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Over 30,000 goldfish on display at Art Aquarium, Tokyo’s newest Instagrammable spot

7 Comments
By Katie Pask, SoraNews24

Fish are the easiest pets in the world to keep. They don’t make any noise or keep you up at night. They don’t poop on your lap. You don’t need to take them for walks or buy them fancy food to keep them happy. Plus, watching them swim around their tank can feel so… refreshing.

But sometimes, watching a couple of fish in a tank just doesn’t feel enough. Sometimes, one is struck with the overwhelming urge to watch about 30,000 fish gliding around a huge tank.

For such fish fanatics, or just people who enjoy looking at art instillations, the Art Aquarium in Nihonbashi, Tokyo may be the perfect place for you. The Art Aquarium has been touring around Japan for a while now, and has been hugely popular not just in Japan but also overseas.

Up until now it’s been a strictly seasonal event, but good news, fish fans! In August it will become a permanent attraction. Much like Japan’s popular interactive exhibits by TeamLab, the attraction will be a must-see for any self respecting Instagrammer.

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Over 30,000 goldfish will be displayed in the museum, ranging from your run of the mill pet-shop goldfish to rare goldfish.

The exhibits on display will change depending on the season, and the food and drinks on offer in the museum cafe will also differ depending on the time of year. Although the exhibit has been running for fourteen years, up until now it has only been open during the summer, so this is a good chance for veteran Art Aquarium fans to get a new experience.

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The permanent exhibit area is roughly three times bigger than previous exhibits, with a new area called Oiran Dochu (meaning “courtesan procession”), based on an Edo period right light district. There’s also the “Goldfish Forest”, where pillars filled with water and goldfish are lined up to look like a forest.

▼ Looks like a forest you’d like to get lost in.

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Other attractions include the Infinitrium, with 40 triangular aquariums joined together; the Earth Aquarium Japonism, a circular tank filled with colorful koi fish made to represent Earth as seen from space; and the Lotusism, a giant lotus motif with goldfish swimming inside, said to represent overcoming hardships to become something fleeting yet beautiful.

▼ The Earth Aquarium Japonsim

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▼ The Super Oiran. The 3,000 goldfish inside are said to represent the ephemeral beauty of the women in the Edo period’s geisha district.

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For those who may have missed the exhibit during its previous runs throughout Japan, this will be the perfect chance to get your fishy fill. The exhibit will officially open in August, and although the exact date has yet to be confirmed it will be announced some time this month.

If you can’t wait until August, you can order your own mini Art Aquarium to enjoy at home, although squeezing 30,000 goldfish in it might be a bit tough.

Location information

Art Aquarium

Address: Nihonbashihoncho 1-3, Chuo-ku, Tokyo

東京都中央区日本橋本町1丁目3

Website

Read more stories from SoraNews24.

-- Enjoy the sights and sounds of Art Aquarium any time you like with this miniature home version

-- Art Aquarium returns to Tokyo with goldfish, beautiful lighting, soothing sounds, delicious sake

-- Take a look at these gorgeous goldfish… created by a Japanese artist!【Pics & Videos】

© SoraNews24

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

7 Comments
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Not a good era for goldfishes ! What have they have possibly done to deserve such treatment, treated merely as part of an "artwork" ?

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Fish are the easiest pets in the world to keep

Not if you do it proper, they're not.

You have to give them the right environment - not a fancy sterile container blasted with multicoloured lights.

They need gravel, plants, nooks and crannies to hide in.

Water with the right pH, hardness, temperature, etc.

Filtration plus frequent regular partial water changes to keep the water quality right.

The right food for the kind of fish - floating food is no good for plecos, top swimmers will have trouble finding sinking food.

The right intensity of light for the right amount of time, for fish well-being and to deter the growth of algae.

Aeration to put oxygen in the water.

CO2 to keep the plants growing.

Just because fish don't demand to be taken walkies and don't pester you for treats, don't mean they're easy.

Unless of course you see them as nothing more than art installations, rather than living creatures.

Those photos look horrendous.

Poor fish.

Invalid CSRF

4 ( +4 / -0 )

The beginning paragraph screams ingnorance. Fish are challenging pets to keep well. You have to have an array of chemicals and testing kits in order to ensure that proper water parameters are maintained. If the water is not within the range that is healthy for the specific fish you have they will grow sicker and sicker until they die prematurely. On top of this, every fish has specific parameters that they are able to tolerate and when putting together an aquarium you have to ensure that the fish are compatible on every aspect. This is merely to help them survive in a box in your house. Not even to allow them to thrive.

This exhibit is cruel. End of sentence. Goldfish require large bodies of water and space so they are not crowded together. They are messy fish meaning they produce a lot of ammonia. These fish are likely swimming in cramped, ammonia filled tanks that limit their life expectancy. Imagine if the same was done with cats or dogs? Put 10 cats in a single crate. Is that a fun exhibit? No. So the same should be true for these poor fish.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

EASIEST? guess you never owned a fish or KEPT ONE ALIVE. Specially goldfishes, they're darn pigs who eats and poops all the time (sometimes both at the same time). Yo writer, do some research before you make an uneducated assumption and promote an exhibit that unknowingly promotes animal cruelty. Can somebody report this exhibit to WWF or PETA and shut this exhibit down? this is straight up animal cruelty. Those 30K++ goldfish deserve better, i guess in a week (or less) they are goin to replace the dead ones, so it will not stop at only 30K goldfishes.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

I grimaced with the ignorance of the first couple sentences and if the writer has any common decency will go back and edit his words so every one knows fish "aren't easy pets that don't poop every where and are pretty to watch swim". I have 8 tanks plus breeder tanks for fish fry. Between my husband and I it's a full time job at home. I'm not complaining we love our fish. The truth is though that they need proper love and care with a varied diet and regular cleanings. You can't neglect them and then watch them swim. They will be faded and clamped finned and probably die pretty quick if you don't clean up the poop that builds at the bottom and nitrates increase and boom dead fish so learn to care for them first. Don't listen to idiots that tell you how easy they are. In fact learn to give them their optimal care and you will be rewarded with happy fish at their peak colors that are just a joy to own and watch. We typically deal with South American species and I have 4 bettas in individual tanks I didn't even include above. The opening of this article made me so mad because fish are animals too and should be taken as seriously as if you raise a dog or cat

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Fish are the easiest pets in the world to keep....

ie You have not idea if they are suffering or not, and it doesn't matter if they die.

This sounds and looks dreadful. Stuffing living creatures in here and bombarding them with this light and noise. Torture as entertainment.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

In a culture where 'elegance' may see a living fish presented with sliced body on a bed of indifference, or in which whole families of marine mammals are netted and beaten to death, concern for the lives of fish may seem a modest manifestation of mental illness. We are more caring of animals in America and we only do such terrible things to our fellow Humans...

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

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