Wayne's Fish Condo

I got the idea for what I call the condo while I was helping my wife Terri do the dishes. I put a glass under water, turned it upside down and raised it slowly, and it stayed full of water even when the glass was upside down. Cool. A vacuum. Then I thought that it was a principal of physics, and no matter how much you increase the size and height, it will still work. So I got an 18-inch vase as you see, and the fish love it, swimming above the surface looking down on the pond, sometimes just hanging out in it. I can make them go up on command to entertain guests by releasing floating fish food under it. It floats to the top, and they follow. The vase is not sitting on anything. What you can't see in the picture is that it is hanging from the pergola on three 30-pound test nylon fishing lines. I raise it to one inch below the surface of the water with a pulley system that I rigged up. I do have another condo I made from an 8-inch clear tube. That stands 4 feet above the surface, and, yes, the fish go all the way to the top. One night we had a first time guest over, and they didn't know about the pond right outside the bay window. The 4- foot condo was set up in front of the window which goes right to the floor. As we were sitting, I had my back to the window. As we were talking, the lady kept looking over my shoulder instead of at me. After about 15 minutes, she interrupted the conversation and said, "Did you know there is a fish swimming outside your window." So, with a straight face I said with some disgust, "Ya, they do that around here."

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