Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Aquarium |
AquariumNoun1. A tank or pool or bowl filled with water for keeping live fish and underwater animals. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "aquarium" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1870. (references) |
Etymology: Aquarium \A*qua"ri*um\, noun; plural English Aquariums, from Latin expression Aquaria. [Latin expression See Aquarius, Ewer.]. (references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
An aquarium is a glass-sided container in which water-dwelling plants and animals (usually fish) are kept in captivity. The term is also used of a public establishment that maintains a large number of aquatic species in captivity, much as a zoo does for land animals.
Aquarium Hobby
In 1665 the diarist Samuel Pepys recorded seeing in London "a fine rarity, of fishes kept in a glass of water, that will live so forever, and finely marked they are, being foreign." Rather than goldfish, the fish were more likely to have been Paradisefish, 'Macropodus opercularis', a familiar garden fish in Canton, China, where the East India Company was trading. In the 18th century, the biologist Abraham Trembley kept hydra found in the garden canals of the Bentinck residence Sorgvliet, Netherlands, in large cyndrical glass vessels for study. But the keeping of fish in an aquarium first became a popular hobby in Britain after ornate aquaria in cast-iron frames were featured at the Great Exhibition of 1851 The framed-glass aquarium was a development of the glazed Wardian case developed for British horticulturists in the 1830s, to protect exotic plants on long sea voyages. Germans rivalled the British in their interest, and by the turn of the century Hamburg became the European port of entry for many newly-seen species.
Aquaria became more widely popular as houses became almost universally electrified after World War I. With electricity they no longer depended on natural light and could be aerated and filtered. During the earlier twentieth century many species of small colorful tropical fish were caught and exported from Manaus, Brazil, Bangkok, Siam, Jakarta, Dutch East Indies, Calcutta, India and other tropical ports. After Betta splendens was bred in France in 1893, successful captive spawning techniques were slowly unravelled. Captive breeding for the aquarium trade is now concentrated in South Florida, Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok, with smaller industries in Hawaii, Sri Lanka.
Freshwater aquaria remain the most popular, but marine (saltwater) aquaria have gained cachet as a dedicated enthusiast's preserve. Techniques of maintaining sea-anemones, some corals and crustacea, developed since the 1980s, have made the recreations of a "mini-reef" possible. Captive breeding programs of marine organisms for the aquarium trade have been urgently in development since the mid-1990s, spurred by environmental pressures on reef environments.
Aquaria can vary in size from a small bowl temporarily large enough for a single juvenile goldfish to the huge public aquaria that can simulate entire marine ecosystems. The smallest practical size for a home aquarium is 10 gallons, with 20 gallons more often recommended. Paradoxically, larger aquarium systems are considered more stable.
With the advent of Dutch Aquariums and Takashi Amano's photographs in Natural Aquarium World, aquatic enthusiasts began to take interest in aquatic plants in the 80s or 90s. The major technological hurdle was the introduction of CO2 gas into the fish tank, both to control algae, and to provide carbon for the growth of the aquatic plants.
- Popular freshwater aquarium fish species
- Popular freshwater aquarium plant species
- Popular freshwater aquarium invertebrate species
- Popular marine aquarium fish species
- Popular marine aquarium invertebrate species
- Common aquarium diseases
Public Aquaria
The first public aquarium opened in London's Regent's Park, in 1853. P.T. Barnum quickly followed with the first American aquarium, opened on Broadway, New York. Following early examples of New York and San Francisco, many major cities have public aquaria. Most public aquariums are located close to the sea; for a steady supply of natural seawater. An inland pioneer was Chicago's Shedd Aquarium, that received seawater shipped by rail in special tank cars.
Operationally, a public aquarium is similar in many ways to a zoo or museum. A good aquarium will have special exhibits to entice repeat visitors, it may be rented out in evenings for special events, and so forth. A few have their own version of a "petting zoo"; for instance, the Monterey Bay Aquarium has a shallow tank filled with common types of rayss, and one can reach in to feel their leathery skins as they pass by.
Also as with zoos, aquaria usually have specialized research staff who study the habits and biology of their specimens. In recent years, the large aquaria have been attempting to acquire and raise various species of open-ocean fish, and even sea-jellies (cnidaria), a difficult task since these creatures have never before encountered solid surfaces like the walls of a tank, and do not have the instincts to turn aside from the walls instead of running into them.
Notable public aquaria include:
- Monterey Bay Aquarium (California)
- Two Oceans Aquarium (South Africa)
- Shedd Aquarium (Chicago)
External links
See also: List of aquaria, Marine park
- A World of Fish. The most complete aquarium site on the Internet.
