Home Decor Meets
The High Waters
October 25, 2004 -- Retired, and relaxing in Hypoluxo Island, Fla., Anne Coy was getting tired of staring at her boring old fish tank. So she removed the 20-gallon standard goldfish home in her living room and replaced it with a seven-foot-tall, $13,000 cylindrical salt water aquarium with an Egyptian hieroglyphic design and an artificial reef. "It really fits right in," she says, "and everyone who comes in just loves it."
High design has hit the high-water mark. Aquariums got a sales boost last summer, when "Finding Nemo," the hugely popular animated children's film starring a lost clownfish, was released. But sales are still climbing, pet stores and custom aquarium designers say, this time fueled by design-conscious adults who are increasingly adopting aquariums as art or conversation pieces.
National retailer Petsmart says its sales of fish, aquariums and related products have doubled in the past 12 months, while rival Petco says fish and aquarium sales are so strong that 36 of the 42 new stores have a new "Pisces" layout that highlights fish and other underwater pets. At Midwest Tropical of Lincolnwood, Ill., which manufactures transparent coffee-table and end-table aquariums sold through Sky Mall magazine, projected 2004 sales are $3 million, about triple last year's.
Rectangular tanks like the ones in high-school biology classrooms are losing ground to extravagant designs -- bubble shapes, waves, towers -- crafted out of more malleable acrylic. Standard tanks accounted for 73% of aquarium sales last year, down from 82% the previous year, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association. Newer, easier-to-use filtration systems are also spurring customers to start out with more complicated saltwater setups that sustain more exotic fish.
Also breathing new life into the industry are cameo appearances by aquariums on such cult TV shows as "Nip/Tuck," "The Bachelorette" and "MTV Cribs," which is centered on lavish celebrity homes. Homeowners are "trying to one-up each other on the aquariums," says Louie Ortiz, chief executive of West Coast Aquariums Industries in San Diego, Calif., which designs home ones that can cost $150,000.
Fish aficionado Raphael Radon loves aquariums but never thought his contemporary taste would allow the clutter of one into his living room. But after glimpsing some newer sleek designs, the marketing executive from Belleview, Fla., installed a 75-gallon acrylic salt-water tank in the corner of his living room. "There's no plumbing, no wiring hanging off anywhere," he says, and it's "the first thing people notice" when they come in. Not that aquarium ownership is all smooth sailing, he notes. Mr. Radon, who used to own an octopus, has found that "they're good escape artists."
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