“One of my challenges in doing more modern residences these days is just sort of to soften things,” he says. He sees it as a way to add movement and fluidity to what might otherwise be an arid space. Another is that, among people of means, a dazzling aquarium is one of the last surefire ways to impress their peers. One is that upscale nightclubs, restaurants and boutique hotels have been installing them, which gives homeowners the me-too idea. But for a certain segment of the population - many of whom never considered keeping fish before they had a big space to decorate - a showpiece aquarium has become a must-have piece of decor.Ĭustom aquariums are popular for two reasons, interior designers say. Most people who keep fish have a tank or two perhaps they start with a 5-gallon model and graduate to the 35- or 50-gallon version that doctors put in waiting rooms to keep patients calm. “I think they like that,” he says, walking down the steps to the sunken living room to admire the fish from another angle. Her husband, Alan Wilzig, 45, a former banker who collects motorcycles and prides himself on the orange tanning bed in his basement, goes to the James Bond-like control panel in the kitchen, where a touch of a button turns the fish, which are specially bred to be colorless, a vivid blue.

“Not pink,” says Wilzig, 40, an artist and a mother of two small children.

The default is fuchsia, which turns the dozen koi a deep pink. Karin Wilzig has a hard time choosing a favorite color from among the 64 that she and her husband can use to illuminate the 14½-foot, 450-gallon aquarium in their New York townhouse.

Midwest tropical modern fish tank