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.
My name is Samuele Gamberini and I was born near Bologna, Italy.
When I was a teenager I moved the first steps in the fishkeeping hobby, when my father bought a tank in the only shop in town. It was the 80s …
It was a 60 lt tank, where I used to breed some Trichogaster. Some years later I leaved the hobby, but in 2012 I started again with a little cube, where I commited the most common mistakes: too many fishes, no fertilization, an off-the-cuff management, but the desire to learn and understand pushed me to read and study more and more.
Later I bought a 100 lt tank, where I start to experience every kind of test and I began to cultivate aquatic plants, using fertilizers and taking care of their needs in a more appropriate manner.
Since 2014 I began to hold live events in several shops and gardens and now I am committed in collaborations with some important companies like Prodibio, Hydor, Elos, Troplant, Tropica ,CO2Art. I’m also the Italian Prodibio ambassador. I took part in IALPC three times, last time I came in 293. In 2016 I was 131st in EALPC Standard category and in 2017 I was 18th in the “nano” category and 131 in the “standard”. In 2018in IALPC #293 and #26 in web aquascaping contest.
In 2019 in EALPC #24 medium cat and #28 nano cat .
My goal is always to improve and learn more and more. I hope to share and to instil my passion in everybody who approaches the wonderful world of aquascaping.
Spanish born in 1982 and an aquarist for about 12 years. In recent years, I have oriented my hobby towards planted aquariums, especially; Aquatic Landscaping, participating in international level competitions obtaining several recognitions.
Without family references that precede me in this hobby, in my beginnings the decoration of my aquariums was basic and simple, but my interest in discovering the different Aquascaping techniques, leads me first to the Internet, a place where I meet those who are today great colleagues, and then to the specialized bibliography in English, to treat each landscape as a unique ecosystem.
These concerns and this dialogue of knowledge have as their meeting point, Aquascaping Spain, of which it was part from the beginning creating the Spanish AQSCONTEST contest which this year celebrates its sixth edition.
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.
Only until recently, after I moved over to Northern Ireland, I discovered a beauty of nature aquarium concept through browsing on Youtube and I was instantly hooked. I have been practising the art of aquascaping for 8 years now and I have been entering aquascaping contests since 2016. I realized that entering contests gives me a focus and drive to improve my skills as an aquascaper and artist each year. My most favourite and exciting part of the hobby is the process of creating new layout.
My name is Giuseppe Nisi, born in Germany but with apulian origins. Currently I live and work in Bologna.
I approached to this wonderful world of aquariums in 2008 and I immediately became enthusiast to plants cultivations and I started to attend with attention the Italian forum, Aquagarden.it
After I discovered Aquascaping, thanks to the Takashi Amano aquariums, and in that moment is started the passion for natural layout.
For many years I setup and dismantled a lot of aquariums, acquiring experience and getting a lot of satisfactions.
I actively partecipate to different on-line contest like IAPLC, AGA getting good placements (IAPLC2016 98° Place; EAPLC2016 19°Place; IAPLC 2017 66°Place & EAPLC 10°Place ) and some live contest where i got two first placements in the 2015 ( NAQ2015 Live Contest & PetFestival2015 Live Contest 1vs1 ) & one first placement in the 2016 (Contest Live Aquascaping PetsItaly Rimini)
- IAPLC 2012 382°th Place
- ASE International Aquascaping Contest 2010 14°th Place Nano Category
- AAC 2010 Genaeral 158°th Place; mini Aquarium 56°th Place
- IAPLC 2013 686°th Place on 2164 Partecipants
- ParticipatedNaq 2013 italy Live Aquscaping Contest
- AGA 2014 28-60L ; 200- 320L
- Eaplc 2014 161°th Place
- IAPLC 2014 698°th Place on 2320 Partecipants
- Participated Aquagarden Aquascaping Project 2014-2015 RDA (Rosso d'Autore) by Forum Aquagarden.it main Sponsor Anubias Aquatic Plants & Elos
- Workshop Live PetFestival Piacenza 2014 Italy, Esotikaexpo Arezzo 2015 , Esotikaexpo Bastia Umbria 2015 & Live Workshop Stand Sera, EsotikaexpoArezzo 2016.
- 2015_Collaborated with Fabio Lorusso to realize Photo & Hardscape for ABA cataolog by Aquaristica.it
- AGA 2015 <25L ; 60-120Lt
- IAPLC 2015 World Ranking 300th "Fine Works" on 2545 Partecipants
- EAPLC 2015 Standard 55°th Place ; Nano 39°th Place
- IIAC 2015 176°th, 182°th & 186°th
- Workshop Live with Fabio Lorusso Stand Sera NAQ2015 Italy
- NAQ 2015 Italy Live Aquscaping Contest 1°th Place
- PetsFestival 2015 Italy Live Aquscaping Contest 1vs1 1°th Place
- Interzoo 2016 Stand Anubias Aquatic Plants& Aqvainnova - "May the green force be with you..." Scape by Oliver Knott Feat. ITAU (Fabio Lorusso & Giuseppe Nisi )
- PetsItaly 2016 Rimini - Mace Live Aquscaping Contest 1°th Place
- Workshop Live with Fabio Lorusso Stand Anubias - ITAU, Rimini 2016, Italy
- PetsFestival 2016Live Aquscaping Contest ITAU Vs FACT - 1°th Place Team ITAU (Fabio L., Giuseppe N. & Enrico F.)
- IAPLC 2016 World Ranking 98°th Place;
- EAPLC 2016 Europe Ranking 19°th Place;
- Judge of the AquAgora Capacontest 2017;
- AquaProject 2017 Zoomark - 2mtx2mt Nature Aquarium MiniOceanario in Memoria of Takashi Amano at Zoomark 2017by Fabio Lorusso & Giuseppe Nisi
- IAPLC 2017 World Ranking 66°th Place:
- EAPLC 2017 Europe Ranking 10°th Place;
- AGA 2017 Nano Cube Ranking 2°th Place.
- IAPLC 2018 World Ranking 63°th Place:
- CIPS - CIAC 2018 21°th Place - 1st Italy selected of live Event on China. (The 27 contestants that reached the top 200 in the big tank category and that are 1st of their country are invited to participate in CLIAC, a big live aquascaping event at CIPS in Guangzhou)