In China, ornamental fishes have been aquacultured for over a thousand years. However, it was not until the medieval times, that monks at the monasteries in Europe started breeding carps in ponds, for food.

At the end of the 16th century, it became popular among the royals in Europe to keep fishes in glass bowls.

During the 19th century, it became possible to build larger glass aquariums. Several public aquarium exhibits were opened. Private aquariums were heated with paraffin lamps, or gasflames.

The progress in transportation ensured that more exotic fishes came to Europe, starting with the paradise fish imported to France in 1869.

In tandem with the industrial revolution in Europe, printed paper books and paper magazines in general gradually became more available in the late 19th century, especially after the introduction of offset lithography. During the 20th century, many aquarium books and several international aquarium magazines were published. Some basic aquarium litterature was available to most people, even to those without money, thanks to public libraries. Aquarium clubs/societies in major cities often had more expansive book collections available to their members.

Starting from 1882, when the world's first public coal-fired power station was built in London, electricity was gradually made available to the public i Europe. In some countries and cities in Europe, the power grid in fast progressing urban areas was mostly established during the early 20th century. However, it was not until the 1920's, or 1930's, that is was generally established in most normal urban areas, while rural areas were still lagging behind a bit, in general, but was starting to catch up. A rise in aquaristics followed in the footsteps of the availability of electricity to the public, in combination with various inventions being applied to use as aquarium equipment.

In the beginning, most aquarists never changed the aquarium water. They, usually, only did top-ups, to replace evaporated water, with small amounts of new water, when needed. If they tried to do large partial, or complete, water changes, the generally bad quality, or great difference in water chemistry, of the replacement water compared to the old aquarium water, often caused big problems. It was not unusual for sensitive fishes to pass away from being put in new water, and/or for unsightly algae problems to occur, from water changes. When aquarists needed to move an aquarium, as much water as possible was, usually, saved and reused at the new location.

I have been told that, long ago, some insurance companies had insurance policies for old aquarium water, as it was seen as something valuable, but if that's true, or not, I don't know.

Later, when better freshwater (with, generally, less quality issues) became more readily available, people could change water with better results. However, some aquarists started changing all of the water at once and scrubbed the whole aquarium, during every water change.

In the 1930's, the Dutch style planted aquarium was popularized.

In 1940, all social classes could, generally, afford an aquarium. However, throughout all aquarium history, some aquariums have always been created to be more extravagant than the rest, so a large (and/or luxuriously made) aquarium was still a status symbol.

For a while, the aquarium hobby was trending and was very popular among Europeans, but a competitor soon appeared. Gradually, television started to become mainstream, tentatively increasing in popularity after World War II ended in 1945. Especially, from 1953 and onwards, when televison broadcasts, generally, became more regular in Europe and TV stations started broadcasting black and white programs for more hours per day. In some countries, trials of TV broadcasts in color were progressively increased. The sales of television sets in the 1960's increased. On April 1st, 1970, color television broadcast was officially launched in Sweden.

A TV probably took the place instead of an aquarium in many people's lives. TV became something popular that people wanted to watch for some time every day. The latest topics of popular TV programs were often discussed at social gatherings. A TV often occupied the exact same central space, usually in a living room, as an aquarium. Families often prefered to spend their money and time on a TV, instead of an aquarium. Having both an aquarium and a TV in the same room can also be problematic because of glare and noise, even if the room may be able to accomodate both at the same time. Owning a color TV became a status symbol in the beginning, when TV owners usually only had a black and white TV. As technology rapidly improved, owning increasingly larger and higher quality color TV units became a status symbol.

Despite the ongoing competition from the TV, plus the added competition from the Internet (since the 1990's), as something to watch and interact with in your spare time, the aquarium hobby and the aquarium industry have come further in the development, to create harmonious aquariums, during the latest few decades.

Several different freshwater styles have developed (and continue to evolve) in the freshwater aquarium hobby and the freshwater pond hobby. The freshwater styles also continue integrating and often taking inspiration from other interests, such as bonsai, gardening, photography, science research, popular movies and TV-series etc.

The marine saltwater hobby has evolved rapidly, during the last few decades, with more and more technical inventions and technical improvements, with a rapidly ongoing automatisation. Different natural processes are also discovered and are sometimes used to improve various aspects of the marine saltwater hobby. The general quality of various salts and supplements (and the knowledge of how to use supplements) for marine aquariums has improved, since the chemistry industry has improved. It has gradually become easier for an average "reefer" to keep many different types of living corals alive and thriving in an aquarium, compared to a few decades ago.

