Aquatics in Europe

The exact time at which animals were first maintained in transparent containers can not be determined precisely. The English diarist Samuel Pepys, in 1665, recorded in his memoirs that in London he had seen fish that were kept alive in a glass of water.

Most likely this is referring to goldfish. Also known as paradise fish, they were introduced by the trade from the East India Company in Canton, where they were kept in garden ponds, to London.

Initially it was mainly scientific researchers who kept the creatures in tanks to carry out their investigations. The British chemist Joseph Priestley, for example, discovered oxygen while working with Carl Wilhelm Scheele in 1774 in Stralsund, Sweden. He carried out further investigations of oxygen on aquatic plants, which he held in his laboratory.

Aquariums were first shown to a wide public at the World Exhibition in London in 1851. A cast-iron frame held the pieces of these tanks together.

The English naturalist Philip Henry Gosse, in his publication A Naturalist’s Rambles on the Devonshire Coast, published in 1853, coined the term “aquarium”. The book’s popularity with the British public grew considerably. It became fashionable to cultivate organisms, at least in the short term, in small glass containers in order to be able to better study them.

In Germany, it was mainly the scientist, educator and writer Emil Adolf Rossmaessler who made aquariums popular with various articles of this hobby published in Germany. He will therefore be jokingly referred to as the “father of German aquatics.” In 1854 he published in the then popular family magazine The Arbor of Articles, “The Ocean on the Table.” Like Gosse, here he introduced the cultivation of seawater animals.

Rossmaessler followed this release with the goal of making the science known and popular in the nation. He soon realized, however, that this was achieved more easily by a freshwater aquarium. Hence, “The Lake in the Glass” soon followed in The Arbor of Articles, which led to so many queries about this form of farming that he published his book The Freshwater Aquarium in 1857.

In his book, Rossmaessler presented solid evidence on how to establish and maintain such an aquarium. In addition to the goldfish, he especially recommended minnows and misgurnus.

Rossmaessler’s publications were followed by a number of other aquarium books and magazines. Aquariums were founded in Germany. It became fashionable in the winter to create a so-called residential facilities aquarium or a goldfish bowl.

As stated in an 1880 book published about aquariums: “Here are the live animals as well as in freedom – unlike the prisoners in cages, birds, reptiles and insects. Inhibited by anything and confined, they show themselves to the observer in all their naturalness, full in their naturalness.” (Quoted in Horst & Kipper, p. 12).

From today’s perspective, this euphoric view is not correct. They had little knowledge at that time about the needs of life in a cage or the processes running in the aquarium. Aquariums were then still partially heated by candles that were placed underneath it. In the fall, this did not provide sufficient illumination of aquariums and the wards very often died because there was a lack of oxygen in the water.