An aquarium (plural: aquariums or aquaria) is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aquatic reptiles such as turtles, and aquatic plants.
The term "aquarium", coined by English naturalist Philip Henry Gosse, combines the Latin root aqua, meaning water, with the suffix -arium, meaning "a place for relating to".
The aquarium principle was fully developed in 1850 by the chemist Robert Warrington, who explained that plants added to water in a container would give off enough oxygen to support animals, so long as the numbers of animals did not grow too large.
