All cottagers know the many hours and days children spend at the summer vacation home catching small fish and other animals and keeping them in a bucket, where they often do not live more than a few hours.  

The Cottage Aquarium Company was founded on the idea that kids would be able catch their fish and other critters and experience them for days without any harm to the animals before they were released back into their natural environment.
Our company set out to design the perfect container for cottage critters - a place the animals would not only be safe and healthy, but would also enjoy.  A rugged container that would last a cottage lifetime.  

There were a few early considerations in the aquarium's design: 

First, it had to contain as much of the surrounding cottage lake water as possible, without being too big for easy transport.  Second, it would be designed to make use of standard hose connections that most cottages use to access the lake water.  Third, it had to allow for the water to flow through it in a way that would maintain proper temperature and oxygen levels so your critters remain healthy for days and days.

Years ago, our first prototype was built , and like the prototypes that followed, it was made of strong "food grade" plastic that would never leach any bad chemicals into the water.  The plastic is a natural off white colour, allowing for better viewing of the animals from above.  The inside of the container was designed to have different places for different animals.  After making minor adjustments to the original, and hiring engineers to design computer models of the aquarium, two more prototypes were produced to get where we are today – the perfect outdoor cottage aquarium.

Further, because our cottage aquarium remains outside at all times where raccoons and other nocturnal animals go to great efforts to get to the critters in the container, we designed an appropriate lid with a simple fastening system that is
"raccoon proof". 

And we call it simply “The Cottage Aquarium” – for fish, turtles, tadpoles, salamanders, crayfish, and more ………