Lots of people think a living room (or a doctor’s office) has to have an aquarium with fish floating in it.
When did this stupid idea become common?
Did anybody keep home aquariums in, say, 1945? or 1925? 1905?
How did this ever get started? It wouldn’t work in a log cabin of 1860, or a British aristocrat’s manor house of 1895.You need electricity.
You have to set up an entire ecosystem—oxygen, vacuum pumps, air filtration, temperature control, chemical treatments, etc, etc, etc.It’s a lot of hard work.
And somehow, millions of people think this is normal, and even enjoyable. (including my wife, who insists on “sharing the fun” of this apparently wonderful hobby.As if it is a natural thing to want to stare at fish, when we could be doing something important, like watching football, changing the spark plugs, filling out the sports lottery form, or having sex. )
Keeping a home aquarium was quite fashionable among the Victorian gentry. Natural history enthusiasts all.
To keep the tank cleaned and aerated all you need is a staff of domestic servants, one or more of whom can be tasked with the pouring of the water from one container to another (for the aeration).
An aquarium can be quite relaxing, depending on your tastes/attitudes toward such. I have had a several from about 1949 thru 1965 or so. Different tanks and different species. Angel fish are the most majestic, slow moving and good visual accompaniment to classical music.
As far back as I can remember 1928 or thereabouts gold fish were sold at the five and dime in a glass globe for a modest price.
The exotic tropical fish craze probably started sometime shortly following the close of WII.
I sense that you definitely have a negative attitude toward fish pets.
Remember what the farmer said when he kissed the cow, “Every man to his own taste.”
Dr Fidelius nailed it. I know this because Stephen Jay Gould devoted one of his “Natual History” columns on it. Interestingly, the fad in aquariums changed the way they illustrated sea life in books and magazines. Before aquariums became popular, sea life was depicted as lying on rocks, washed up on shore, or protruding from the ocean. After aquariums, they started drawing fish and other sea life the way you’d see it in the ocean – the way you see it when looking through the side of an aquarium. The way we take it for grantede, nowadays.