Since the 1800’s people have been keeping fish inside transparent containers whether to observe, study or just plain appreciate them. We’ve since came to have known these containers as aquariums. After centuries of innovation, creativity and everything in-between, people have come with a plethora of ideas on how to take their aquariums to the next level!
We’ve seen some amazing display tanks throughout the world and now, we’ve narrowed down our search for the Top 10 Most unusual aquariums around the world!
Fish N’ Flush
The Fish N’ Flush aquarium is one of the most unusual aquariums we’ve ever seen. It incorporates a full 2.2-gallon fish tank into a flushing system that would fit almost any traditional toilet bowl. The tank comes with a built in under gravel filtration system and pumps. You just have to bolt on this unusual fish tank to your toilet, add gravel, water and fish! It’s very easy to use and is very “out of the box”, or “out of the tank”!
Indeed, having fishes staring at you while you are busy doing your business is an unusual and weird experience all together. It would still be very easy to maintain since it will most likely be placed in your toilet room where water source and a water drain won’t be a problem. Oh and don’t worry, no fish will be flushed down the toilet using this tank!
John Marcus’ 10,000-Gallon Monster Tank
Veteran monster fish keeper John Marcus’ 10,000-gallon fish tank is one of the most impressive yet unusual fish tanks ever built by a fish keeper. Named “The House of Sam”, this monster tank houses 2 Arapaimas, one of the biggest fresh water fish in the world. They are named Sam and Samantha.
This colossal tank is 26 feet long, 12.5 feet wide and over 7 feet deep. It weighs a whopping 198,000 lbs! It carries 10,000 gallons of water! It is one of the, if not the, biggest privately owned fresh water aquarium in the United States of America.
If it’s sheer size isn’t enough to impress, it houses over 100 species of monstrous fresh water fish amounting to over 50,000 dollars. Keeping a couple of Arapaimas is indeed an unusal thing to do! Keeping them in an aquarium as large as your garage, in your own garage, is just plain insane!
Largest ADA Nature Aquarium
Sensei Takashi Amano, founder of ADA (Aqua Design Amano) Nature Aquariums is known for his unusual yet unique tank designs which focuses on aqua-scaping that depicts images of untouched nature. His beautiful aqua-scapes focuses more on design, perspective, plants and soils over fish and other animals. His makes aquariums look like masterpiece artworks or paintings of a scenes that are very serene yet dynamic.
Inside the Ocenario Lisboa in Portugal, lies the worlds largest “Nature Aquarium”. It’s 40 meters long, 2 and a half meters wide and 1 and a half meters deep containing around 160 tons of water.
What sets this tank apart aside from it’s sheer size is the amount of creativity and “zen” involved in its construction. Each rock, plant and moss are meticulously placed at specific locations to represent something. They did no
Shark Tank / Gator Tank
Featured in an episode of Animal Planet’s hit show “Tanked”, Missy and Phil’s Gator and Shark tank is one of the most unusual and unique tanks they’ve ever created. It is a 10-foot long tank which is divided in two. On one side, there are sharks, rays, skates and other large fish. On the other side, it is a well built vivarium that houses a few baby alligators.
This unique design offers the best of both worlds! Aptly called the “Predator Tank”, it showcases both apex predators from each of their respective areas in the water. Although it’s next to impossible to see these animals side by side in the wild, in captivity they made it a possibility. These are definitely not recommended pets for beginner fishkeepers!
The seamless design of the tank is a wonder to see. They made it seem that the sharks and gators are in the same waters. Indeed, it’s one of the most impressive tanks ever built.
Blues Angels Drum Kit Tank
Another impressive feat by ATM from Animal Planet’s Tanked show, Blues Angel Music shop’s Drum Kit Tank is yet another unusual tank created by ATM that made it to our list!
