Fish are quite beautiful to look at when you are able to have an aquarium inside your own home. They’re a lot of fun for guests to check out, and for homeowners, they can be really a source of joy. However, one Australian man is coming under fire for installing a massive aquarium inside his mansion at Kangaroo Point in south Sydney, Australia, because he is keeping one type of fish that most people believe belongs in the open ocean and not cooped up in a fish bowl at home.
The Australian fish fanatic shared images of his large in-home aquarium on his TikTok account, which is called thegyup_aus. In addition to the short video he included in the content, he added a caption that stated, “Water change of 10,000L on my shark tank makes the animals happy.” He uses a truck parked outside of his home to funnel out the liquid from the tank to clean it so the animals inside can be happy and swim around freely.
Many social media users on the Chinese-created video-sharing app platform were quick to join the conversation. Thousands of people applauded the Australian man for building such a large aquarium inside his private residence. Others were quick to point out that the fish tank is cruel to the sharks living in it because they are better adapted to life in the open ocean. These critics believe that the Kangaroo Point homeowner is depriving his sharks of their “Freedom” by keeping them cooped up in the fishbowl all day long.
In one of the TikTok videos, the homeowner explained that he had removed half of the water from the tank so he could refill it with new cleaner water. This prompted many social media users on TikTok to lash out and question where the sharks were being held in the interim.
While some people joked about how the sharks were probably being kept in the bathtub, the homeowner came forward to shut down all concerns. He said that the sharks were still in the tank of water since it was extremely large and able to hold all of the animals even with half the usual amount of water.
“The tank is 20,000 liters. They swim in the bottom half of the tank,” he said.
Even though the tank is large, many people questioned whether the man was treating his shark pets with kindness. Or should these wild animals be set free to roam the open ocean?
“Real ocean and freedom are what makes them happy,” one person wrote on TikTok.
“Or you can let it roam freely and happily in the sea instead,” another shared.
A third contributed, “No, the tank is way too small. It’s like a beta in a small fishbowl… not appropriate.”
Some people could not help but be impressed.
“Cool shark tank, only if I had a tank that size, I would go crazy with the plants and add some schooling fish,” one wrote.
“I love the tank! Looks amazing,” another person wrote.