- The Krib.com. The longest-running aquarium site on the Internet, with some beginner's information but emphasizing advanced practice and opinion, especially of freshwater fishes and planted aquariums.
- A good guide about how to start with a new aquarium.
- Everything you need to start your own aquarium.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Aquarium."
Synonyms: AquariumSynonyms: fish tank (n), marine museum (n), vivarium (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Husbandry | Menagerie, vivarium, zoological garden; bear pit; aviary, apiary, alveary, beehive; hive; aquarium, fishery; duck pond, fish pond. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Aquarium |
| English words defined with "aquarium": African clawed frog, Aquaria, Aquarian, Aquariums ♦ Carassius auratus, cardinal tetra ♦ dense-leaved elodea ♦ Egeria densa, Elodea densa ♦ genus Cryptocoryne, goldfish ♦ helleri ♦ jawfish ♦ killifish ♦ Marineland, mollie, molly ♦ Paracheirodon axelrodi, platy, Platypoecilus maculatus ♦ swordtail ♦ topminnow ♦ Xenopus laevis, Xyphophorus helleri. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "aquarium": AQUARIST, aquarium tank attendant ♦ COMMISSARY ASSISTANT, commissary helper ♦ Debt ♦ Fish Diseases, food preparer ♦ GUIDE, ESTABLISHMENT, guide, tour ♦ Pleurodeles ♦ ZOO VETERINARIAN. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Aquarium" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Dutch (aquarium), French (aquarium, tank), German (aquarium). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Clever | Too many Christians are no longer fishers of men but keepers of the aquarium. (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | National Fisheries Center and Aquarium (1967) Rare Fish in the Aquarium (1899) Aquarium (1896) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books | |||
Periodicals | |||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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High Tech |
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Consumer Goods | |||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Whale sculptures grace the fountain at the Birch Aquarium. Credit: America's Coastlines. |  | Fish art - a sculpture of an octopus at the Roanoke Island Aquarium. Credit: America's Coastlines. |
 | Glenn Page, the Conservation Director for the National Aquarium in Baltimore, instructs volunteers in planting techniques and in using a dibble. Credit: NOAA Restoration Center. |  | Weeks Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. A brown shrimp in an aquarium. Credit: National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERR). |
 | In a rickshaw, at the Tsingtao Aquarium, Tsingtao, China, November 1945. At that time he was Executive Officer of USS Greenwich Bay (AVP-41). The officer in the other rickshaw is not identified. Credit: NAVY. |  | Aquarium and statue of Verrazzano, Battery Park. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Aquarium, Belle Isle Park, Detroit, Mich. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | The Aquarium and conservatory, Belle Isle Park, Detroit, Mich. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Interior of aquarium, Belle Isle, Detroit, Mich. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Aquarium. Key West, Florida. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |  |
| "Aquarium" by Flying Dutchman Commentary: "Diz iz da Aquarium in Tropicarium. Sh ot by me: Dutchman." | "Aquarium" by Filipa Castro Commentary: "My little fish died yesterday ." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Business | Aquarium design experts have visited the project. (references) | |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | DEBT, n. An ingenious substitute for the chain and whip of the slave- driver. As, pent in an aquarium, the troutlet Swims round and round his tank to find an outlet, Pressing his nose against the glass that holds him, Nor ever sees the prison that enfolds him; So the poor debtor, seeing naught around him, Yet feels the narrow limits that impound him, Grieves at his debt and studies to evade it, And finds at last he might as well have paid it. Barlow S. Vode |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Aquarium" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 99.76% of the time. "Aquarium" is used about 826 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 99.76% | 824 | 8,492 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.12% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Noun (common) | 0.12% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 826 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expression using "aquarium": aquarium fish. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "aquarium": aquarium-kept, aquarium-raised, aquarium-sized. | |
Ending with "aquarium": mini-aquarium. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
aquarium | 8,093 | glass aquarium | 402 |
aquarium fish | 2,754 | aquarium screen saver | 401 |
aquarium supply | 1,539 | aquarium houston | 397 |
