I’ve always felt bad for fish. Not just in that they’re fish, but that all those in captivity (and many in the wild) just spend all day swimming in circles. Take that great video of the enormous aquarium in Okinawa — there’s a freaking whale shark in there, used to cruising the ocean; now, even in the second-biggest aqua-enclosure in the world, it’s essentially doing laps. If only they had made a gigantic labyrinth aquarium like this one, the whale shark and its weird-looking friends might actually have somewhere to go.
Its little compartments and passageways are more suited to tetras and goldfish than whale sharks (alas), but it’s still an awfully cool little thing. Technically, the fish would have more places to go in a big cube of the same measurements, but that’s mostly open water, and I think we have all seen how much fish like to lick the sides of their enclosures.
Unfortunately, at $6500 it’s rather a luxury — not that you wouldn’t guess that, since it’s sold at a shop called “Opulent Items.” Add to that the cost of retaining a full time aquarium-scrubber, since the thing would be unbelievably hard to keep clean, and the cost really starts to skyrocket. I guess the question is whether your fish are worth it? I wish mine were.
[via 7gadgets, I New Idea, and Unpluggd]
The video of the whale shark in the aquarium was very cool, thank you for that.
While this Labyrinth aquarium is really interesting and makes a good conversation piece; it would be a maintenance and filtration nightmare.
This is aspect I would object more to rather than the “caging” of the fish, as well cared for fish that interact with their owners often live longer more stimulating lives than their wild counter parts. However placing fish in a cramped tube like this with hopelessly flawed filtration does not provide the fish a chance for long term health and stimulation.
Very true. If they can work out the technical aspect, it’d be nice for fish to have a few different zones to be in though.
This thing looks like a another piece of marketing junk.
How about spending $100 on a nice big 75 gallon aquarium that actually works instead of this algae magnet, hamster maze wannabe.
I have a hard enough time cleaning my existing systems. This would be a nightmare. I’d also love to see why they feel that tens of dollars worth of product should be sold for thousands. I hate when people try to pillage the hobbyists!
David Perry