Water world
Fish tanks are no longer the rectangular glass affairs of the past. Now, they come in the form of coffee tables, bar counters and slim, wall-mounted ones
Sandra Leong, Straits Times 30 Mar 08;
But the somewhat worrying news for fish lovers is that some customers are not enthusiastic aquarists and are just charmed by the unique aesthetics of the products.
SINGAPOREAN real estate agent Nancy Hawkes wanted an aquarium in her Sentosa Cove condominium to house her beloved arowana fish. Her Irish husband, Mr Noel Hawkes, who is vice-president of hotel planning of the Resorts World at Sentosa integrated resort on the island, would have nothing of that sort.
Pointing to the unobstructed sea view from the balcony of the master bedroom, he tells LifeStyle in mock despair: 'She wanted to put a fish tank right in the middle of this. I said, that is not happening.'
The couple finally compromised: an aquarium cum bar counter that now sits pretty in the corner of the balcony.
This piece of 'aquarium furniture' is a glass fish tank with a two-tier counter top where bottles of wine and champagne can be displayed.
Says Mr Hawkes, 55: 'My wife is the fish woman. I'm the wine man. With this, I'm happy, she's happy. The fish is happy.'
Adds 49-year-old Mrs Hawkes: 'We often sit here at night and have wine while looking out at the sky and sea.'
If you think fish tanks are bulky, algae-infested glass boxes best hidden in the kitchen or backyard of the house, well, you probably haven't been keeping up with the tide of things.
From fishy bar counters like the Hawkes' to coffee table aquariums to slimmer-than-slim wall-mounted ones that resemble plasma televisions, novel fish tanks are winning over house- proud Singaporeans.
Custom built to blend in with a home's interior, they are popping up anywhere from humble HDB flats to luxe landed properties, giving the long-time hobby of fish-keeping a glossy new spin.
Apart from adding a splash of fengshui - fish are traditionally seen as harbingers of wealth - and marine-inspired decor to one's abode, another apparent attraction of such 'designer' aquariums is that they are easy to maintain.
Depending on a customer's preference, the tanks can be sold as a package, complete with a self-sustainable ecosystem of aquatic plants and fish.
Owners need only feed their fish, top up the water level once or twice a month and check occasionally to see if the tank's filters and pumps are working.
In general, marine tanks, which house fish found in salt water, are a little harder to upkeep than freshwater tanks as their environments are harder to mimic.
Expect however to fork out well into the thousands for these conversation pieces. The Hawkes, for instance, paid $8,000 for their bar counter aquarium. And depending on size and sophistication, a novelty tank could cost anything from $1,000 to $30,000, according to LifeStyle's checks with aquarium specialists.
There are as many as 10 such businesses in Singapore catering to a mix of homes and commercial properties, say industry players.
The majority set up shop over the past five years, an indication that demand, while small, is certainly burgeoning.
The impetus behind this growing interest, explains co-owner of Atlantis Aquatic Design Tan Lye Hee, is that with Singaporeans becoming more design-savvy, few want a fish tank that 'sticks out like a sore thumb'.
Mr Tan, a former interior designer who saw potential in the market, registered Atlantis in 2002 and calls himself one of the local pioneers in aquarium design. He has incorporated aquariums into partitions, feature walls and storage cabinets.
Demand, he says, has increased steadily by about 5 to 10 per cent each year since the company was founded.
He has had customers as young as 15. Secondary 3 student Nigel Lim 'earned' a $3,000 fish tank cum storage cabinet from his father, a technical executive in a luxury car company, when he scored well in his Primary School Leaving Examination three years ago.
The tank also acts as a partition in the family's five-room HDB flat, dividing the living room from the main corridor.
Michael Aquatic Design's Michael Lee, a former financial planner and avid fish lover, set up his company about three years ago with his first product: a coffee table aquarium.
Doing his own carpentry work, he had designed a prototype of this - similar to the bar counter at the Hawkes' apartment except lower in height - which he displayed at a furniture exhibition at Park Mall. To his surprise, a passer-by bought the piece for $2,500.
Besides the coffee table and bar counter designs, he also has television consoles and dining tables - all with aquariums within - in his showroom. His coffee table aquarium is the best-seller, with over 100 sets sold since 2004.
'It's an evolution of a hobby,' he reasons. 'Just like TV sets, we went from black-and-white to colour to plasma. The same for fish tanks.'
Singaporean sales coordinator Lynn Weegenhausen, 48, walked past Mr Lee's shop in Park Mall when she was renovating her condominium apartment last July. She spotted one of his coffee table designs and immediately imagined the $3,500 piece taking centrestage in her living room.
'It's so relaxing to have this. When I come home after a day's work, I lie down next to the tank and look at the fish for a few hours,' she says.
Over at Aquatic Style, over 3,000 pieces of a slim, wall-mounted fish tank designed to resemble a picture frame have flown off the shelves since the product was launched in 2002, says owner Jackson Tan.
Its selling point: The tank is 14 cm thick.
One of his customers, lecturer Rebecca Chan, 43, who bought a 1.5m-long wall-mounted tank for her five-room HDB flat for $1,200, says her purchase gives her a 'sense of well-being'.
'Look,' she says. 'I don't even have a TV in my living room.'
Other names in the high-end aquarium design business include The Glass Box in Bukit Timah Shopping Centre, Aquatechnic in Kallang, Geo Aquatic Design in Clifford Centre and Bio Aquaristik at Tampines Mall.
But the somewhat worrying news for fish lovers is that some customers are not enthusiastic aquarists and are just charmed by the unique aesthetics of the products.
Despite the hassle-free design of such tanks, The Glass Box's co-owner Kelvin Lim has seen owners 'overfeed their fish by more than 10 times' before learning the tricks and tools of keeping fish.
But there are others like Mrs Weegenhausen who eventually fall in love with their fish and become hobbyists. She says: 'When I first got the tank, I had only goldfish. Now I have 59 fish, including torpedos, tetras and skeleton fish.'
And then there's the question of whether some designs - like the coffee table and super-slim tanks - are gimmicky and cruel to the fish.
Asks engineer Wilfred Tan, who has two 'normal' tanks of freshwater fish in his five-room HDB flat: 'I wonder if the fish in the coffee table get scared whenever someone slams a cup down on its surface, or if those in the slim wall tanks feel claustrophobic.'
To this, Michael Aquatic Design's Mr Lee says he believes the fish get used to the shock after some time. Likening the situation to people who live next to an MRT track, he adds: 'After a while, you don't notice the noise.'
Mr Jackson Tan says: 'Fish usually don't have a sense of space so it doesn't matter how big the tank is. After all, you also put fighting fish in jars, right?'
