Ploosh! Berlin style

December 16, 2022 8:41 AM

At 04:50 GMT this morning, a 1,000 tonne fashion accessory, containing 1,500 fish, blew apart in the lobby of the Radisson Blu Hotel in Berlin. It was the world's largest cylindrical aquarium, now it's a puddle.

DW News coverage [5m YT]. Filling in the urban flood calendar between The Great London Beer flood 17 October 1814 and The Great Boston Molasses flood 15 Jan 1919 - covered here on the 2019 centenary. Both of which were more deadly . . . to people.

posted by BobTheScientist (40 comments total)

Aw those poor fish. No people hurt but damn.
posted by emjaybee at 8:47 AM on December 16, 2022 [15 favorites]

As a person who kept fish, and always wanted a fresh water tank, this breaks my heart

. x1500
posted by LizBoBiz at 8:49 AM on December 16, 2022 [9 favorites]

really sad to see this happen. love tropical fish.
posted by SituationNormal at 9:07 AM on December 16, 2022 [2 favorites]

So awful. I will be interested in the future to see an analysis of how it structurally failed.
posted by tiny frying pan at 9:16 AM on December 16, 2022 [2 favorites]

That’s terrifying.
posted by interogative mood at 9:17 AM on December 16, 2022

This is so awful.

.... for the all the beautiful fish.

So fortunate no one was injured, as the article said it could have been even more devastating if it had happened at a different time of day.
posted by snowymorninblues at 9:17 AM on December 16, 2022

I'm hearing that Eugene Kittridge, director of the Impossible Missions Force has disavowed any knowledge of actions that may have led to this incident.

(but also . for those poor fishies.)
posted by Superilla at 9:17 AM on December 16, 2022 [3 favorites]

I feel so terrible about all the fish.
posted by Kitteh at 9:18 AM on December 16, 2022

Call me ghoulish, but I want a video of the tank letting go. Normally you can only see this sort of thing in the movies!
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 9:20 AM on December 16, 2022 [9 favorites]

When I heard about this, my first thought was about that hotel lobby disaster in Kansas City in 1981, which did kill people. A few hours in either direction, and this would be a much different story. The loss of the fish is sad, but it could have been a lot of people.
posted by briank at 9:21 AM on December 16, 2022 [1 favorite]

There were a few lucky survivors found in a puddle down an elevator shaft, and several hundred fish from powerless smaller aquariums at the site were relocated to another nearby giant aquarium, so yes, sadness but the survivors will remember! Wait don't fish not remember?

Also, two humans suffered glass cuts. They will have to remember in the fishes' stead.

German source
posted by flamewise at 9:29 AM on December 16, 2022 [2 favorites]

If the article is correct that a glass elevator tube ran down the middle of the fish tank, the disaster could have resulted in multiple human deaths if the elevator had been occupied at the time :(
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 9:35 AM on December 16, 2022 [1 favorite]

.
posted by JoeXIII007 at 9:52 AM on December 16, 2022

METAFILTER: I feel so terrible about all the fish
posted by philip-random at 9:55 AM on December 16, 2022

Authorities have released this photograph of the suspects
posted by ejs at 10:11 AM on December 16, 2022

Oh my cod! Those poor fish, was there a single sole survivor? I hope nothing fishy is going on. I'd hate to see someone carp to such a nasty act. I hope the hotel doesn't flounder after a disaster like this.
posted by slogger at 10:30 AM on December 16, 2022 [4 favorites]

Please tell me someone made exotic sushi out of this.
posted by meehawl at 10:34 AM on December 16, 2022

Listen, I just have to note that two posts down on the front page is a story about a 'new species' of shark that is capable of using its fins to walk on land. They can do this for up to two hours, tolerating the low oxygen by *turning off non-essential brain functions*. They are noted to be particularly popular in aquariums. That's right, aquaria full of sharks that can turn on zombie-land-shark mode at will. Now, this. COINCIDENCE???
posted by Ausamor at 10:42 AM on December 16, 2022 [6 favorites]

makes me think of the (really awesome) swimming pool at the Golden Nugget in LV.

it has a shark tank in the middle of it (and a water slide that goes THROUGH the tank!!!) imagine if that broke??? it would be like a mini-Jaws, a blood bath LOL!!!
posted by supermedusa at 11:08 AM on December 16, 2022

I've swam in the Golden Nugget pool! Truly a fun experience.
posted by tiny frying pan at 11:19 AM on December 16, 2022 [1 favorite]

supermedusa, most of the shark species listed at the Golden Nugget tank aren't dangerous to people.

