This is like an Einstein-Rosen Bridge for the fishies. If only they knew it existed, where it was, and how to traverse it, they could travel to an otherwise impossibly distant universe.
... what...?

Kewl! Kinda like the railroads some minature train lovers build across their house/bedroom. But with live fish. I want something liket that for myself, but unfortunately, I can't hold my breath that long.

I want a bridge that connects my place to the playboy mansion!

they need to add electroshock palletes to encourage the fish to explore.

If he wanted to make an elaborate setup for aquatic life such as this, he should've opted for an octopus. They would definitely use this. Unfortunately, you do have to seal off both connecting tanks as well, because they can fit in holes far smaller than themselves.

You'd think that in the tube there might be a negative pressure that might hurt the air bladders of the fish. But they don't seem to be bothered by it so maybe not.

This is like daja vu. I know I saw these exact same photos a year or two or three ago somewhere. Is Gizmo recycling features from the past or something?

They could easily build in an access panel someplace on the bridge and lace it with something to attract the fish and the fish would inevitably use it_

Sounds more like the folks who run the place mostly thought it would be cool to have fish tanks and then they came up with the idea for the bridge - very nice piece of engineering - but it seems like they know nothing or very little about fish other than you feed them daily so they stay alive and that too much green algae is bad 'cause they watched "Finding Nemo"_

I have plans I made for this about 10 years ago. If only I had a patent.

Wait a minute- in the picture with the green plants, the fish appear to be on both sides of the waterline. Is one of those fish swimming in the air??

@Ultraorange: Yes, had you patented it, you would have sold one! :)

@DelosWorld: There was a similar post awile back yeah. Not the same though.

@homerjay: There's no waterline, that's a sealed seam of the plexi. The entire tube is filled with water.

So, is the water held in place by vacuum? Since there is no air inlet at the top of the tube, the water can't escape either direction? Weird.

@DelosWorld: Maybe you've been traveling through time? That's the story I'd go with.

This reminds me of some show with a bunch of cat people (people with cats, not Nastassja Kinski and Malcolm McDowell) and the cat people had these crazy tunnels and ledges throughout their house for all of their cats. Cat people freak me out (including Malcom McDowell.)

this is a repeat .. alredy done on Giz afaik

There is NO water in the "bridge." Water seeks its own level and any water in the bridge will fall back down into the tanks causing the tanks to overflow and the bridge to empty. Whoever built this was either kidding or ignorant of 15th century physics.

how would the fill the bridge with water and install it without letting air get into it? this thing seems kinda fishy... (but apparently not?)

All I know is I'd hate to clean it.

Forgive my ignorance, but how is the water in the bridge not pushing out the water in the tanks?

I'd also imagine cleaning these could be a pain in the a$$

@nocode: From the pics, it looks like the plexi tubes have their ends underwater. There's probably enough pressure there to equalize the pressure from the bridge water.

Also, it looks like there are some pretty substantial pumps going on here (from the size of the pipes)

@shorty6049:

You can try it at home. Get two buckets and a short piece of hose, fill the buckets and hose with water and put the ends of the hose in the buckets ... and be amazed!

I did the same thing once with hamsters. Much more fun to watch than fish.

I bet Nemo could have escaped using this bridge and he could have gotten back to his father sooner.

If I were trapped in a room and there were a 2 mile tunnel leading to another room exactly like the one I'm in, I don't think I'd use the tunnel either.

@Pope John Peeps II: Actually, the thing about water is pressure is "equal" everywhere, except for the "depth" factor, so you could seal everywhere but the top of the bridge and then just pour water until it's nice and full (quite a bitch to feed the fish!)

@uberfu: Why are some of you acting like the fish don't use the bridge? There are several pictures here showing them swim across it; up it, etc. Did you not look at the pictures?

@poppy: Yeah, I was wondering 'bout that too. Most every picture shows fishies in the bridgies.

What happens when one of them dies in the bridge?

I'm sure when the tunnel bursts and everyone there gets covered in fishy water they won't be too happy.

@ccoldsmoke: You have to suck the floater out......

I watched a few years ago something on Discovery about training fishes to follow mazes and stuff.