shedd aquarium | 1,501 | aquarium plant | 394 |
salt water aquarium | 1,493 | aquarium oklahoma | 366 |
reef aquarium | 1,451 | marine aquarium | 364 |
baltimore aquarium | 1,392 | shed aquarium | 330 |
saltwater aquarium | 1,107 | florida aquarium | 309 |
monterey bay aquarium | 895 | aquarium stands | 307 |
new england aquarium | 834 | saltwater aquarium fish | 300 |
newport aquarium | 789 | aquarium dallas | 291 |
aquarium decoration | 739 | aquarium chattanooga | 287 |
tennessee aquarium | 706 | monterey aquarium | 281 |
aquarium screensaver | 633 | freshwater aquarium fish | 276 |
aquarium ocean | 606 | freshwater aquarium | 263 |
long beach aquarium | 598 | aquarium vancouver | 249 |
mystic aquarium | 571 | seattle aquarium | 249 |
aquarium of the pacific | 509 | ripleys aquarium | 245 |
aquarium tank | 491 | aquarium national | 243 |
boston aquarium | 426 | aquarium filter | 236 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "aquarium"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | akwarium. (various references) | |
Albanian | akuarium (tank). (various references) | |
Arabic | مؤسسة تحفظ المجموعات المائية, حوض السمك, المربي المائي. (various references) | |
Basque | arrainontzi. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | аквариум. (various references) | |
Chinese | 水族馆 (Aquaria, Aquariums). (various references) | |
Czech | akvárium. (various references) | |
Danish | akvarium. (various references) | |
Dutch | aquarium. (various references) | |
Esperanto | akvario. (various references) | |
Farsi | نمایشگاه جانوران وگیاهان ابزی , ابزیگاه , ابزیدان . (various references) | |
Finnish | akvaario (tank). (various references) | |
French | aquarium. (various references) | |
German | Aquarium. (various references) | |
Greek | ενυδρείο. (various references) | |
Hebrew | אקוריון, אקוריום. (various references) | |
Hungarian | akvárium (vivarium). (various references) | |
Icelandic | fiskabúr. (various references) | |
Indonesian | akuarium. (various references) | |
Italian | acquario (Aquarius). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 水族館 . (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | すいぞくかん. (various references) | |
Korean | 수족관 (Aquaria, Aquariums). (various references) | |
Manx | ushteydane. (various references) | |
Occitan | aquari. (various references) | |
Papiamen | akuario. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | aquariumay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | aquário (vivarium). (various references) | |
Romanian | acvariu. (various references) | |
Russian | аквариум (aquaria, fish tank, fishbowl). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | akvarijum. (various references) | |
Spanish | acuario (Aquarius). (various references) | |
Swedish | akvarium. (various references) | |
Thai | พิพิธภัณฑ์สัตว์น้ำ, ตู้ปลา. (various references) | |
Turkish | akvaryum (fish tank). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | акваріум. (various references) | |
Welsh | pysgoty, pysgodlyn. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "aquarium": aquariums. (additional references) | |
| |
"Aquarium" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Acarigua, acquarium, Agyrium, Akaruru, Akwapim, aqarium, aquairium, aquairum, aquaium, aquari, aquarias, Aquarii, Aquario, aquarism, aquarius, aquaticum, aquirium, aqurium, aurium, Isurium, quarium, sacrarium. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "aquarium" (pronounced ukwe"rēum) |
| 5 | -e" r ē u m | barium, planetarium, Herbarium, honorarium. |
| 4 | -r ē u m | atrium, auditorium, bacterium, moratorium, opprobrium, crematorium, delirium, deuterium, disequilibrium, emporium, equilibrium, tellurium, thorium, yttrium. |
| 3 | -ē u m | alluvium, ammonium, axiom, beryllium, medium, millennium, minium, myocardium, nephridium, neptunium, niobium, nobelium, opium, osmium, palladium, pandemonium, paramecium, petroleum, Plasmodium, plutonium, podium, polonium, potassium, premium, presidium, promethium, protium, psyllium, radium, cadmium, calcium, cesium, chromium, colloquium, compendium, condominium, consortium, europium, fermium, gallium, geranium, gonium, gymnasium, hafnium, harmonium, helium, holmium, idiom, indium, iridium, lawrencium, linoleum, lithium, magnesium, requiem, rhodium, selenium, sodium, stadium, strontium, superpremium, symposium, tedium, thallium, titanium, tritium, uranium, vanadium, zirconium. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-i-m-q-r-u-u" | |
-3 letters: aurum, maqui, maria, umiaq. | |
-4 letters: amia, amir, aqua, aria, arum, aura, maar, mair, mura, quai, raia, rami. | |
-5 letters: aim, air, ama, ami, amu, arm, mar, mir, qua, ram, ria, rim, rum. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-a-i-m-q-r-u-u" | |
+1 letter: aquariums. | |
+5 letters: quadrumvirate. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Quotations: Non-fiction 10. Usage Frequency 11. Expressions 12. Expressions: Internet | 13. Translations: Modern 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
