the opportunity to meet more fantastic hobbyists. However, I would equally be quite happy to do this exact day over and over again.
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