Fishkeeping is a popular hobby, practiced by aquarists, concerned with keeping fish in a home aquarium or garden

pond. There is also a piscicultural fishkeeping industry, as a branch of agriculture. Fish have been raised as food in
pools and ponds for thousands of years. Brightly colored or tame specimens of fish in these pools have sometimes
been valued as pets rather than food. Many cultures, ancient and modern, have kept fish for both functional and
decorative purposes.
Ancient Sumerians kept wild-caught fish in ponds, before preparing them for meals. Depictions of the sacred fish
of Oxyrhynchus kept in captivity in rectangular temple pools have been found in ancient Egyptian art.
Similarly, Asia has experienced a long history of stocking rice paddies with freshwater fish suitable for eating,
including various types of catfish and cyprinid. Selective breeding of carpinto today's popular and completely
domesticated koi and goldfish began over 2,000 years ago in Japan and China, respectively.
The Chinese brought goldfish indoors during the Song Dynasty to enjoy them in large ceramic vessels.
In Medieval Europe, carp pools were a standard feature of estates and monasteries, providing an alternative to
meat on feast days when meat could not be eaten for religious reasons.
Marine fish have been similarly valued for centuries. Wealthy Romans kept lampreys and other fish in salt water
pools. Tertullian reports that Asinius Celer paid 8000 sesterces for a particularly fine mullet. Cicero reports that
the advocate Quintus Hortensius wept when a favored specimen died.[1] Rather cynically, he referred to these
ancient fishkeepers as the Piscinarii, the "fish-pond owners" or "fish breeders", for example when saying that ...the
rich (I mean your friends the fish-breeders) did not disguise their jealousy of me.[2][3][4]
The first person to breed a tropical fish in Europe was Pierre Carbonnier, who founded one of the oldest public
aquaria in Paris in 1850,[5]and bred the first imported Macropods (Paradise fish) in 1869, and later more species. A
pioneer of tropical fish breeding, Carbonnier was awarded the Gold Medal of the Imperial French Acclimatization
Society in 1875 for research and breeding of exotic freshwater aquarium fish, and for his success in introducing
exotic fish species to France.[6]

Types of fishkeeping systems[edit]

Fishkeepers are often known as "aquarists" since many of them are not solely interested in keeping fish. The
hobby can be broadly divided into three specific disciplines, depending on the type of water the fish originate
from: freshwater, brackish, and marine (also called saltwater) fishkeeping.

Freshwater[edit]

Neon tetras are common freshwater pets.

Freshwater fishkeeping is by far the most popular branch of the hobby, with even small pet stores often selling a
variety of freshwater fish, such as goldfish, guppies, and angelfish. While most freshwater aquaria are community
tanks containing a variety of compatible species, single-species breeding aquaria are also popular. Livebearing fish
such as mollies and guppies are among those most easily raised in captivity, but aquarists also regularly breed
many types of cichlid, catfish, characins, cyprinids, and killifish.
Many fishkeepers create freshwater aquascapes where the focus is on aquatic plants as well as fish. These aquaria
include "Dutch Aquaria" that mass contrasting stem plants, named for European aquarists who first designed
them. In recent years, one of the most active advocates of the heavily planted aquarium was the Japanese
aquarist Takashi Amano.
Garden ponds are in some ways similar to freshwater aquaria, but are usually much larger and exposed to ambient
weather. In the tropics, tropical fish can be kept in garden ponds. In the temperate zone, species such
as goldfish, koi, and orfe work better.

Saltwater[edit]
Marine aquaria have more specific needs and requirements to maintain, and the livestock is generally more
expensive. As a result, this branch tends to attract more experienced fishkeepers. Marine aquaria can be
exceedingly beautiful, due to the attractive colors and shapes of the corals and the coral reef fish they host.
Temperate zone marine fish are not as commonly kept in home aquaria, primarily because they do not thrive at
room temperature. Coldwater aquaria must provide cooler temperature via a cool room (such as an unheated
basement) or using a refrigeration device known as a 'chiller'.
Marine aquarists often attempt to recreate a coral reef in their aquaria using large quantities of living rock,
porous calcareous rocksencrusted with coralline algae, sponges, worms, and other small marine organisms.
Larger corals, as well as shrimps, crabs, echinoderms, and mollusks are added later on, once the aquarium has
matured, as well as a variety of small fish. Such aquaria are sometimes called reef tanks.