They converted an 8-piece Yamaha drum set into 8 different fully functional tanks complete with lights, filtration and fish. Another impressive feat that this tank can boast of is how the “drum-tanks” are all stocked differently. Some are stocked with fresh water fishes like goldfish and gouramis while some are stocked with salt water favorites like the Blue Tangs and Clownfish.
If that does not blow the roof off, then perhaps the fact that it is still a fully playable and functional drum set will. Being able to enjoy music and fishes at the same time? Now that’s a bang!
World’s Smallest Tank
Holding only 2 teaspoons of water, Anatoly Konenko’s miniature tank is the smallest functional fish tank in the world. How small is it? This tiny glass tank is 30mm long, 14mm wide and 24mm high. That’s just about enough to hold 10ml of water.
It is fully furnished with very small pebbles and plants. It houses 2 very tiny zebra fish (probably one of the very few fish that would fit). It even comes equipped with a miniature fish net!
Konenko considers this tank as part of his “miniature art” collection. Now that’s a proof that good things, indeed, come in small packages!
Biggest Home Reef Tank
Somewhere in Wisconsin, Bill Wann, a Lab Equipment company CEO, built the biggest privately owned reef tank in North America. The tank is 24 feet long, 10 feet wide and 10 feet deep containing 20,000-gallons of salt water.
This tank, built and designed by Bill himself. He even designed and built the life support system for the tank. He made his own reverse osmosis system to his preference. The most impressive feat is his filtration system which he says runs through PVC pipes that is over 2 miles long.
If there’s a will there’s a way, and this man sure did it his way. With a severe case of being the ultimate DIY guy, Bill Wann built one of the most unique and unusual aquariums and built his house around it!
Skateboard Ramp Tank
With the risk of sounding redundant, here’s another tank made by ATM and was later featured in Animal Planet’s episode of Tanked! This time, the took it to the extreme. Literally!
The esteemed branding mogul “La Jolla Group”, which branded skateboarding products such as O’Neill commissioned ATM to build a tank for them, you know it’s going to be extremely unusual. The guys from ATM did not disappoint though. They were able to make a skateboard ramp tank! Yes! A freakin’ skateboard ramp! And f that’s not enough, they made a fully functional skateboard ramp tank which skateboarders can actually skate.
Making a curved tank the shape of a skate ramp is hard on it’s own. However, to be able to make the tank safely skate-able is just insane. Imagine the engineering required to make sure it’s structural integrity is up to par. Indeed, this tank is RAD!
AquaDom
Located in between hotels in Berlin, Germany the “AquaDom” is the largest cylindrical aquarium in the world. It stands 25 meters tall with a diameter of 11 meters and holds over one million liters of water.
It is so huge that it has its own elevator inside which people can ride to have a different view of the aquarium. This aquarium is frequently visited by tourist and patrons of the nearby hotels.
This engineering marvel is one of the most inspiring, breathtaking, and yes, unusual aquariums in the world!
Chimelong Ocean Kingdom
When you see the world “Oceanarium” you know it’s going to be big. But it does not get any bigger than this. Literally!
Located in China, the Chimelong Ocean Kingdom or Chimelong Oceanarium, is the BIGGEST fish tank in the entire world. How big is it? Well, it houses the biggest fresh water fish in the world, the Whale Shark! It’s viewing panel alone is 39.6 meters long and 8.3 meters tall. The Chimelong Oceanarium boasts of a total of 12.87 million gallons of water!
It has set a total of 5 Guiness World Records including the largest aquarium viewing dome at 11 meters across.
If the goal of making an aquarium is putting a little bit of underwater nature in a tank, the Chimelong Oceanarium more than accomplished it. It literally placed large piece of the ocean inside an aquarium. One of the most impressive and unusual aquariums ever built!
I hope you enjoyed these amazing fish tanks! In the time it took me to post these, I’ve already seen a couple new ones that caught my eye. Let me know in the comments below if you’d like another post with more crazy tanks, or feel free to share any you’ve seen too!