Saltwater Fish

Fish are natures living jewels and none more so than the saltwater fish and corals that so many of us see on our holidays or TV. They have been popular pets since the Roman times when the Romans use to keep anemones in Venetian glass jars, however the life of these anemones in glass jars was very short.

Keeping fish in saltwater aquariums didn’t become popular until the 1950s, even though a handful of scientists and saltwater enthusiasts attempted to keep saltwater species earlier using 100 litre rectangular glass aquariums with bleached coral along with a substrate of coarse crushed coral and filtered by undergravel filters and heavy aeration.

During the early days of marine aquaria, saltwater was initially collected at local beaches. However, Natural saltwater contains many unwanted organisms, along with the occasional unwanted pollutant and is certainly not advised these days. 1964 saw the first synthetic sea salt, which revolutionized the hobby as now the hobby was available to everyone.

In the 1980’s huge leaps were made in technology, knowledge and understanding about the chemical conditions and properties of aquariums which really progressed the hobby to become attainable for the majority instead of the minority.

And the last 20 years has seen even more progress with the hobby due to advances in technology and now anything is possible. The dazzling array of technology for the marine hobby does have its draw backs as some people are put off by it, but this really should not be the case as a dazzling marine aquarium can be attained with a little help from technology and some basic maintenance.