The Ocean at Home: An Illustrated History of the Aquarium

Bernd Brunner

The Ocean at Home An Illustrated History of the Aquarium

Princeton Architectural Press, New York

First published in English in 2005 by Princeton Architectural Press 37 East Seventh Street New York, New York 10003 For a free catalog of books, call 1.800.722.6657 Visit our website at www.papress.com First published in German in 2003 by transit Buchverlag Copyright © 2003 transit Buchverlag 08 07 06 05 5 4 3 2 1 First edition Printed and bound in China For the present edition both text and illustrations of the original German version have been considerably expanded and adjusted.

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission from the publisher, except in the context of reviews. Every reasonable attempt has been made to identify owners of copyright. Errors or omissions will be corrected in subsequent editions.

For Princeton Architectural Press: Project editor: Nicola Bednarek Copy editor: Scott Tennent Layout: Linda Lee, based on the design by Gudrun Fröba, transit Buchverlag Translation: Ashley Marc Slapp Special thanks to: Nettie Aljian, Janet Behning, Megan Carey, Penny (Yuen Pik) Chu, Russell Fernandez, Jan Haux, Clare Jacobson, Mark Lamster, Nancy Eklund Later, Linda Lee, Katharine Myers, Molly Nash Rouzie, Lauren Nelson, Jane Sheinman, Scott Tennent, Jennifer Thompson, Joseph Weston, and Deb Wood of Princeton Architectural Press —Kevin C. Lippert, publisher Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Brunner, Bernd, 1964– [Wie das Meer nach Hause kam. English] The ocean at home : an illustrated history of the aquarium / Bernd Brunner. p. cm.

ISBN 1-56898-502-9 (alk. paper) 1. Aquariums—History. I. Title.

SF457.3.B78 2005 639.34’2—dc22 2004027647

Contents

7 D ive In

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1 1 The F irst See d 9 The Secret of the Ocean 1 9The Se cond See d 1 7 Chambers, Cabinets, Cases 23 The Third See d Pet Fish

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26 “ Pa ssion a nd D iligence” Pioneers

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39 “A Strong, Intensive D esire” The Propagandist

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62From Salt to Fre shwate r Aqu ari u m The Lake in a Glass

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78 Arriving in the U nited State s 68 Aquarist Societies and Magazines 87E xotic Sp ecies and Tra nsp or t Diverging Beliefs

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99 Fashion Show 8 6 Typology of Parlor Aquariums 1 1 9 “A New Kind of Thea ter” The Large Aquariums 1 2 5The Aqu a riu m a s a D rea m

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1 21

1 33 Ap p e ndix 1 33 1 33 Acknowledgments 1 3 3 1 33 Selected Bibliography 1 35 1 33 Illustration Credits 1 3 9 133A Selection of Aquariums and Oceanariums 141 1 33 About the Author 1 43

“ Pa ssio n a n d D ilig e n ce” Pioneers

Even before the arrival of the goldfish in Europe, historical documents show that there had been attempts to keep other sorts of fish in glass containers. Around 1572 the German astrologer, alchemist, and doctor Leonhard Thurneysser zum Thurn is said to have manufactured an odd glass sphere in the core of which sat a bird while fish swam happily around the perimeter. A century later, in 1666, Leonhard Baldner wrote his famous Vogel-, Fisch- und Tierbuch (Bird, Fish, and Animal Book). A diligent passion for fishing and shooting encouraged Baldner to become a scientist, and he commissioned an artist to paint illustrations of all the common marine animals. In order to observe weather loaches and newts for a longer period of time, Baldner decided to put them in large tanks filled with water and sand.

The question of whether these animals could really be kept far away from the sea, river, or ocean for an extended period of time remained unanswered, however. In spite of the popularity and proliferation of pet fish over the centuries and around the world, it was still nearly impossible to keep a fish alive for very long outside its natural habitat. In 1721 the Englishman Richard Bradley believed that a lack of water movement was the reason that animals could not survive

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Catching turtles, around 1850

in tanks. He suggested designing and creating small ponds that would be fed by tidal water, which would then be kept in motion via two water wheels. Bradley also came up with the idea of building a small dam to section off part of a stream and to salt the water therein. Apparently, he had heard about an ocean turtle that had survived for a long time in this manner.

There is also evidence that in 1790 the Scottish biologist Sir John Dalyell started keeping marine animals for observation purposes. Among these creatures was an anemone (Actinia equina) that he had brought back from North Berwick in 1827. He exchanged the water on a daily basis and occasionally fed the creature with small pieces of mussels and

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oysters. If we can believe what the Scottish zoologist D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson wrote in Science and the Classics, this anemone even outlived Sir Dalyell by several decades, finally dying in 1887—a full sixty years after its capture.

