60 Fun Facts About Aquariums

Which English naturalist coined the word 'aquarium'?

He combined the Latin aqua with -arium and used it as the title of his 1854 book.

In which city did the first public aquarium open, in May 1853?

The London Zoo's Fish House was built much like a greenhouse.

Which showman opened the first American aquarium in 1856 as part of his Broadway museum?

Barnum's American Museum later burned down; Boston's Aquarial Gardens followed in 1859.

Which chemist showed in 1850 that plants in a container make enough oxygen for animals?

His experimental 13-gallon jar held goldfish, eelgrass and snails, one of the first stable aquaria.

Which French marine biologist created the first experimental aquaria in 1832?

Working in Sicily, she used them to prove that the argonaut makes its own shell rather than borrowing one.

Which Chinese emperor set up a porcelain works in 1369 to make goldfish tubs?

Over time the tubs came to approach the shape of the modern fish bowl.

Which 1851 event helped make cast-iron-framed aquaria popular in Britain?

The British aquarium craze peaked between 1853 and 1860.

Where was the world's first magazine for the fish-keeping hobby launched, in October 1876?

The first US aquarist society followed in New York City in 1893.

What powered the first mechanical aquarium air pump, invented around 1908?

Historians of the hobby regard the arrival of the air pump as a pivotal moment.

What material finally allowed all-glass, frameless aquariums in the 1960s?

Metal frames had made marine tanks almost impossible because of corrosion.

Which Japanese aquascaper made hobbyists treat home tanks as artistic compositions?

His planted 'nature aquarium' style spread worldwide in the late 20th century.

What delicate animals is a kreisel tank, with its slow circular flow, designed to hold?

Kreisel is German for spinning top; the design also suits newborn seahorses.

What is a 'Macquarium'?

Coffee tables, sinks and even toilets have also been turned into tanks.

Roughly what does one litre of aquarium water weigh?

That is why most home aquaria top out around one cubic metre, weighing about a tonne.

What toxic compound do fish excrete that nitrifying bacteria must convert in a tank?

Bacteria turn it into nitrite, itself highly toxic, and then into far less harmful nitrate.

What is a freshly set-up aquarium's water-quality trouble, before bacteria establish, called?

Cures include the fishless cycle, the silent cycle with fast-growing plants, and slow stocking.

A coral aquarium of under about 40 litres is known by what name?

The very smallest, around 10 litres or less, are sometimes called pico reefs.

What usually provides the primary biological filtration in a reef aquarium?

Aquacultured rock from Florida is now an alternative to rock taken from wild reefs.

Which theme park in Hengqin, Zhuhai, is the world's largest aquarium by water volume?

It holds 48.75 million litres and opened in 2014.

Which US city is home to the country's largest aquarium, opened in 2005?

The Georgia Aquarium was the world's largest until 2012 and holds more than 11 million US gallons.

Which Home Depot co-founder donated $250 million to build the Georgia Aquarium?

He visited 56 aquariums in 13 countries with his wife before committing the money.

Georgia Aquarium's whale sharks were named after characters from which TV sitcom?

Ralph, Norton, Alice and Trixie were bought from Taiwan's annual fishing quota.

Which corporation donated the land on which the Georgia Aquarium stands?

The site sits just north of Centennial Olympic Park.

What was Monterey Bay Aquarium the first to exhibit when it opened in 1984?

Its biologists also pioneered the care of jellies, and it was the first to display a great white shark.

Monterey Bay Aquarium was built on the site of what kind of former factory?

The Hovden Cannery closed in 1973 and its revival helped regenerate Cannery Row.

Which tech co-founder's family funded Monterey Bay Aquarium?

His daughters Nancy Burnett and Julie Packard were among the planners; he gave an initial $7 million.

What sustainable-fish advisory list has Monterey Bay Aquarium published since 1999?

The aquarium's research also focuses on sea otters, seabirds and tunas.

How did Chicago's inland Shedd Aquarium get seawater for its 1930 opening?

Twenty tank cars made eight round trips to deliver a million gallons.

How old was Granddad, the Shedd's Australian lungfish, when he died in 2017?

He had arrived from Sydney in 1933 for the Century of Progress world's fair.

John G. Shedd, who gifted Chicago its aquarium, was a protégé of which retail magnate?

Shedd saw only the architect's first drawings; his widow Mary cut the ribbon in 1930.

How thick is the acrylic panel of the Kuroshio Sea tank at Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium?

The tank holds 7.5 million litres and was the world's largest until Georgia opened in 2005.

What does 'chura' mean in the Okinawan name Churaumi, chosen by public vote?

Umi is Japanese for ocean; the aquarium began as the Ocean Expo Aquarium after Expo '75.