Maybe with some time those fishes will be able to use it...

cheers

Since I was a tween I have always thought a cool mod would be to put together an eloborate hamster cage with all the elbows and tunnels, seal it water tight and put fish in it. I am thinking of a piece of *art* that you would put up against a wall and cover the entire wall with these twists and turns for the fishies to swim in. I am 35 now and realize that cleaning somethign like this would suck. Not to mention the water-proofing of a cage designed to have air-holes. Still a neat concept. You go over to somebodies house and they have fish swimming through all these tubes. I think it would be cool to see (not to own).

@Cheve: Actually, if you opened the top you'd let air in, which would immediately allow the water in the "bridge" to flow out into the tanks. What's keeping the water there is that there's no air available to displace it.

You'd have to build the bridge, put it in place, and then suck the air out of it while you added water to the tanks. You can test this phenomenon at home by taking a glass, submerging it in the sink, letting it fill with water and then pulling it out of the sink ass-end first. Because there's no air to leak in, the water stays in the glass (until you let the lip break the surface).

One day, I will have an indoor pool.

It will have a glass bottom.

Underneath that glass bottom, there will be an aquarium. Of sharks.

Underneath that aquarium, there will be a lounge.

It will be glorious.

@Cheve: OIC you said "everywhere" which would include the tanks themselves. That would work, but it doesn't look like the tanks have their lids sealed.

@CCOLDSMOKE:

Dude, you had me LMAO over here @ work! Seriously, I started to tear up, people looking @ me, good stuff...

If it's wrong to laugh my ass off picturing a dead fish floating into oblivion with no way of retrieving it...Then I don't want to be right!

Fish aren't quite as stupid as we all think; The Mythbusters were able to train goldfish to run a rudimentary maze for food. So I think they'd figure out that the tube connects two different places. Eventually.

I will also have a sort of rail the size of a model train set system set up in my room to carry stuff (messages, people, snacks) around.

And for the hell of it, one means of moving between the two floors will be a ladder hidden in a giant green pipe with a button that'll play Super Mario effects when you push it.

I could turn this into the worlds largest bong!!

Either the bridge has to be sealed, or the tanks have to be, right?
If the tanks are sealed, you fill it up from the top, but you need to worry about the fish that dies in the tank.
If the bridge is sealed, you have to wonder how they filled it up.

Yeah Fishy Trail!!

When I created mine, I had to put the tunnels on the side of the tank at the most common level at which the fish swam to encourage them to use it. I also ran a 1/8 perforated airhose through it to keep the water curculating otherwise it gets a bit messy. Oh and you do have to keep the tanks and tubes at the same level. It's fun to look at and the Cats love it!

as for people worried about cleaning these things, as long as there is no direct sunlight AND you have heavy duty filters running (as they do) cleaning would be quite simple with the right algae tablets and chemical treatments. also, they have those amazing magnetic scrubbers that you can use to clean the inside of the tank and tubes. very cool idea. a bit risky if you live on the second floor or above, but still, very cool.

@lulabale: Vacuum pressure on the sealed bridge, see my post above.

@HeartBurnKid: Again, where did you guys get the impression that the fish don't use this thing? Look at the pictures.

@gusnyc.com:I don't think that would be a good idea since water and electricity don't tend to mix well.

This seems a bit fishy to me. (no pun intended)

Looks like the Big Dig for fishes...

Also looks like a dangerous setup from multiple standpoints, and the tubes don't look inviting for fish, for a multitude of reasons. I'd take it down.

The water in the bridge is being held by a syphon. Basically to tanks have have the same amount of water and the bridge is filled last. As long as both tanks have enough water in them to keep the syphon. The bridge can hold the water.

My only question is how would they do the water changes?

I guess a lot of folks didn't bother to look at the reference links to the story. Apparently they use air pumps to suck the air out at the top of the tunnel. That pulls the water up and fills the tunnel with H2Oski.

Oh, do a google search using "aquarium bridge" and a lot of stuff pops up for this type of thing. Lots of links for products and homebrew experimentation.

Here's a product example.
[www.animalworldnetwork.com]