# General > Events, field trips and gatherings >  Aquaria China 2004 in Guangzhou (Pix intensive)

## benny

Hi guys!

Another fishy trip, not through the secondary jungles, but through the concrete jungles of Guangzhou in China.

Aquaria China 2004 is held in Guangzhou from 9th September 2004 to 12 September 2004. Organised by the same team that did Aquarama, this is suppose to be a comprehensive, high-quality and professional international exhibition and conference featuring ornamental fish, aquatic pets and plants, accessories, equipment and related products and services for China's growing market. More information can be found at www.aquariachina.com


For those expecting it to be something like Aquarama in 2003, they will be sorely dissapointed. The scale of the show is a lot smaller and products featured there definitely fewer. In all, you need about 1 hour to comb the entire show grounds.

Cheers,

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## benny

From the overview, the scale and the presentation is definitely not indicative of a leading event for the industry. But for a maiden effort, it's well organised.

Besides the front few stands, most of the exhibitors opted for the standard shell schemes. So the overall feel is pretty much like that of a small bazaar/warehouse sale. Even the flooring is not totally carpeted. Bare bones setup.

Cheers,

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## benny

Rainbow, with the tallest booth display on the show is no stranger to many aquarist in Singapore. A good selection of supplies and live stocks were on display.

Amongst of which were their pride and joy...





Totally colored corydoras and frogs. Obviously there is still a demand for these grotesque offering.

Cheers,

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## benny

In terms of unique offerings, they were the only ones with plecos on their booth.





I have never seed a L27 presented in pink before. I suppose it's due to the light and the blood parrots.

Cheers,

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## benny

Home grown Qian Hu Corporation was also there. This nice and spacious booth was pretty much that way for the duration when we were there.

Cheers,

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## benny

The big brands also made their presence felt. 





Both Eheim and Arcadia were presented under the umbrella of Qian Hu Corporation. No new products were featured at the show.

Cheers,

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## benny

Qian Hu's house brands were featured prominantly. The price point is probably much more attractive for the market than European offerings, bearing in mind the local offerings.

Cheers,

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## benny

This is one of the first few planted tanks that I saw. Not the best, but definitely one of the better ones. Panda Arowana seems to be located at the same area as German brand, Dennerle.

Cheers,

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## benny

Basic offering from Dennerle. None of the products featured were new, but their CO2 sets featuring the new regulators have yet to be introduced in the Singapore market.

Cheers,

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## benny

This is probably the best planted tank in the whole show. But then again, being Dennerle, there's got to be a minimum standard. The java ferns on bogwood presentation is easily available in the local market for a real bargain. If it weren't for luggage constraints, I would have lugged back some.

Cheers,

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## benny

The closest competition in my opinion is from Tropica. Although not officially present, they seem to have a tank featured there.

Cheers,

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## benny

The rest of the tank displays were mostlly of this nature. 

Cheers,

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## benny

Hai Feng's display, toned down from the previous one in Aquarama 2003. One of the busier exhibition booth. Then again, they are right at the front, practically the first stand when you come in.

Cheers,

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## benny

Anyway, here are some of the other Singaporean booths...



Aqua Fauna fish industries

Cheers,

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## benny

Several Singapore fish clubs were at the show too. But, most of them were unmaned stands except for Discus Club (Singapore).

The Betta Club booth was a good resting place for us.

Cheers,

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## benny

And the prize winner for the most minimalist booth decoration.



Cheers,

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## lorba

seems like really nothing exciting to see. Whats the objective of this show?

Any nice or exotic tropical fish on display?

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## benny

Lights of various colors were on display. Seems like the market is quite acceptable to colored lightings and decorative displays. A visit to the local markets will give you a chance to see nano set up to 6 ft planted tanks with little houses, old man fishing and cows as decorations.

Cheers

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## benny

This is probably one of the best booths in the show with a good range of products. Their new "natural" background were very realistic.

Cheers,

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## benny

Here's a close up of the backgrounds that they offer..





Wonder if they will ever make their way to Singapore?

Cheers,

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## benny

We were impressed with one particular aquarium decoration.



The betta specialist confirmed that it's _Betta macrostoma_. Now if only they have a female one as well.

Cheers,

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## benny

Another semi planted tank that we saw. These are obviously instant setups.

Cheers,

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## benny

China's own version of the biOrb. You can see the original one at www.reef-one.com. For a nation obsessed with goldfishes, these bowl type displays are popular.

Cheers,

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## benny

In terms of literature and publications, the Taiwanese, being leader in Chinese aquatic publications, are there as usual.



I managed to get the Aquarium Atlas 2300 Vol 1 and 2 for only 400 RMB. As for new publications, there were none. Most of the interesting publications display were either out of print, going to be out of print translations from Japan.

Cheers,

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## benny

Posters and back issues were available to the public at discounted prices.

Cheers,

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## benny

An interesting thing to note is that the full range of the famed Japanese Pisces aquarium publications were available at this show.

Cheers,

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## benny

As with Aquarama, Aquaria 2004 has an international fish competition, albeit at a much smaller scale.



The entries included arowana, Luo Han, Discus, Betta and guppies only. No corydoras, plecos and other exotic fishes.

By the second day of the show, a lot of the tanks were empty. And you can see that the fishes in the other show tanks were struggling to stay alive.

Cheers,

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## benny

Cheers,

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## benny

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## benny

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## benny

Cheers,

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## benny

Cheers,

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## benny

Ok guys,

End of field report. My personal opinion is that this show will probably mature in 5 to 10 years. Until then, there are better ways to spend you time in China. Better shows in the region are from Japan, Taiwan and Aquarama if you can't make it for Germany's Interzoo.

If you are in Guangzhou for example, there's a pet market there as well as an old fish street. That's another photo journey altogether. If you guys are interested, I might just do up the photos and post them up later.

Hope you enjoyed the virtual tour of Aquaria 2004!

Cheers,

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## kuching

The show is not bad....better than that pet expo at Mid valley of KL last time....

The thing I hate to see...is the dyed frog &amp; fish.....why people want to "torture" those kind little creature???

Oh,I should come to catch Betta macrostoma in China....with Mr tree,ha!ha!

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## theodore

I flew back from GZ on the 7th and missed the event ...  :Embarassed:  ... The venue was opposite the hotel (China Hotel) I was staying in somemore ...  :Crying:

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## Robert

Hi,
I can't see any of the pictures. What happened to them? If I try to see them in an extra window (I copied the picture-address in the address-bar of an extra window), I always see this:

The page cannot be found 
The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please try the following:

If you typed the page address in the Address bar, make sure that it is spelled correctly.

Open the img.photobucket.com home page, and then look for links to the information you want. 
Click the Back button to try another link. 
Click Search to look for information on the Internet. 



HTTP 404 - File not found
Internet Explorer 

Hopefully someone could help me.

regards

Robert

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## benny

Hi Robert,

I think the image server is down. Try again at a later time and it might be up again.

Thanks for the feedback.

Cheers,

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## MrTree

[quote:7cd7584922="benny"]
[/quote:7cd7584922]

He was disappointed that not many oversea visitors! In front of his shops here, got put pictures of him and some big government people.  :Razz: 


I sapu the few interesting book except the 2100 species(taken before me), but the rest I think quite hopeless. 

Errr..heard it's still the best show so far held in China.  :Razz: 

Cheers,

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