Which Japanese aquarium was the world's largest when it opened in 1990?

It hit a million visitors on its 40th day and is next to the Tempozan Ferris wheel.

The Lisbon Oceanarium, built for Expo '98, is said to resemble what?

It stands on a pier in an artificial lagoon and its main tank holds five million litres.

Which architect designed the Lisbon Oceanarium and Boston's New England Aquarium?

His Boston building, a brutalist concrete box with a cylindrical Giant Ocean Tank, opened in 1969.

Which architect designed the Aquarium of Genoa for the 1992 Columbus expo?

It is Italy's largest aquarium and sits in the city's Old Harbour.

Where was the AquaDom, the giant cylindrical tank that burst in December 2022?

About a million litres and 1,500 fish poured into the Radisson lobby and the street outside.

What record did the AquaDom hold before its collapse?

It was built from 41 bonded acrylic panels with a lift running up its centre.

In what year did the Dubai Aquarium open, together with the mall that houses it?

It holds the Guinness record for the largest shopping-mall aquarium and sprang a small leak in 2010.

Vancouver Aquarium was the second in the world to capture and display which animal?

Moby Doll was shown for a day at Burrard Dry Dock in July 1964; no orcas have been kept there since 2001.

Which country's S.E.A. Aquarium had the world's largest viewing panel until 2014?

It was the world's largest aquarium by volume when it opened in 2012 and is now the Singapore Oceanarium.

Kelly Tarlton's Auckland aquarium was built inside what disused structures?

Its curved acrylic tunnel and moving walkway were firsts; the acrylic makes fish look a third smaller.

Which British company owns the Sea Life chain of aquariums?

The first Sea Life Centre opened in Oban, Scotland, in 1979.

Cape Town's Two Oceans Aquarium is named for the meeting of which two oceans?

It opened at the V&A Waterfront in 1995 and has a kelp forest exhibit used by rockhopper penguins.

Ripley's Aquarium of Canada sits beside which Toronto landmark?

It opened in October 2013 after plans for Niagara Falls fell through.

L'Oceanogràfic, Europe's largest aquarium complex, is in which Spanish city?

It forms part of the City of Arts and Sciences and holds 42 million litres of water.

The National Aquarium in Baltimore opened in 1981 in which redeveloped district?

It is the largest tourism attraction in Maryland with about 1.5 million visitors a year.

Vancouver Aquarium was the first to employ what kind of staff full-time in its galleries?

Gosse and colleagues had held open-house talks at the Fish House, but not as full-time staff.

Which 17th-century author of a 'Bird, Fish and Animal Book' kept weather loaches and newts?

The Romans are sometimes said to have kept sea barbels in marble-and-glass tanks, but scholars doubt it.

In which decade did acrylic aquariums first become available to the public?

Early acrylic yellowed in light before UV stabilisation; today glass is standard up to about 1,000 litres and acrylic scratches can be polished out.

Victorian glass aquariums often had bottoms of slate or steel. Why?

Their glass panels were set in metal frames and sealed with putty, a style sold until silicone took over in the mid-1960s.

Below what salinity, in parts per million, is aquarium water classed as fresh?

Brackish tanks run from 500 to 30,000 ppm and seawater from 30,000 to 40,000 ppm.

Why can aquarists no longer simply let tap water stand for a day before using it?

Commercial water conditioners now remove chlorine or chloramine; some hobbyists go further with reverse osmosis.

What is the average temperature of a typical tropical aquarium?

Consistency matters more than range, since sudden temperature swings shock fish and invite disease.

By one common stocking rule of thumb, how much water does each inch of small freshwater fish need?

The metric version is 3 cm of fish per 4 litres; experts warn the rules ignore growth, activity and waste output.

Which extreme example does Wikipedia give of a fish needing a single-species 'specimen tank'?

Community tanks mix peaceful species from different regions, while aggressive tanks hold cichlids and the like.

Which African rift lakes are among the most popular biotope aquarium themes?

Other favourites are the Amazon and Rio Negro and the reefs of Australia, the Red Sea and the Caribbean.

Singapore's Marine Life Park, the world's second-largest aquarium, holds about how much water?

It houses over 100,000 animals of more than 800 species, just behind Chimelong Ocean Kingdom's 48.75 million litres.

How long was the acrylic tunnel Kelly Tarlton built in Auckland in 1985, the first of its kind?

One-tonne slabs of German plastic were oven-shaped locally; school groups now hold sleepovers beneath the sharks.

How many days did Monterey Bay Aquarium keep its first great white shark in 2004-05, a record?

The previous record was just 16 days; the shark was released on 31 March 2005.