In 1797 a 300-page book entitled Naturgeschichte der Stubenthiere (Natural History of Parlor Animals), written by the zoologist and scientist Johann Matthäus Bechstein and illustrated with a pipe-smoking ape, was published in Gotha, Germany. Besides mammals Naturgeschichte der Stubenthiere (Natural History of Parlor Animals), title page

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and insects, the book also included a small chapter on the knowledge and keeping of fish. Specifically the chapter dealt with the weather loach and the “gold carp,” a goldfish that was “partly kept in garden ponds and basins, and partly in glass or porcelain tanks... as a feast for the eyes.” In order to study their movements Bechstein suggested using “big glass bowls with an opening at the top which is wide enough for the fish to receive oxygen, but narrow enough to stop them from jumping out,” and further advised that during the summer the water should be exchanged twice a week, and during the winter every eight to fourteen days. According to Bechstein, fish had a very good sense of hearing and in China every fish bowl was equipped with a small whistle with which the fish could be lured to the surface for feeding. The scientist regarded the weather loach to be just as talented, and even stated that it could make sounds. It seemed to behave like a living barometer, becoming uneasy when rain or thunder were imminent, swimming to the surface even though it normally liked to keep to the bottom. Provided the weather loach received fresh water and mud at the prescribed intervals, it would be able to survive for many years in a large sugar jar filled to approximately one-third with mud and sand. During the winter it required a heated room and a place close to a window.

Inspired by the work of Sir Dalyell, the French scientist Jeannette Power de Villepreux belonged to a group of scientists that displayed a more explicit connection to later saltwater aquariums.

Around 1830, Power carried out research in Messina, Sicily, on argonauts, also known as paper nautilus—profoundly odd creatures possessing a lensless eye that functions like a pinhole camera. The timid females of the species (the males are much smaller in size) would swim in the ocean either alone

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Cage á la Power

Paper nautilus

or, as Matthias Jacob Schleiden wrote, “united as a small group of dames,” but would always retreat into their shells at the slightest approach of something unknown or an intense movement of the waves, before sinking again deep down into the secure depths of Neptune’s empire.

Power had special wooden boxes constructed in which she kept the animals brought to her by fishermen or which she had caught herself. These boxes—which came to be known as Cages à la Power—were lowered into the sea and anchored.

Applying a specially constructed mechanism, she hauled the boxes and glass containers from the water, making observation easier. Power had set up a laboratory in a house directly by the sea, which contained a wooden box into which salt water was pumped in and out via rubber hoses—a small but very efficient circulation system.

Richard Owen, director of the British Museum in London and also known for coining the term “dinosaur”

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Wardian case

for prehistoric reptiles, knew of Power’s experiments, and in 1858 he attributed the invention of the aquarium to her. Power herself would later express—quite selfconfidently—that she had in fact invented the aquarium. Until the end of the nineteenth century, American feminists viewed Power not only as the inventor of the aquarium but also as the prime example in a long line of successful female inventors. An article in The North American Review from 1883 entitled “Woman as an Inventor” highlighted Power as “one of the most eminent naturalists of the century.” A longbelated—and exceptionally remote—memorial was granted to her in 1991, when a crater on Venus was named after her. Power’s claim, however, provoked objections. As early as 1858, another article, also in the The North American Review, asserted that Power’s cages “were merely receptacles suspended in the waters of the bay to enable her to watch the habits of marine animals” and that “the plan of maintaining the balance of nature by means of plants was unknown to her.”

Until this point in time, it was still not clear how, on a large scale, a self-contained water eco-system could function, at least over a length of time.

The surgeon Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward had already discovered in the early 1830s that delicate plants such as ferns could flourish in nearly airtight glass tanks. The microclimate, which stabilized itself inside the tank, allowed the plants to be more or less oblivious to external temperature changes and pollutants.

The latter was an important factor for Ward, who lived in the middle of London’s docklands. Additionally, hardly any new water was required as the evaporating water condensed on the glass and was reabsorbed by the plants. These small

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Another illustration of the Alecton trying to catch an approximately 4,000-pound squid—120 miles northeast of Tenerife.

After a three-hour hunt, a rope was thrown around the squid. The rope caught on the large rear fins and with one swift movement cut through the soft body.

The squid submerged and vanished.

Plants of the submarine world

Opposite page: Submarine landscape

Following page: Parasitic anemone (Calliactis parasitica)