And it is an educational process for animals too. A baby duck raised by another duck species will court a female of his mother’s species instead of his own.
The studies on color show that different colors / color combinations cause different emotions on humans. We all know that. But the same is true for animals. Black and yellow is a sign of poison/danger for many animals for example. I read on a forum about a guy that was doing some maintenance in his tank and he placed a school of cardinal tetras inside a red tin. The fish immediately started jumping out of the water, one after the other at a faster rate than the rate he could put them back in the tin. He lost many of them and he had to put the remaining ones in a tin with another color.
So from this point on, I will not be ashamed to state that fish have an aesthetic sense.
Therefore, we should try to not only please our senses, but also the animal’s senses when establishing a layout in a tank. But how can we get inside the mind of a fish? Or the mind of any other animal for that matter? Well, just look at the case of Dr Temple Grandin's (http://www.grandin.com/):
“Using her unique ability to observe the world through an animal's eye she has fundamentally redesigned the equipment and buildings where they are held and slaughtered. Today her advice is sought from around the world and half the cattle in the US go to their deaths in humane equipment designed by her.” – BBC – Science and Nature – Horizon.
Her ability is unique in what concerns the degree to which she takes it, but don’t forget that we (humans and other animals) are not that different. It’s much easier to point similarities between a human being and any other animal than differences. It just depends on what you’re looking for: similarities or differences.
Some of you might be wondering: when we try to imagine how an animal feels, we just project our own feelings on that animal in that specific situation. In doing so, we may be right or wrong, just as we can be right or wrong when we go through the same process with another person. Some situations are easier to figure out than others, in what concerns projection of our emotions on others. How much more painful will be for a person to watch a son being killed than for an animal who looks after their descendence? (Sorry for that).
Now back to aquarium layouts. What we like is the same that a fish likes? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Not very helpful, but hopeful. It’s hopeful because almost every time you look at a landscape or any natural scene, you will find it beautiful. Nature is beautiful, no matter how the colors are mixed. We are “programmed” to find Nature beautiful. Why shouldn’t animals be too?
So all this to arrive to the brilliant conclusion that when we try to make a beautiful tank we should follow natural examples.
But beware: natural examples can really be farfetched. Look at what Takashi Amano has done with “Nature Aquarium” concept. He is not recreating natural aquatic landscapes. Most of the times it looks like he’s recreating dry land natural landscaped, like mountains, rivers or prairies. Most of us who have seen his tanks fall in love with them. I have a feeling that his fish love them too.
But home is home; “Home is where the heart is”. Fish will likely find beautiful a place that looked like home. And you may ask: where is a fish’s home? Is it where he was born? Where he grew? Anywhere, as long as he’s in love? (This is not as silly as it looks, because many people believe their fish to be happy as long as they breed).
I’ll tell you… I don’t know. It’s not an easy subject to understand mainly because we (living creatures) are extremely adaptable to a huge variety of conditions and the way we percept beauty changes in time and space.
In Nature, the results are complex, but the rules are simple. And these are the rules that we must find and then practice and experiment.
And many rules of beauty seem to be universal. We change our perception of beauty through life,
You may think that if everybody follows the same rules the creativity is lost. But just look at a symphony. It’s full of rules and yet there are so many different. These rules are there to add another layer in the creation of any art piece and enrich the creation process. And very important: rules are there to be broken too. But when you break a rule, be aware of why that rule exists and why you will not apply it.
