An aquarium is an enclosure with at least one transparent side where fish and other water-dwelling plants and animals are displayed. Keeping fish in man-made ponds is a practice that has been around for thousands of years. It is thought that the history of the development of aquariums originated with fish being trapped in enclosures after the floodwaters arising from monsoons receded. The Sumerians started to keep fish in pools more than 4,500 years ago. The Chinese were the first civilization to breed fish, raising white goldfish, more commonly known as carp, for their ornamental qualities perhaps as far back as 15,000 years ago. They were exported to Japan in the 16th century and the Japanese raised carp breeding to a new level of sophistication. In the late 17th century goldfish were brought to Great Britain and soon it became popular among the wealthy there to display the fish in artificial lakes.

One important date in the history of aquariums is 1850. Until then fish had almost exclusively been kept in ponds, but on this date Robert Warrington of England built the first modern style, self sustaining fish tank. It held 13 gallons of water and was made of glass and had sand on the bottom as well as snails and plants. The idea was that the plants would provide food for the snails as well as oxygen for the fish, the snails would lay eggs, and the eggs would be the food for the fish. Thus a cycle would be set up in which fish could thrive indefinitely.

Aquariums were successfully maintained like this, without the air filtration systems we use today, for the next hundred years or so. At first the aquariums/fish tank continued to mostly be a hobby of the rich, or the aquariums were of the large public kind, with the first one of these opening up in the London Zoo in 1853.  The under gravel filter was introduced in the 1950s, a decade that also saw the invention of convenient flake foods for fish by Dr. Baensch Atlas. These two developments especially, along with such changes as the introduction of plastic bags for shipping fish and the rise of air freight, led to a rapid rise in the popularity of keeping fish in aquariums in the homes of the masses.  This rise in popularity is to the point where today fish are second only to cats in popularity as a pet in the United States.

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