What is a pondarium?
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A pondarium is a shallow, open-topped tank that sits somewhere between a garden pond and an aquarium. Like an aquarium, it stands indoors (or on a balcony) and you look into it through glass. Like a pond, it is open to the air: plants grow up and out of the water, and you watch the fish from above as much as from the side.
Pond, aquarium and pondarium
- An aquarium is a closed glass tank, filled to the top, that you mostly look at from the side. Everything happens under water.
- A garden pond is dug into the ground or built from a liner, and is seen from above. It follows the seasons: cold in winter, warm in summer.
- A pondarium borrows from both. The water is often only half or two-thirds of the tank's height, which leaves room for marsh and bog plants to rise above the surface. It is lit from above, kept at room temperature (or heated, for tropical fish), and seen from both the side and the top.
The word itself is a blend of pond and aquarium, and you will also see the same idea called a paludarium (when there is a lot of land) or a riparium (when plants hang over the water from the edge).
Why people build them
A pondarium shows you the whole of a small water world: the roots, the stems, the leaves above the water and the fish moving between them. Plants that grow partly out of the water are good at taking up nutrients, which helps keep the water clear. And because the surface is open, you can see fish come up to feed, and a little of the life that happens at the water's edge.
What you need to get started
The basics are the same as for an aquarium: a tank, a filter that suits its size, a light, and time for the water to cycle — for the bacteria that break down fish waste to settle in — before the first fish arrive. A heater is only needed for tropical species. We will cover the details in a guide of its own.
How the game Pondarium plays on it
Pondarium is a living pond on your screen. Your fish grow, breed, age and need care in real time, even while you are away, over months and years rather than minutes. You feed them, keep the water clean, give them the plants and equipment they need, and breed rare colour forms, then trade them with other players.
The real-world facts on these pages are about the real fish. The In Pondarium box on each species page shows how that fish lives in the game.