Jurați-2020

Name: Filipe Oliveira
Age: 45 years old
Location – city and country: Porto, Portugal
Occupation: Professional Aquascaper, Photographer, PR Manager and Designer at Aquaflora B.V Aquarist since: 1999

Experience as judge:
CBAP Brazil, EAPLC, CIAC – CIPS China, RAC – Romanian Aquascaping Contest, Web Aquascaping Contest, HAC – Hungarian Aquascaping Contest and a few more…
Archievments as aquascaper:
-Winning Prizes: 2006 – 1st place on AGA Contest in Large Category 2006
– Best of the show AGA Contest in Large Category 2006
– 2nd place on AGA Contest in Small Category 2007
– 1st place on AGA Contest in small Category 2009
– 1st place on AGA Contest in small Category 2010
– 3rd place on AGA Contest in Small Category Honour prizes: 2007
– 10th place on IAPLC – ADA Contest
– Workshops and seminars all over the world: Netherlands, Russia, Germany, Portugal, Austria, Spain, France, Belgium, Italy, Mexico, Indonesia, Australia, Hungary and China.
– Worked with Takashi Amano at Florestas Submersas, the world’s largest nature aquarium in Lisbon Oceanarium. Hobbies or preferences: Landscape photography and sports in general.

Dr. Anton Lamboj has been an aquarist since the age of ten. Around 1980, he began to take a special interest in the cichlids of West and Central Africa. This interests led, in 1988, to the beginning of his academic education at the University of Vienna. Focus in science and hobby are West African cichlids. He has made numerous field/collecting trips to Africa, South East Asia, Australia, Central America and South America. He holds about 50 tanks, has authored more then 400 papers (both academic and hobbist) in eleven languages, including six books and contributions to about 40 other books (aquaristic and scientific). Till now, he has described 4 genera and 23 species. He is lecturer and associated scientist at the University of Vienna/Austria and the University of Applied Sciences in Wels/Upper Austria, chief editor of the Austrian aquarium and terrarium journal, curator in the C.A.R.E.S. program and at Cichlid Room Companion; also honorary member of the French Cichlid Ass. (AFC), the Hill Country Cichlid Club (HCCC, USA), Texas, the Nordiska Ciklidsällskapet (NSC, Scandinavia) and Multicolor Ailingen (Germany). 2011 he was honored for his international work for the hobby as a „Mastère fédéral d‘aquariophilie“ by the French Aquarium Federation FFA, 2015 he got the „Scientist Award“ from CAOAC (Canadian Association of Aquarium Clubs). For many years he was president of the Austrian Federation of Aquarium and Terrarium Clubs (OEVVOE), where he is now „President in Honor“. From OEVVOE he also got the first „Golden Anton Award“ in 2015, which is named after him and now given every year to a person or organization with outstanding contribution to the aquarium or terrarium hobby. He was judge for several competitions, foe example at ACA, Aquarama in Singapore an in 2019, he also was judge for BADC.

The first contact with the aquarium was at the age of 3-4 when my grandparents took me to the Constanta Aquarium. I liked it so much that I asked my grandparents to take me to the fish every day.
When I was almost 5 years old, my grandfather made a 200l aquarium at home, to get rid of the roads to the public aquarium. I was fascinated. I remember my grandfather’s veiled Carasus auratus, which still look like the most beautiful Carasus.
At the age of 12, I had my first 30-liter aquarium with guppies, corydoras, zebras, of which I was very proud. Since then the aquarium has always existed in my life with bigger or smaller pauses.
In the 12th grade of high school I participated in the National Biology Olympiad where I took third place with the work “Phenotype and genotype in the species Lebistes reticulatus”. Since 2009 aquaristics has become a permanent hobby. I started again as an aquascaper and I made some beautiful escapes, I say. After 2 years I started to be interested in biotope aquariums. I was fascinated by their naturalness, the fact that they are inspired by something real and I admit that I really liked the part of study necessary to make a biotope aquarium.
Months of study followed (which did not end today), which then materialized in several bioscapes.
In 2014 I ranked 5th in the semifinals of the Biotope Aquarium Contest within the “Akter Fest-Zagreb” festival.
In the live final of the same contest I took the 4th place and the Audience Award. The chairman of the jury was Mr. Heiko Bleher.

Since then, I participate in all the gender competitions that take place online, for the pleasure of creating a new habitat from a certain place on our beautiful planet. I generally like interesting and special places. As a fauna, I prefer small species such as cichlids from South America or West and Central Africa, but I am also interested in other species with an interesting biology.

2019 was a year rich in national awards, namely:
1st place in the Biotope section of the “Romanian Aquatic Contest” contest;
1st place in the Cichlids section of the “Aquatic Design Contest Romania” contest;
1st place in the Biotope section of the contest organized by the online group “Aquaristics”

A biotope aquarium is as much as possible a copy of a real biotope, a particle of nature with its charm and beauty. It is a system made up of organic and inorganic components but which together form life. The biotope aquarium is a life lesson, through it we better understand how a part of nature works. And maybe by understanding more nature we realize its fragility. The nature that God created for Man by telling him to master it, but to master it carefully because he left it in his care. And man can now more than ever have to remember that to master means to be responsible for what he masters and to take care of it.
I feel honored to judge this section of the contest, thank you very much to those who trust me and wish a lot of success and inspiration to all participants.

