How aquarium got its name Interesting short historical article

[Guppysnail]

https://www.zsl.org/blogs/artefact-of-the-month/the-fish-house-at-zsl-london-zoo-the-first-public-aquarium

Edited September 27, 2021 by Guppysnail

[Atitagain]

I say we bring back the phrase “Aquatic Vivarium” aquarium is what is awkward and uncouth IMO

That is neat, those old aquatic vivariums are super cool looking. And only using natural light. I wonder how filtration was done?

[Chris]

On 9/27/2021 at 8:58 AM, Atitagain said:

I say we bring back the phrase “Aquatic Vivarium” aquarium is what is awkward and uncouth IMO

That is neat, those old aquatic vivariums are super cool looking. And only using natural light. I wonder how filtration was done?

There's a great thread here by @Daniel that goes into an older tank like this in depth. He targeted the early 20th century, not the 19th, but it seems to be a fairly similar idea.

I'd check out one of the books mentioned, too - The Complete Aquarium Book by William T. Innes. It's a great read, and is available here on the forum for free.

[Atitagain]

On 9/27/2021 at 11:28 AM, Chris said:

There's a great thread here by @Daniel that goes into an older tank like this in depth. He targeted the early 20th century, not the 19th, but it seems to be a fairly similar idea.

I'd check out one of the books mentioned, too - The Complete Aquarium Book by William T. Innes. It's a great read, and is available here on the forum for free.

Great thank you, I started reading this a while back and got side tracked, will pick it up again.

[GameCzar]

"He included detailed instructions for readers wanting to make their own aquarium with an account of his own difficulties and experiences in establishing successful aquaria."

I'd love to see what his instructions were!

[Torrey]

On 9/27/2021 at 6:58 AM, Atitagain said:

And only using natural light. I wonder how filtration was done?

Lots, and lots of plants, plus deep substrates.

I wish my leatherbound book had survived the fire, it had really neat plate prints and diagrams giving proportions.

Of course, not as many fish or plant species were available...

[Odd Duck]

On 9/27/2021 at 4:59 AM, Guppysnail said:

https://www.zsl.org/blogs/artefact-of-the-month/the-fish-house-at-zsl-london-zoo-the-first-public-aquarium

Nice find!  Love the pics and if I’m guessing right those are good sized tanks, might be up to 400 gallon?  I’m comparing the height of the person in the outside pic to the panels.  Assuming the trio of panels visible on the outside are between 5.5’ to 6’ square, and the inside of the panels are the same and there’s no wall between them and the outside wall.  Then the tanks appear to be centered at close to average eye level (you wouldn’t want people bending over much and bumping butts in the Victorian era) so the stands are quite tall.  That could put the visible tanks close to 3’ tall, 3 feet deep, and 6’ long.  Even if they’re only 30” x 30” x 60” they’re 230 gallons.  Wish there was a pic with a person viewing the tanks.