If I ever decide to buy fish, I’ll have to consider this incredible aquarium by Kelsey Kronmiller
“I started in about a year ago, after my good friend showed me a similar tank and challenged me to make one….so I did,” said Kronmiller to me over email. “I originally wanted to go with the underwater level, since it makes sense, but that level didn’t provide enough visually engaging structures or things that the fish could hide in (hiding is essential for their
health). So I scraped that idea and decided on World 8-1…buuuut I couldn’t find the right sky color in the backdrop and decided world 1-1 would be more recognizable anyway, so went back to that.”
It’s been a long road for this aquarium, though. Here’s how it started within Adobe Illustrator:
Next up, it was time to start building the pieces.
Soon enough, the project was coming together.
With a few finishing touches, it was time to consider adding the final ingredient. You know, fish.
“I
estimated this tank took around 300 hours to create and I did the
majority of it within a three week timeframe,” said Kronmiller. “It has
been ready for a few months and I finally got around to putting water in
it at the end of March. After a fish-less cycle, fish went in last
Saturday.”
Who’s in there? We’ve got Mario...
Boo...
Heck, there’s even Bowser.
What’s more, Kronmiller hasn’t stopped with Super Mario Bros. She’s since moved on to bringing The Legend of Zelda underwater, and shared a few shots of what she’s been up to.
“It was much simpler than the Mario tank and only took about a week to finish,” she said. “The backdrop was the hardest part!”
The little fishie swimming around is a Halfmoon Dragonscale betta fish named Link, of course.
If you want more, Kronmiller uploaded a whole bunch of photos documenting her progress work right over here.