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R2-D2 Aquarium With Radar Eye Periscope
Posted by Sean Fallon at 3:30 AM on November 11, 2008
Now you can add "fish tank" along side "beverage cooler" and "projector" on the long list of job titles R2-D2 has had in his post-acting career. But rest assured that no matter what his occupation happens to be, R2 has a strong work ethic. In addition to housing your fish, he will rotate his head and utter his trademark bleeps with any voice command. He also features overhead LED tank lights that rotate colours and a periscope built-into his radar eye for spying on the fish floating in his robo-belly. On the downside, R2 never works cheap—this beauty will set you back $US130. [Hammacher Schlemmer via TFTS via Geekalerts]
As if fish had it bad enough. They're trapped in a tiny bowl, dependent on you to toss them a handful of dried shrimp from time to time, and now with this glass LED-illuminated globe bowl they're going to be forced into an underwater rave every time the lights go off. Still, this little US$50 half gallon bowl is pretty cool looking, even if it does tease the fish with a map of their native habitat (oceans and lakes) whenever you hit the switch. Any aquarium pros out there know if LED's are the proper lighting for fish? [
Your goldfish may never truly be free, but if you had one of these infinity 
I'm pretty sure Missy Elliot had something similar to Azoo's Eco-Desk, which has a self-cleaning tropical fish aquarium contained within a glass and aluminium body. Alas, hers was made by Lamborghini, so this is the poor man's / international female hip-hop star's iteration, but it's still a bit of cool for your apartment. The glass top rests on a hinged support, which can be pulled open to allow Nemo to escape back home, or better yet, add some company to the captives inside. The aquarium contains Azoo's solution for biological, water and temperature control, meaning you don't have to worry about anything other than why your Coi Carp look so damn uncomfortable.
There is something about aquariums that is just plain cool—and the Moody Acquario is definitely a cool bathtub. While I can see where the designers got the idea, the logic behind the US$14,500 price tag is a little harder to fathom. I mean, the design itself is pretty basic and it doesn't look all that comfortable to sit in. Plus, you have all of those fish quietly laughing at your whale like physique or less-than-impressive manhood. [
What do you do with a 25-metre-high acrylic glass cylinder, 238,000 gallons of sea water, 2,600 fish from 56 different species, and two divers? The Aquadom, the largest cylindrical aquarium in the world, that's what. In its core there's an elevator that travels through a cylinder of glass. As you will see in the videos after the jump, it's simply stunning. 
The Octopus Studios' Silverfish Aquarium (see BBGadgets for bookworm joke that, I'll be honest, took me a second) is one of those things you wish you had right up until the day you get it, then you spend a couple of years wondering what you were thinking. Sure, its six orbs of sturdy clear PMMA plastic are future funky in a retro-1980s Schwartzenegger-movie kind of way, and the advertised "easy installation" of this US$3,400 complete-kit aqua-sculpture is certainly believable. But the minute green filth starts to build up in the linking tunnels, or one of your gouramis goes belly up in a lower-quadrant globe, well, that's it for fun with fish. [
Aquariums are pretty neato decorations, even if you need to imprison a bunch of fish that your kids will try to emancipate after they see Finding Nemo. But if you think a regular old aquarium is cool, take a gander at the Spacearium. Suspended from the ceiling, lit up all slick-like, and can be used as a room divider if you so desire.
