Aquarium

An aquarium is a type of vivarium that has at least one clear side, used for displaying and keeping aquatic animals or plants. The word was created by the English naturalist Philip Henry Gosse, who merged the Latin *aqua*, meaning "water," with the suffix *-arium*, which denotes a place connected to something.

The fundamental concept behind the aquarium was fully worked out in 1850 by the chemist Robert Warington. He demonstrated that aquatic plants in a water container could generate enough oxygen to sustain animals, provided the animal population stayed small. This idea sparked a craze in early Victorian England, led by Gosse. He established the first public aquarium at the London Zoo in 1853 and published the first manual on the subject in 1854. Hobbyists keep small aquariums at home, while many cities feature large public aquariums. These public facilities house fish and other aquatic life in big tanks, sometimes including otters, dolphins, sharks, penguins, seals, and whales. Many aquarium tanks also contain plants.

A person who maintains an aquarium or keeps fish is called an aquarist. Tanks are usually made of glass or high-strength acrylic. Those with flat walls are known as fish tanks or simply tanks, while ones with rounded walls are called fish bowls. Sizes range from small glass bowls holding a few liters to massive public aquariums holding thousands of liters. Specialized equipment is used to maintain proper water quality and other conditions for the tank's inhabitants.

The history of keeping aquatic life in containers goes back centuries. In 1369, the Hongwu Emperor of China set up a porcelain company that made large porcelain tubs for keeping goldfish; over time, these tubs evolved into shapes similar to modern fish bowls. In 1666, Leonhard Baldner wrote a book in which he described keeping weather loaches and newts. Some believe the Romans invented the aquarium, supposedly keeping sea barbels in marble-and-glass tanks, but scholars doubt this claim.

In the nineteenth century, the French marine biologist Jeanne Villepreux-Power created the first aquaria for scientific experiments in 1832. Her work led to discoveries, including the first direct proof that argonauts (a type of marine cephalopod) make their own shells. In 1836, Dr. Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward, after inventing the Wardian case, suggested using his tanks for tropical animals. He did so in 1841, initially with only aquatic plants and toy fish, but soon added real animals. In 1838, Félix Dujardin noted that he owned a saltwater aquarium, though he did not use that term. In 1846, Anne Thynne kept stony corals and seaweed for nearly three years and was recognized as the creator of the first balanced marine aquarium in London. Robert Warington experimented with a 13-gallon container holding goldfish, eelgrass, and snails, creating one of the first stable aquaria. He fully developed the principle that plants could provide enough oxygen for animals, as long as the animals were not too numerous, and published his findings in 1850.

Keeping fish in aquariums quickly became a popular hobby. In the United Kingdom, ornate cast-iron frame aquariums were displayed at the Great Exhibition of 1851, boosting their popularity. The aquarium craze took off in England in 1853, thanks to the work of Philip Henry Gosse, who is called the "Father of the Aquarium." He created and stocked the first public aquarium at the London Zoo, originally called the Fish House. This facility was referred to by various names, such as "Vivarium" and "Aquavivarium," but eventually the word "aquarium" stuck—a term Gosse coined and used as the title of his 1854 book. That book mainly discussed saltwater aquariums. The peak of the aquarium movement in Britain lasted from 1853 to 1860. Warington developed tank designs and methods for maintaining water quality, later working with Gosse until a critical review of tank water composition. Edward Edwards patented a glass-fronted aquarium in 1858 that featured a "dark-water-chamber slope-back tank" with water slowly circulating to a reservoir below.

In Germany, Emil Adolf Rossmässler, influenced by Gosse, promoted the educational value of aquariums. He wrote about it in an 1855 article and in his 1857 book *Das Susswasser-Aquarium*, which focused on freshwater aquariums, which were easier to maintain inland. In 1862, William Alford Lloyd, bankrupt after the English craze ended, moved to Hamburg to oversee the installation of the circulating system and tanks at the Hamburg Aquarium. By the 1870s, some of the first aquarium societies were forming in Germany, and the United States soon followed. Henry D. Butler's *The Family Aquarium*, published in 1858, was one of the first American books solely about aquariums. That same year, *The North American Review* noted that William Stimson may have owned some of the first functional aquariums, possibly as many as seven or eight. Henry Bishop, a Baltimore bird and fish dealer known as the "Goldfish King," is credited with revolutionizing the hobby.