joshuashih1
Community Member
The History of Fish keeping fish
In the Roman Empire, the first fish that were brought indoors was the sea barbel, these fish where kept in marble tanks under guest beds. In 50 AD, Glass panels were introduced, and let the romans have one side of there fish tanks clear, this improved their view of the fish. In 1369 a Chinese empeor, named Hóngwǔ, established a company that produced large porcelain tubs for maintaining goldfish. As time went on people started to make tubs that started to look more like modern fish bowls. In 1836 after the invention of the Wardin case, Dr. Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward wanted to use the tanks for tropical animals. He started out with aquatic plants and toy fish, but he soon had real animals. Félix Dujardin, in 1838 wrote that he owned a saltwater fish tank, although he did not say directly that it was a saltwater fish tank. Anne Thynne kept stony corals and seaweed in 1846 for about 3 years. She was then credited for having the first successful aquarium in London. At about the same time a guy by the name of Robert Warington created one of the first stable aquariums using a 13 gallon container and kept goldfish, eelgrass, and snails in it. In 1850 he wrote down his findings in the Chemical Society's journal. Keeping fish in aquariums became a popular hobby. In he UK keeping fish in aquariums became popular after ornate aquariums in cast iron frames where displayed in he great exhibition of 1851. Philip Henry Gosse was the first person to use the term “aquarium,†using this term instead of aquatic vivarium, or aqua-vivarium in his book, The Aquarium: An Unveiling of he Wonders of the Deep Sea, This book was written in 1854 and talked mostly about saltwater fish tank. Fish tanks became a fad in the UK during the 1850s and the tank designs and techniques for maintaining water quality were developed by Warington, later cooperating with Gosse until his critical review of the tank water composition. In 1858 Edward Edwards developed the glass-fronted aquarium and got it patented under the name dark-water-chamber lope-back tank, with water circulating to a reservoir beneath. in 1854 an anonymous auther published to articles about the saltwater aquariam of the United Kingdom: Die Gartenlaube (the Garden house) and Der Ocean auf dem Tische The Ocean on the Table). But in 1856 Der See im glase (The Lake in a glass) was published, discussing freshwater aquariums, which where much easier to maintain in landlocked areas. In germany during the 1870s some of the first aquarium societies were appearing in Germany. And the United soon fallowed. In 1858 Henry D. Butler’s book The Family Aquarium was one of the first books written in the United States solely about the aquarium. The first aquarium society in The United States was founded in New York City in 1893, and others fallowed. The worlds first aquarium magazine was published in October 1876 and was called The New York Aquarium journal. During the Victorian era in the United Kingdom most people (not all, but most) of the people who had a fish tank in there home had one that had wood sides, (the wood was made watertight using a pitch coating) a glass front and was heated from the bottom. Soon there where more designs like, all glass tanks in mettle frames. in the latter half of the 19th century people started to experiment with new fish tank designs, like hanging fish tanks on the wall or making it part of a window or even part of a bird cage. The first mechanical aquarium air pump, and was powered by running water instead of using electricity. A lot of people believed that the invention of the air pump was a pivotal moment in the hobby. After world war I people started to have electricity and this made more people have fish tanks. This allowed for artificial lighting, aeration, filtration, and heating the water. In the United States, as of 1996, aquarium keeping is the second-most popular hobby after stamp collecting. in 1999, their were an estimated 9.6 million US households owned an aquarium. between 2005 and 2006 the National Pet Owners Survey reported that Americans own approximately 139 million freshwater fish and 9.6 million saltwater fish. In Germany it was suggested to have at least 36 million fish, and 40% maintain 2 or more tanks. Today you can get many different types of tanks in many different sizes and shapes, and with modern technology fish keeping has never before been easer
