Angela Stathousi was enjoying checking out the fish Tuesday at Pisces Pet Emporium in northeast Calgary.
“It’s peaceful to watch them in the water, just doing their own thing,” Stathousi said.
A sentiment that, for many, is especially true amid the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions.
“We spend so much time home nowadays,” Stathousi said.
Which is a situation that’s helping boost sales of aquariums, fish and related accessories during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Wow! It has skyrocketed. More and more people are coming into the hobby right now,” Pisces employee Wayne Goldson said. “When you build a tank, it gets your mind active and it helps you in terms of stress, just watching fish.”
The growing fascination with fish means growth for Felix Smart, a Calgary company that designs and produces high tech aquarium control systems that handle many of the daily functions of caring for fish.
“It monitors your water, and not only can you feed your fish from far away, but you can watch your fish eating from far away, using our 360 underwater camera,” Felix Smart’s Tom Lam said.
Lam is optimistic about more growth as the months ahead possibly bring an easing of COVID-19 restrictions.
“As people go back to work and go back to the offices and start travelling again, the aquariums still need to be taken care of,” Lam said. “It’s a big opportunity for growth.”
Lam says Felix Smart control systems are now in use around the world.
“We have customers in Mexico, all over Europe, the U.S., Canada, as far away as Australia, Indonesia,” Lam said. “Right now, they’re actually made in China and so we’ve got a huge push this year to bring production back to Calgary.”
Growth in the industry is welcome news for fish aficionados like Stathousi.
“The fish are really fun to watch,” she said.