This is another one of those awesome and weird fish tanks that manages to suspend a whole bunch (in this case, 220 liters) of water vertically without it all spilling out. Once a gate is opened, the fish in the tank have free passage between the top and the bottom parts, and making the transition doesn’t seem to bother them in the least. Not that I’m one to know what really bothers a fish.
As far as the physics goes, my guess is that even though there’s air circulating through the top of the tank, if it’s a closed system, the volume is still constant and the water can’t get out. That’s my guess, anyway. The guy who makes these tanks lives in Singapore, but there’s a lot more info (and more videos) on his YouTube channel.
I’m not sure what it is about fish that inspires people to create technologically bizarre fish tanks to try and elicit some sort of deeper meaning from their movements. This particular example is the Rhythmfish system, designed by Sangmin Bae. Webcams surrounding the tank record the movements of the fish, and the images are combined with data from flow sensors inside the tank which measure the currents generated by the swimming fish. The results are translated (somehow) into an audiovisual, uh, something, which is performed through an LCD screen and speakers mounted on the tank. The designer says: “even if the fish can’t speak and express its feelings in a human way, it has an energy and communication skill in its own way. Vibration is the medium of interaction, and I chose it for its universality in the physical, emotional, and spiritual realms.” Hm. I wonder if the fish feel the same way, or maybe they’re just trying to figure out what the heck all this weird electronic stuff is doing in their tank.
If you’ve got a hankering for a seriously big fish tank but you don’t want to have to worry about the icky stuff (like water and fish), why not invest $32 million in 30 meters by 250 meters (!) worth of LED screen and then play fish videos all over it? You’ll find this monster six stories in the air between two malls in Beijing, with fish the size of Volkswagens swimming around on it. For scale, a football field is a paltry 5500 square meters, while this thing hits 7500 square meters of oceany LED goodness. Video after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
The Infinity Aquarium, subtitled “swimming around in circles,” was designed by BCXSY Design Studio to create “a visual metaphor to life in the fish bowl.” If that’s what life is like, I don’t feel so bad about being totally lost most of the time. I’m not well versed enough in hyperspatial pandimensional neogeometry to even hazard a guess as to what shape this in fact is, and to be completely honest, I can’t even tell from the pictures where all the sides and corners are. But forget about me, what about the fish? It must be like they’re permanently entrapped in an endless series of incomprehensible rooms, corridors, and dead ends… Kinda like this movie. Except more twisted, and less deadly. Poor fishies.
Poor goldfish. Nobody really respects their intelligence. They get kept in tiny little aquariums, fed occasionally, and otherwise ignored. But, they’re capable of so much more, as this video shows. Three second memory? Think again. With the R2 Fish School, you can use simple operant conditioning and positive reinforcement to train your fish to perform tricks, including basketball, football, soccer, slalom, limbo, and other amazing feats. Prepare to be astounded:
Remember, the R2 Fish School isn’t just about making your life more exciting… It makes your little fishy friend’s life more exciting too. It’s $30 from Amazon.
Before all you fish people get really upset, this is a render of a concept of a prototype of a fish tank made out of a recycled light bulb, designed by deviantART user mceric. It’s called Aqua Bulb, and provides a pre-built glass house for a few little fishies who appreciate snug quarters. While it’s a cool looking concept, I’m not sure how you’d go about feeding the poor fish once you get them in there, and it does occur to me to ask what potential health hazards could be caused by that burnt out tungsten filament.
Goldfish are damn fast. According to the internet, they top out at something like 4mph, which is kind of adorable. But in conventional tanks, you never get to see them unleash themselves thanks to a plexiglass wall that’s never far enough away. The SpeedFish racetrack provides an uninterrupted sequence of straights and curves for your fishies to pit their swimming skills against in crazy nonstop fish-on-fish action with total disregard for safety precautions, water filters, or aquatic plants. It’s only a concept for now, though, so you’ll have to go back to watching cars do this instead.
Unlike most home fish tanks, this “refrigerator-aquarium” is designed to produce food that you can eat. Yum. The bottom of the Local River fish tank contains freshwater fish, and the top has pods for growing veggies. The plants help filter the water for the fish, while the fish fertilize the water with their, uh, dookie. It’s a really cool idea, I’m just worried I’d get attached to the little fishies that I’m supposed to somehow catch, kill, fillet, and consume.
The Local River concept is based on the locavore philosophy, which advocates eating locally produced foods… Your living room is about as local as it gets, right? The fish tank will go on display at Artists Space Gallery in New York on April 25th. Two more pics, after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
The Spacearium fishtank is intended to “reinvent your indoor space,” as opposed to just being an accessory with some fish in it off in a corner somewhere. The huge acrylic tanks are shaped like gently curving ellipses, and range in size from 5 to 8 feet across, which is easily large enough to turn them into room dividers. Although you can get them with floor stands, it’s much cooler to mount them from your ceiling, since the mounting rails hide two tubes which circulate water (fresh or salt) through a filter system hidden away up to 15 feet away in a wall.
The 8 foot tank is about a foot think and holds 73 gallons. It’ll cost you $8400, installation not included.
Related Tags: Fish Tanks
Permalink | 
No Comments
