Our comparison of CIAC country rankings focuses on the final Top 30 in the Aquascaping Group for 2024 and 2025. Indonesia increased its representation from five places to nine. China rose from four to six and secured two podium positions. Vietnam and Brazil each recorded three Top 30 places in 2025.
With the CIAC 2026 results scheduled for October 10, these two completed seasons offer a useful starting point for the next discussion. Which communities will strengthen their presence—and which individual aquascapes will introduce us to someone new?
What this country comparison measures
The figures below count ranked entries, with one place counted for each work in the specified band. They describe representation in the results, rather than total submissions, the number of unique entrants or a country's success rate.
We use the official CIPS final Aquascaping Group rankings for both editions and compare the same bands: Top 30, Top 10 and the first three places. The 2024 calculation follows the August 28 final results announcement. Country labels follow each edition's published table; “Korea,” “UK” and “USA” are expanded here to South Korea, United Kingdom and United States.
A zero therefore means no place in that ranking band. It does not mean that nobody from the country entered the competition. The Top 10 is contained within the Top 30, so those columns should be read separately rather than added together.
CIAC 2024 versus 2025: the complete Top 30 country table
| Country | 2024 Top 30 | 2025 Top 30 | Change | 2024 Top 10 | 2025 Top 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indonesia | 5 | 9 | +4 | 3 | 5 |
| China | 4 | 6 | +2 | 2 | 2 |
| Brazil | 1 | 3 | +2 | 0 | 1 |
| Vietnam | 0 | 3 | +3 | 0 | 0 |
| Spain | 4 | 2 | -2 | 1 | 0 |
| India | 1 | 2 | +1 | 0 | 1 |
| South Korea | 4 | 1 | -3 | 2 | 0 |
| Canada | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Croatia | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Thailand | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Argentina | 0 | 1 | +1 | 0 | 0 |
| Portugal | 2 | 0 | -2 | 0 | 0 |
| Malaysia | 1 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 0 |
| Philippines | 1 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 0 |
| Singapore | 1 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 0 |
| Turkey | 1 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 0 |
| United Kingdom | 1 | 0 | -1 | 1 | 0 |
| United States | 1 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 0 |
| Total ranked places | 30 | 30 | 0 | 10 | 10 |
Change is the difference in Top 30 places between 2024 and 2025. All 18 country labels appearing in either season's Top 30 are included. Countries with zero places in both seasons fall outside this table.
Country counts calculated by AquaLibs from the official CIPS final ranking tables. Each season contains 30 ranked places; this is not a participation chart.
Indonesia: consecutive champions and a wider leading presence
Indonesia's strongest headline is easy to recognise: Acho Choky won in 2024, and Muhammad Yusuf won in 2025. The wider results make that achievement more interesting. Indonesian works occupied five Top 30 places in 2024 and nine in 2025, increasing their share of that band from 16.7% to 30%.
The Top 10 tells a similar story: three places in 2024 became five in 2025. Half of the leading ten works in the later season therefore carried Indonesia's country label.
Veins of Nature 2 — Muhammad Yusuf, Indonesia — CIAC 2025, Rank 1. Archived contest photograph.
In Veins of Nature 2, hanging roots and sweeping wood lines give the foreground a strong presence, while a bright opening makes the forest feel deep and inviting. The composition is worth revisiting as a work in its own right, beyond its contribution to a country total.
Follow Muhammad Yusuf on AquaRank and Acho Choky's competition history to connect these consecutive victories with their individual records. The two profiles turn a national headline into two distinct creative journeys.
China: more Top 30 places and two works on the podium
China's representation increased from four to six Top 30 places, or from 13.3% to 20% of the band. Its Top 10 count remained at two, but the positions of those works changed substantially.
In 2024, China's highest finish was Lin Qi in third place. In 2025, Gang Zhao finished second and Guan Liwei finished third. China therefore occupied two of the three podium places in the later season.
The Pulse of Life — Gang Zhao, China — CIAC 2025, Rank 2. Archived contest photograph.
The Pulse of Life offers a striking visual counterpart to that result. Dark rock shelves and bright green planting frame a luminous central passage, giving the scene both weight and openness. Small fish add movement without interrupting the structure.
Explore Gang Zhao's AquaRank profile, then return to the CIAC 2025 gallery to view the second- and third-place works together. Their shared country label is a useful point of connection; their individual designs deserve separate attention.
Vietnam: three Top 30 works to celebrate and explore
Vietnam moved from zero Top 30 places in 2024 to three in 2025. Those three entries were Lich Do at 15th, Phạm Đức Mạnh at 18th and Nguyễn Trung Hiếu at 29th. Together, they accounted for 10% of the 2025 Top 30.