Who is Ivan Mikolji?

“If you are an admirer of the aquatic habitats of South America, you certainly know Ivan Mikolji!

He’s a world-renowned explorer, researcher, audio/visual artist, and author who tirelessly documents the magnificent diversity and wonder of this beautiful region of the world.  His dramatic underwater videos are seen around the world, and his photographs have graced articles in numerous publications.

Ivan Mikolji is also an extremely accomplished artist, whose beautiful interpretations of the aquatic life of Venezuela and South America are sought after by collectors worldwide.”

Scott Fellman, Tannin Aquatics

Introduction to Mikolji

With more than a hundred expeditions and innumerable publications in different countries, he has demonstrated the authenticity and originality of his artistic passion for photography and painting. The philosophy that moves his creative will is the urgency to preserve the aquatic ecosystems of the planet, and as a first step he considers it necessary to make known the richness and beauty of these biomes. That is why he maintains: “you cannot preserve what you don’t know exists.” And to that work he has dedicated a great part of his life.

Eduardo Planchart Licea
Phd Latin American Art History UNAM

I was born on November 2, 1970 in St. Petersburg, Russia (ex-USSR). Aquaria began to get involved 40 years ago. I have been doing biotopes for the last 20 years. I was in many regions of Russia, where I studied and continue to study biotopes. He was a member of the jury at the International Biotope Competition for 6 consecutive years and other domestic competitions. Author of articles in print and on the Internet about biotopes, fish and crustaceans.

Aquarist and horticulturist at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, I have always been passionate about plants, animals and nature in general. 

When I discovered Takashi Amano, I was immediately fascinated by his work.

From that moment  nature aquarium has been my favourite style of aquascape 

and in 2018 I was lucky enough to be trained by ADA in Japan. 

Since then I have four nature aquariums at home and I have run workshops to promote the hobby.

I was born and grew up in a small town in Slovakia near national park of High Tatras and Pieniny close to a border with Poland. Growing up, surrounded by exceptional natural beauty, I developed a passion for nature. At young age I was introduced to aquarium hobby by couple of my friends and I have been keeping fish since. 

My name is Ludo BOURDIN and I am 47 years old. I live in France, more precisely in Burgundy. I am an aquarist since my childhood. I discovered aquascaping in the 90’s but I have been practicing it for about 8 years. A few years ago I had the chance to join the group FACT, which allowed me to benefit from the advice of the best French aquascapers at that time. I improved thanks to their contact and their advice and so i had the chance to integrate several times the top 100 in the famous IAPLC contest.
I am now part of the collective “Rocks & Roots french Aquascaping Spirit” whose goal is to promote and share the achievements of its members.
I have a predilection for rock-based compositions.
I am particularly happy and honored to be part of the judges’ team of this edition of the Romanian aquascaping contest. Indeed, beyond the competition, I think that our discipline, far from being only an individual practice, is also made of sharing and fraternity.
I wish good luck to all the candidates.

I am Marco Aukes, 44 years old and born in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It was only after I met the fine lady that is now my wife, over 20 years ago, that I got in contact with aquariums. Her brother had one at his room in her parents house, and I immediately got hooked to the hobby. When we moved into our first house together, we knew one thing for sure: we had to get an aquarium of ourselves.

We started with ambition with a 2m long, 800 liter aquarium and started right from the beginning with the Dutch Style: a lot of plants and compositions with a lot of contrasts in color, size, height and shape. When we moved into our current house we took on a even bigger aquarium of 3.10m long and 1.400 liter. That also started as a Dutch style.

When we started the Vivarium event, the largest European event for the aquarium and terrarium hobby, my time got a lot more sparse and the aquarium was transfered first into a biotope. Nowadays it is still a biotope aquarium, but now there is a paludarium added on top. That is a lot easier to maintain than a fully planted Dutch Style.

With my background in Dutch Style Aquariums, I have photographed many of the NBAT contests and accompanied many judges back in the days. Later I have published a manual on Dutch Style on the UKAPS forum to also promote the style beyond our borders. Since a few years I am a judge in the AGA contest for the Dutch Style Category.

I am looking forward to also promote this style now in the Romanian National Aquascaping Contest and I hope we will see a lot of contestants giving their best attempt on this style. As a pre-contest tip I would like to emphasize that the Dytch Style is not just about a lot of plants and contrast in color. Contrasts and variation in different heights (not just low in the front, tall in the back), leaf size and shapes are equally important.

I wish all contestants the best of luck and most importantly: a lot of fun in the proces of creating your best Dutch Style Aquarium!

I’m Mario Perez, I’m 32 years old, Spanish aquascaper.

More than 10 years as an aquarist, passionate about planted aquariums and reef aquariums. In the last years I am mainly dedicated to aquascaping competitions and working as a distributor of aquarium products, Aquariums became a way of life for me.

Part of the organizing team of AQSC Spain (aquascaping competition in Spain), AQSC hardscape contest.
Workshops held in Spain on Nature and Dutch styles.
Due to my passions I worked for various aquarium companies promoting aquascaping in Spain.
We obtained the 3rd place in the Dutch category in 2019.
It is an honor for me to be a referee of RONAC, to analyze the works of my Romanian colleagues, to be able to offer advice where appropriate.
Thank you for calling me to be part of the refereeing team.