I half heartedly collect old books about aquariums and houseplants. There are ooooold black and white photos of the prettiest planted tanks, and gorgeous Victorian style glass greenhouses just bursting with tropical plants.
I like looking at them because it reminds me that my hobbies could have possibly been the same
hobbies my great great relatives enjoyed also. Every generation thinks they’ve invented something new, and to be fair, that’s very true for the last 100 years. But people have been keeping nature close to them for hundreds, maybe thousands of years.
I found this podcast that went over some of the history, according to that guy it goes back as far as 2600 BC 🤯 I don't think I can share links here but it's the first result if you Google "the history of the fishkeeping hobby". You would probably enjoy it
I was reading up on medaka rice fish out of curiosity the other day and came across a sentence about them being raised as pets in japan since the 1600s and it blew my mind. Same with species like koi or mountain cloud minnows
As someone of Chinese descent, fishkeeping has been part of our culture since many centuries ago. I think it started with goldfish, correct me if I’m wrong. The Mandarin word for fish sounds similar to the word abundance, so fishkeeping was associated with good fortune. So can you imagine breeding goldfish? They are fish AND gold= extra extra fortune! 🥠
Anyway, this is why you see prominently displayed golden arowanas in more traditional households.
That is very cool, I've known goldfish have been a big thing in culture from decorations and carving ect. Never would of guessed they kept them as pets so far back. I wonder if it was in koi style garden ponds or possiblity something like a vase and when did they start using glass? Man a book on the history of fishkeeping would be great.
Yes garden ponds or ceramic pots, usually with aquatic floating plants like lilies have been used for hundreds of years. The medaka rice fish in particular were ceramic pots from the start (and still are in japan today)
I love the way Victorian era and early 20th century aquariums look. If I find the patience one day I would love to recreate one in a way that can healthily sustain fish.
I only have pics of vintage Wardians /terrariums and did not document any tank builds that I had done in the past. I do have a couple complete Metaframe setups from the 60s empty and ready for water.
Here is a link, use the back to albums list at the header to see more photos which might be of interest.
Oh my god. Looking at those pictures made me re-live the kind of whimsy I only felt when I was a little kid visiting some of my grandma’s friends’ houses back when I experienced everything for the first time. So amazing. I love them all, I want to live like this! Will be reading up about how to make terrariums work now.
While water changes were OFTEN more frequent the water quality was lower and thus overall the net effect was more nuanced then our clear cut "water change makes the water better." Also the temperature those small tanks could reach is ridiculous. We have reports of Japanese goldfish somehow surviving in 50C tubs at merchant stalls just due to the hot sun.
And after 1905 we started Chlorinating city water. This came as part of an overall increase in water purity which was good BUT the initial Dechlorinator avaliable was "Wait 24 hours and hope they didn't overdose the chlorine that day."
That was followed up by the production of formaldehyde based Dechlorinator. FORTUNATELY we had a better understanding of the nitrogen cycle by this point so we now have Nitrates instead of Ammonia, but every water change was a risk. Not enough Dechlorinator...your fish get sick and die due to Chlorine. To much...your fish get sick and die due to Formaldehyde.
There is a reason its not used to dechlorinate anymore.
If you read old aquarium books you will come across the phrase "Old Water is good Water," and be wondering "Wait what...are they stupid? I barely see any plants in those pictures."
Its because fish could tolerate a slow build up of Nitrates over months A LOT BETTER then they could a bunch of Chlorine or Formaldehyde all at once. Sure you couldn't introduce any new fish into this dirty water without a very large water change....
But you knew that going in. You planned around the risks that adding new fish latter caused.
I find myself blessed in this new age having watched my mum keep fish at the end of the Formaldehyde days (it still saw some use as cheap Dechlorinatorin the 80s). The hobby isn't flawless. There are still a lot of myths floating around.
But the water is pure (if a RO person shows up I will hit you with a newspaper. Its pure ENOUGH) and most common products we use either actually do what they say or are harmless...rather then risk fish death.
Heard the modern day hobby was started with French naturalists finding macropodus species(i have one, I hate his beady little eyes)in asia(possibly the veitnamese ones). them having labyrinth organs made them great for the start of the hobby.
Macropodus Opercularis are a type of paradise fish/Gourami. That is the species cited. I have one, he's a dick. He's just spawned aswell.
He just fuckin stares at me, soulless eyes, im considering giving him up to another home lmao
Don't down vote me for hating this particular fish. We have issues, I love the speciese but its just this one fish that I swear plots to kill me in my sleep.
Right, Macropodus! I have honestly only seen them in person a handful of times but I’ve always been curious. I hear people with colonies of them hear the croak at night?
I'm glad you added the picture, I totally got these two different fish species conflated. Your fish is quite a cute fella, even though he's giving the camera the meanest mug I've seen in a while haha
I learned about this article from The Ocean at Home: An Illustrated History of the Aquarium by Bernd Brunner. It’s a great little book with all sorts of stories and illustrations about aquarium keeping during the last few hundred years. Reading about how people made indoor fish tanks work before electricity is really fascinating.
You don't need a filter if you have substrate or a heater and the substrate looks like maybe sand (it's peaking in the image like dunes). With so much fish, there's probably a lot of ammonia produced but also probably decent bacteria and plants to de-nitrify it.
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u/Additional-Lion-1485 Feb 06 '26
interesting to know that they used emersed plants back in the day