In clear water hundreds of multicoloured fish swim around among plants and grass. This scene is taking place within the tanks of Renature house, a natural aquarium shop that provides aquatic micro-environments for offices, houses, shops and private rooms.

Ms Kong Bopha, general manager of Renature, showed us around the shop and explained the concept of creating this beautiful scenery.

“We create many types of aquarium tanks with high technology that come the closest to the reality of nature. These hundreds of fish are alive, the grass is real, the big and small plants are alive – the soil and stone are not alive but they also come from nature,” Kong said. “Everything in these tanks is a real piece of our world.”

“Our company was created by a Japanese man, who loves and like the nature as his life. His name is Akihiro Onishi, he used to spend his lifetime in a forest in Japan for many years until he experienced the disaster of the tsunami. He then came to Cambodia after hearing information friends told him about the beautiful nature here.”

“His concept of creating this aquarium shop comes from the desire to bring the nature closer to people and remind the people that we must always consider nature,” she said.

“Our shop is the first aquarium shop in Phnom Penh,” Kong said. We design everything to satisfy the needs of people who love nature. We create living beauty with a touch of class. One could say, by loving little creatures, one stands with nature.”

The simple tanks start out as small as 60 centimetre bowls and are as large as 1.8 metres across.

“In our shop, we have over 40 types of fish, many of them imported from Japan and the neighbouring countries such as Vietnam and Thailand. The fish from Japan are very expensive, but they are very beautiful,” Kong said. “Now, we breed the fish here. We sell one small fish – about one centimetre long – for two dollars.”

Kong explained that there are over 20 types of plants and grass available at Renature, most of them imported from Japan as well. The prices for aquatic grasses and plants start at five dollars. Also imported from Japan, soil costs between six and seven dollars per kilogram.

“Beside the aquarium tank, fish, grass and plants, we also have food and medicine for fish. Other things we do include providing maintenance services for every aquarium or to make custom designs.”

Renature has a variety of high-quality aquarium products that includes: fish, glass tanks, lighting system, filters, water grass, rocks, soil and more. The shop is located at No 35, Street 288, Boeung Keng Kang I and can be reached by telephone at 883 335 338