Aquarists experiment and iterate, while learning from both successes and setbacks. Then, some of those aquarists share their findings and opinions with other aquarists, be it marine saltwater, brackish water, and/or freshwater aquarists.

Today, it's common to change about 10 to 30 percent of the water, one to four times each month, which often provides a decently good assistance, like a helping hand, to the biological balance, permitting a significantly higher bioload, compared to a small ecosystem without water changes, unless you use lots of plants, or algae, to deal with the normally increasing concentration of nitrate in the water.

However, when you have fry, or sensitive species, you may, perhaps, want to make water changes a lot more often, depending on the situation. For example, if you want to grow out juvenile discus, to make them grow as fast as you can, it is generally recommended to make regular partial water changes as frequent as you can cope with.

Not everybody have noticed the progress and not everyone is willing to learn from the past, or from others. Some people still believe that the only way to do water changes is to always completely change all the water at every water change, when it is, generally, safer to do partial water changes, depending on the situation. However, if you want to, you can change a lot of water, especially if you want to do regular water changes every day (or almost every day), but then preferably use "mature" water (and/or treated water), if your initially available water is not already of exellent quality and completely safe for aquarium use.

Depending on the specifics about the water you start with, (various different local tap water, well water, rain water, lake water etc.), you can sometimes make adequately "mature" water simply by letting the water aerate, using an airpump, for a day. You can also do other things to the water, to make it more suitable for the specific fishes you keep.

To make the water more suitable you can, for example, run the water through a reverse osmosis unit, or filtrating it through peat, or filtrating it through activated carbon, or filtrating it through coral sand, or add chemicals, or other substances (or leaf litter), to alter the pH, and/or hardness, and/or salinity, and/or remove (or neutralize) chlorine, chloramine, ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, silicates, phosphates, heavy metals etc. It all depends on what kind of water your fishes need to prosper and what kind of water you begin with. If you do these kinds of things to the water, you should normally continue doing them the same way, for general stability and consistency, so there will not be any sudded changes in the water parameters in the aquarium, unless you deliberately do certain changes, to trigger spawning etc.

Today, there are a lot of technical equipment that in some situations can make it easier to decorate, keep and maintain aquariums. For example, different kinds of filters and waterpumps, airpumps, automatic feeders, thermostatic heaters, protein skimmers, water chemistry controllers connected to dosing pumps etc. Fluorescent aquarium lamps, metal halides, and/or modern led lighting, controlled by timers (or mobile phones), can make it easier to maintan a healthy day cycle.

Various specialized tools, such as easy to use siphon hoses, scissors, tweezers and other tools can help with aquascaping and maintenance. Factory made 3D backgrounds, made of modern materials (for example, polyurethane foam, or plastic resin), are available. Some people 3D print their own plastic aquarium decorations. Various aquarium soils, substrates, sand and gravel are available to choose from.

There is a risk that equipment happen to malfunction etc. Sometimes it may be better to go with the "KISS principle" (Keep it simple, stupid!), and/or to have backup plans for safety.

Glass aquariums of decent size from the olden days were, usually, held together with a kind of putty (cement), which often leaked. Glass aquariums of decent size today are, usually, siliconed together with aquarium silicone. Acrylic aquariums is a modern alternative to glass aquariums, made in a different way. Acrylic aquariums have various "pros and cons" compared to glass aquariums.

Starting from around the turn of the millenium, the use of low-iron glass (clear glass, without a greenish tint), instead of regular glass (with a greenish tint), started to become popular, especially among marine saltwater aquarium hobbyists in Europe. However, only the intended viewing panels of an aquarium are, normally, made from low-iron glass. Low-iron glass is a few times more expensive than regular type glass. It makes economical sense to use regular glass for the construction of the rest of the aquarium. Low-iron glass is also slightly softer than regular glass, so can be scratched slightly more easily than regular glass, but low-iron glass does not scratch as easily as acrylics. Different manufacturers sell low-iron glass under different brand names, for example: Optiwhite, Starphire, UltraClear, or Diamant.

Modern aquarium literature, aquarium societies and the Internet, can assist aquarium keepers, by spreading knowledge and inspiration.

Do not completely forget the past, learn from it, it may sometimes help you in the present modern age and also in the future. I believe it is good with an occasional reality check and to sometimes look back into the past for help, inspiration and interesting anecdotes, since it has been historically proven to be more than one way to keep aquariums.

External links in English, related to aquarium history:

Swedish external links, related to aquarium history: