Next to dogs and cats, fish are another rather popular option for pets. As a rule, fish are not animals which their owners attempt to train. But even like dogs and cats who required domestication for cohabitation with humans, fish have a long history of being kept as pets by people. You may know that the wealthy families among ancient Egyptians kept pools in which a variety of aquatic life was raised and maintained.
Apparently, the ancient citizens of the Greek and Roman empires followed suit. In the case of the Egyptians, it was not too difficult to transport fish from the Nile River to a home. The outdoor area designated for their fish was practically a manmade pond. The Egyptians had invented a very basic form of an aquarium several thousand years ago.
Canines are the longest domesticated type of animal kept as pets in China. They have been popular pets there since circa 12,000 BC. China is also perhaps the country which has had the greatest world impact on the popularity of fishkeeping. The Chinese were breeding carp as early the 10th century AD.
It was this very breeding which eventually led to developing what today we call the goldfish. In 1369, Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang founded a porcelain manufacturing company which made tubs for the goldfish. The present-day goldfish bowl does still bear some similarities to the old tubs originally used in China.
However, the tubs were rather unhealthy habitats for the fish. If you go to a Chinese Buffet in the US, you can still often find an indoor pool (not for people) containing goldfish with scales of various hues. Goldfish were not brought to Europe until some time in the 18th century.
For many years in Europe, aquatics was considered a hobby worthy of only upper, wealthier classes. But in the mid-1800’s, the London Zoological Society started preparations for an aquatic vivarium which would be open to the public. It was completed in 1853 and originally housed upward of 300 different kinds of local marine organisms. Philip Henry Gosse was its creator; he was also the man who originally coined the term “aquarium.”
Of Intellect and Interest 