Listening to Saint-Saenz’s Carnival of the Animals: Aquarium got me thinking: I know that you have to continually pump air into an aquarium so the fish don’t suffocate. This is accomplished through an electric pump that you can buy at Petsmart for a few bucks.
How was this accomplished in Saint-Saenz’s day and before? Are there fish that can be expected to survive in an aquarium without constant aeration? Did you just pay a servant to continually pump a bellows?
It’s not absolutely required to pump air into an aquarium to “prevent suffocation” just some water disturbance to help mix air with the water. Many books and online guides will tell you, the bubbles just look pretty, gas exchange, adequate for the need of fish, happens at the water’s surface. More water, and more disturbance, and lower temperatures means you can pack more fish into the area, but trial and error will teach people the limitations of their tank.
According to historical legend, the hanging gardens of Babylon did use slaves to pump water up to the top of the terraces, to allow it to flow down, so yeah, there’s no reason a slave couldn’t do this work, or even other people, they’d have to work in shifts, anyway.
Goldfish can survive in water without constant turbulence.
As Arkcon says, the gas exchange happens at the water surface. All that is needed is to keep the surface moving so that a film barrier does not form.
It only looks like the pump is putting air in the water, it is accomplishing aeration by keeping the surface moving. Other types of water filters suck water through the filter and pour it back over the top of the tank, resulting in few bubbles but aerating just as well.
Saint-Saens lived from 1835 to 1921. Calling him “ancient” is a bit off the mark.
It wasn’t at all unusual to have aquaria without pumps – one of my boyhood books on keepinf wild animals told you about doing so, especially if you’re not raising fish. Of course, people keeping goldfish or bettas often don’t use a pump – they just change the water frequently.
By the way, there probably really weren’t many “ancient” aquaria, in the sense we know the word. Stephen Jay Gould did a very interesting column in Natural History (later collected into one of his many books) about the 19th century craze for keeping an aquarium, and how it probably lead to a change in the way we visualized and depicted sea life. Before them, sea creatures were depicted on shore, out of the water. After the craze, people started drawing sea life underwater, as it appears when you go diving, or as it appears through the wall of an aquarium.
I believe aquatic plants generate oxygen, so you could have a sealed aquarium if there was light to keep the plants alive. In fact they sell such things with snails or small shrimp in them… so an air pump is definately not a requirement.