The distinction between a ranking band and the wider results matters here. Vietnam was already represented further down the 2024 final list: Lich Do finished 45th. The later season brought three Vietnamese works into the band examined in this article.
The Returning Breeze — Lich Do, Vietnam — CIAC 2025, Rank 15. Archived contest photograph.
Lich Do's The Returning Breeze builds depth through layered wood, shadow and a brighter opening toward the rear. Its broad foreground and intricate upper structure make it rewarding to study at full size.
For Vietnamese readers, these results offer a shared reason for pride. For the wider aquascaping community, they offer three invitations to discover individual creators. Follow Lich Do, Phạm Đức Mạnh and Nguyễn Trung Hiếu on AquaRank, and compare their works in the gallery.
Brazil and India: gains beyond the championship headline
Brazil increased from one to three Top 30 places. Its 2025 results included Gustavo Pimenta do Nascimento at 10th, Willian de Mélo Coutrin at 22nd and Fernando Moraes at 24th. Brazil also entered the Top 10 after having no place in that band in 2024.
Enchanted Valley — Fernando Moraes, Brazil — CIAC 2025, Rank 24. Archived contest photograph.
Fernando Moraes' Enchanted Valley shows why this wider band deserves attention. Planted slopes and rugged rock faces guide the eye toward the middle distance, while changes in green texture help distinguish the layers. Visit Fernando Moraes on AquaRank to continue beyond this single photograph.
India's Top 30 count increased from one to two, with Rahul Mukherjee at sixth and Debraj Ghosh at 23rd in 2025. Rahul also brought India into that season's Top 10. Explore Rahul Mukherjee and Debraj Ghosh on AquaRank for a closer look at the individual records behind the change.
These are modest totals compared with Indonesia's nine places, but they broaden the story. A country's visibility can grow through several strong results at different levels of the list.
A closer look at the Top 10 and the podium
The Top 10 featured six country labels in 2024 and five in 2025. Indonesia's increase from three to five places was the largest numerical change in this band. China retained two, while India, Thailand and Brazil each held one place in 2025.
Thailand's single Top 30 place appeared higher in the later season: Nobphacha Yimyou finished 18th in 2024, while Kawin Arponiam finished seventh in 2025. This illustrates why a country count and the position of its works answer different questions.
| Podium position | CIAC 2024 | CIAC 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Champion | Acho Choky — Indonesia | Muhammad Yusuf — Indonesia |
| Second | Shin Dong Jin — South Korea | Gang Zhao — China |
| Third | Lin Qi — China | Guan Liwei — China |
South Korea's Top 30 count moved from four to one, and Spain's from four to two. Several other country labels present in the 2024 Top 30 did not appear in the equivalent 2025 band. These changes describe two sets of results; interpreting them as a decline in a national community would require much more evidence, including entry totals and a longer sequence of seasons.
Fewer countries in the Top 30: what the figures tell us
The number of represented country labels fell from 16 in 2024 to 11 in 2025. At the same time, Indonesia and China together increased from nine to fifteen places—from 30% to 50% of the Top 30.
The leading results were therefore more concentrated in 2025. That is a finding about this ranking band. It does not establish whether the overall competition became more or less international, because the full participant pool lies outside this comparison.
Two seasons also cannot explain why the distribution changed. These totals do not measure judging preferences, a country's training culture or a single national design style. Looking at the photographs brings us back to the particular decisions made by each creator: where to place wood, how to shape open water, and how to give plants and fish a coherent role.
From the country column to the creator: explore with AquaRank
A country table is a starting point. The CIAC 2024 gallery and CIAC 2025 gallery provide the photographs; AquaRank helps readers follow the creators through their recorded competition results.
Start with a work that catches your eye, open the linked profile, and explore another recorded result by the same aquascaper. That route makes a country statistic more personal: a name becomes a body of work, and one memorable image becomes a reason to keep following its creator.
AquaRank is AquaLibs' independent ranking and profile resource. Its career records provide additional context alongside the official CIAC results.
What will the CIAC 2026 country map look like?
The official CIAC schedule lists October 10 for the 2026 results announcement. The 2024–2025 comparison gives readers several questions to carry into that reveal.
Can Indonesia sustain its broad presence near the top? Will China place another pair of works on the podium? Will Vietnam and Brazil build on their three Top 30 places? And which community will introduce a creator whose work makes us stop scrolling?
Which country's aquascapers will you be following most closely in CIAC 2026—and which creator would you recommend exploring on AquaRank? Share your choice in the comments.
Country totals and percentages are AquaLibs' calculations from the published ranking tables. Percentages use 30 as the denominator and are rounded to one decimal where needed. Country assignment follows the table for the edition, including Argentina for Raúl Gargallo in 2025; a current profile's nationality is not used to reassign a historical result. This feature covers the Aquascaping Group only.
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