You may not have heard of Filipe Oliveira but undoubtedly you’ve seen in his work countless times in aquascaping publications. Mr. Oliveira rocked the aquascaping world in 2008 with his first bonsai tree aquascape which looked so supernatural that it seemed to be computer generated. His original bonsai aquascaping has been imitated so many times and it has inspired so many other aquariums, even the zoanthid tree probably was indirectly inspired by Filipe’s original masterpiece.
Now the aquascaping guru is back with a new aquarium layout which is both more technical in its composition, and in its level of plant care, husbandry and layout. The new RedBonsai Treescape uses the same treelike hardscape foundation but this time the tree is “in bloom” with red leaved bouquets of what appears to be a small species of Ludwigia.
Ludwigia or whatever plant he used to foliate this current treescape is actually a stem plant that does not normally grow in wood, but with some kind of skill or trickery, probably string, Mr. Oliveira has managed to train this red-leaved stem plant to grow in his wooden tree branch. The rest of the RedBonsai Treescape is masterfully arranged with observation of all the golden ratios and plenty of empty space to help contrast the overall layout.
This is the first of three videos which simply teases the complete layout to a wonderful effect with subsequent videos promising to reveal more details about the aquarium, lighting, filtration, livestock & plants. It’s clear that Filipe Oliveira has a mastery of the art of freshwater aquascaping and we for one would love to see how he could apply his skills to aquascaping a marine aquarium.