They list four black-tipped sharks, three Tiger sharks, four sandbar sharks, two zebra sharks and two nurse sharks.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 11:24 AM on December 16, 2022 [1 favorite]

I went to the Melbourne aquarium and the aquarium keepers said the animals in the aquarium that are the most dangerous are the sea turtles - well fed sharks in an aquarium rarely cause trouble, but a sea turtle will bite your finger off if it thinks you are being even slightly too slow in feeding it.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 11:31 AM on December 16, 2022 [1 favorite]

Weirdly enough, this happens in an episode of Babylon Berlin – an exploding aquarium in a lavish hotel – except with less structural failure and more indiscriminate gunfire.
posted by oulipian at 12:11 PM on December 16, 2022 [1 favorite]

chariot pulled by cassowaries don't ruin my fun here ;)

I'm imagining something in the Sharknado franchise, we could make a killing (lol)
"just when you thought it was safe to go back to the casino"

but seriously, I am very sad for the fish. the whole situation is pretty terrifying and its amazing and lucky that no one was killed by massive shards of glass tsunami-ing across the lobby.
posted by supermedusa at 12:14 PM on December 16, 2022 [2 favorites]

I want to hear what it SOUNDED like.
posted by tiny frying pan at 12:16 PM on December 16, 2022 [2 favorites]

Really need to work on that transparent aluminum formula.

. 🐟
posted by credulous at 12:25 PM on December 16, 2022 [4 favorites]

my first thought was about that hotel lobby disaster in Kansas City in 1981

My aunt and uncle were standing in the lobby of the hotel when the skywalk collapsed. He sued the hotel for "mental anguish" and went from being a wealthy man to being an even wealthier man.
posted by jabah at 1:00 PM on December 16, 2022 [1 favorite]

this is why you don't feed fish baked beans
posted by pyramid termite at 1:27 PM on December 16, 2022

Tom Cruise is the most likely suspect.
posted by kirkaracha at 1:42 PM on December 16, 2022

Thanks, and so long to all the fish!

It seems like this kind of thing should have been way over engineered for safety. I am curious what went wrong.
posted by snofoam at 1:42 PM on December 16, 2022 [2 favorites]

They list four black-tipped sharks, three Tiger sharks, four sandbar sharks, two zebra sharks

...and a partridge in a pear tree.
posted by kirkaracha at 1:43 PM on December 16, 2022 [2 favorites]

It's as though the tank gave one last, deep sigh emanating from its very structure, and said, "So long, and thanks for all the fish."
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:23 PM on December 16, 2022 [1 favorite]

I am curious what went wrong.

Speculation is that the abnormally low -10'C temperature may have been a contributing factor.
posted by porpoise at 2:51 PM on December 16, 2022

If the article is correct that a glass elevator tube ran down the middle of the fish tank,

The article is correct, there is a sealife aquarium next door and the tour finished with the visitors going through the tank on the lift (it's about 6-7 storeys) then walking back into the aquarium next door to the hotel. The aquarium was then effectively suspended over the hotel lobby. Either the lift or the lobby could have had people in if this had happened a few hours later. Or the tank itself come to that since they cleaned it with divers.

We stayed there on this weekend 6 years ago on a Christmas market trip to Berlin.
posted by biffa at 4:35 PM on December 16, 2022 [1 favorite]

A couple people were injured by broken glass and hundreds of fish survived in the basement.
posted by bendy at 9:47 PM on December 16, 2022 [1 favorite]

My aunt and uncle were standing in the lobby of the hotel when the skywalk collapsed. He sued the hotel for "mental anguish" and went from being a wealthy man to being an even wealthier man.

This is like a capsule chapter by Evan S. Connell, my goodness. There's even an instant title in "Skywalk."

In more serious terms: grateful to hear there were at least a few piscine survivors in puddles, in addition to lack of human injury.
posted by desert outpost at 2:13 AM on December 17, 2022

I find it hard to believe any part of the aquarium was exposed to outdoor temperatures, but I await further information.
posted by Nancy Lebovitz at 4:35 PM on December 17, 2022

I'm surprised there was no video footage (I thought security cameras were everywhere by now, even though the timing thankfully meant there weren't people with phones around).

It reminded me of the NY Aquarium being completely destroyed by Hurricane Sandy, though that had a happier ending - the damage was so extensive they couldn't conceive of rebuilding it, but almost every single fish survived. IIRC, there were one or two eels they thought were lost, that later turned up in the wreckage of someone's office.

I wish this had a happier ending for the fish, but the timing was a godsend that it happened when it did.
posted by Mchelly at 6:30 AM on December 18, 2022

Fran Blanche on the Aquarium. And the World Trade Center. And Notre Dame.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 8:32 PM on December 18, 2022 [1 favorite]

In the comments section of this video, claims are made that the aquarium was plastic, and that there was a recent renovation. I thought the following comment was especially interesting:

In a reply below, a poster stated that the acrylic was polished during renovation. Polishing acyrlic heats the acrylic and causes internal stresses that make it prone to shattering. Had the same thing happen to the high strength acrylic dasher panels of a hockey rink in an arena I work at. They had someone polish out the scratches and then the panels started to shatter. We had to start replacing them with new panels, and when they get all scratched up, we again replace with new panels. […]

posted by jamjam at 8:03 PM on December 20, 2022 [2 favorites]