(Written by Greg Towndrow of Fishspace.ca)

Today I would like to show you a new LEGO related product I have been working on: Fishspace is a plastic fish-tank where you can attach toy building-bricks (such as LEGO) to a rim along the top, inside the tank and underneath, to create a scene for your pet fish. Fishspace hopes to encourage kids (and kids-at-heart) to adopt pet fish, but also have fun while doing it. Looks interesting? Here is the story of how Fishspace came to be… 🙂

Let’s wind back to Spring 2011. Fishspace started out as an idea between myself and my boss when I was working at an internship in Ottawa while studying Industrial Design at Carleton University. It was my boss’s idea to attach LEGO to a fish tank, and I took on the task of working out the details and come up with an early concept.

As we were working together on the design, Fishspace evolved into a one-piece Injection Molded tank with studs around the rim and inside for attaching LEGO and other building-toy elements. Fishspace’s large, 2 gallon size provides plenty of room for your LEGO bricks and plenty of swimming room for your fish. In fact, since fish thrive in stimulating, bright environments, Fishspace will help you keep happy and healthy fish!

Fishspace is made of impact resistant BPA-free Tritan, which was recently developed for drink and food containers, and will not leech harmful chemicals into the water. Fishspace is going to be the first BPA-free plastic fish-tank in the world, and the largest fish-tank under $30! Here are some questions people asked about Fishspace that might also be on your mind as you are reading this:

• What type of fish can live in Fishspace? We used a Betta Fish since they breathe from the air, but you can use any fish that does not require a filtered tank. 
• Will the LEGO bricks get slimy? Not if the water is changed frequently enough; we recommend at least once every two weeks. Treat Fishspace as if it is a regular Betta tank by keeping the water changed.
• Will the LEGO bricks hurt the fish? No, the only issue is putting too many bricks in. Leave lots of swimming room for the fish, Fishspace is two gallons in size so there is room for both bricks and the fish. 
• Will the paint come off of LEGO bricks? Not in a million years! LEGO and Megabloks are molded plastic, their colors are the pigment of the plastic. For all you interested in manufacturing they are Injection Molded ABS.

As we were moving along with the concept of Fishspace, we patented the design (U.S. Design Patent Pending), put together a business-plan, and currently running a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds. We also reached out to The Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF), and they have been providing us excellent mentoring and financial support to help us bring Fishspace to the market. If you would like to read more about our business-plan and support or campaign, please visit us at: FISHSPACE  CAMPAIGN AT KICKSTARTER

To help spread the word about Fishspace and our fund-raising efforts, we are also running a fun LEGO contest. We are raffling off 3 of the LEGO sets we used for our Fishspace demos to randomly selected winners. All you need to do to enter the contest is to add your name and email address on the contest page. You can enter the contest until October 18th. So come by to play, but please make sure you read the Contest Rules as there are some restrictions. You can read the Contest Rules here: FISHSPACE CONTEST RULES, and enter the contest here: FISHSPACE CONTEST PAGE (update: looks like this website has been taken down, so the links no longer work)

What do you think? How do you like the idea of Fishspace? What kind of LEGO creation would you add to your own fish-tank? If you would like to support us on Kickstarter and have any questions feel free to ask in the comment section below. And if you are already our supporter, thank you! Also, we need all the help spreading the word about Fishspace, if people don’t know about our campaign, they cannot pledge. So please tweet, like, and share by using the social buttons at the bottom of this post. Thanks! 😉