I have seen many a pic on this web site and others depicting aestherics, I would estimate 9 out of 10 pics as sheer sensory stimulation

when were you last to a river - I take my dogs, without leash & collar to a river every few weeks to let them taste freedom or let them be who they are, free yet in a pack (I being the leader of the pack, of course (((smiles))) - in a river, the rocks, plants, dirt aka gravel or sand, water (moving or still). sunlight (bulbs) are scattered about in an almost hapzard manner, things or conditions constantly change.

Most pics - no offense to the owner of this web site or any web site of this caliber (by the way, I find this web site to be free & open to ideas, the best I've come across yet on the internet - on this web site and others to depict a surreal order of things, to show an idealistic humanistic perspective of an aquarium (be it freshwater, marine, what have you - of course everyone must make a living, so there are places in which to purchase these items, and in turn, we buy an iamge of the ideal sort of aquarium life...sad but true, this is the way it is or it is a factor in which we as humans are gullible with...so we tend to buy into these promotional ideas, nevertheless), we tend to get so absorbed into displaying an idealistic pointg of view or an aquarium that we miss the real beauty of nature.

Nature hapazardly falls into place...actually, there is no place, it just is. Rivers or streams (even oceans & seas) are ever-changing, always replacing the "new" with the "old", always moving...there are no pre-conditions or no absolutes, it is what it is, whatever that may be.

So my post is simply about this: what if a pic looks like it would not be displayed at the Metropalitan Museum of Arts, does it make it appear ugly? Or does it make it appear as the ecosystem one would find if you were walking through a river or stream with your dogs on a sunny Sunday afternoon, without a collar & leash or as free as possible, without a care in the world, absorbing nature at its best?

This is the ultimate "to be or not to be" any fish hobbyist must ask.

Or ask your fish, are they truly happy? Do they truly care about aesthetics or do they care for a natural habitat (cliffs, water flowing, shade, plants, assorted foods, and of course, to spawn...always to spawn, without spawning, there is no life in your tank or any tank in any future of any tank at any one time in your lifetime or mine).

((((just a thought))))

Actually I see quite a number of tanks on this site where the owner really thought through what was best for the fish and provided a habitat that fit the needs of the fish. It's one of the reasons I like this site. Of course there are tanks that do not do this, but there are alot that do.

Also, I appreciate nature from the perspective of a physicist/mathematician so I actually appreciate the order, symmetries, and design in nature more than the haphazard things. Nature has a beautiful structure to it that I have always been drawn to, whether I am solving for some physical problem on a chalkboard or walking along a river.

miami, I've always respected your opinion as I do with timer, and I do agree with both of you to an extent.

True, nature does have balance or else there'd be no life if order did not balance out chaos. I agree there.

All I am saying is, like when I take my 2 dogs for a walk without a leash and collar into the river where we swim in or when we go into the woods...if you look down into the waters, rocks, stones are strewn everywhere, frogs will hop everywhere as I approach them, jumping into the water under a rock ledge, some parts of the river is flowing fast other parts there are pools of still water, tree limbs are down from one end of the river to the next, there is gnats everywhere, sometimes we find box turtles (Imy dog actually found one and thank goodness, she did not squeeze it too hard between her teeth), I put both back intot he woods, some parts of the river edge bends narrowly, other parts open wide; some parts are so still that an algae forms over the water making a putrid smell, smells like a sewer; there are large and small fish, there are birds, large crows overhead yet ticks everywhere...I think you get the point.

every which way, there is something coming at you, thrown this way or that, small rocks, large stone, boulders, pebbles, sand, large plants, small plants, vines, trees, dead ones too...everywhere is something that was not put into place by human or animal...in time, nature "placed" it in its place

so this is my point, if our aquariums can look just as here a little there a little, then we have ourselves a true ecosystem.

and I agree too, there are penty pictures on this site that mimick nature in its most natural way; but others do not...but for the record, for those who theorize, for those who debate this issue...I say, go natural for it's really the only true way to go -

- and your fish will be as happy as a sail on a 100 foot yacht out at sea on a sunny day with a light breeze.

(((sorry about the descriptions, I am a writer at heart)))

I personaly like the natural look. I despise seeing filtration equipment and décor like little pink castles settled in blue and green gravel. My tank has symetry and does not look perfectly natural. However I also view a nice tank as furniture. I like to make it look nice in the house while creating a reasonably natural environment for the health of my fish. here is a thought... We consider the things living creatures do as natural. Are we as people not living creatures and can't we consider what we do as being natural? Maybe it is in our nature to set up an unatural looking aquarium! LOL I am getting too philosophical! It's just a thought. I believe we r seperated from the rest of nature by God and wether natural or not we are more apt to hurt the environment than any other living creature. I just find it funny how we seperate ourselves from nature when in all reality we are just as part of nature as any animal...we just tend to stir nature up a litlle more for better or worse. One last thought... I love betts fish but I wld never keep a betts tank that truly replicates it's natural environment. Bettas live in murky and stale water...that wldnt look good in an aquarium.