I’m willing to bet that nearly everyone has been mesmerized by an aquarium at least once. Spotting an aquamarine cuboid in the wild, full of colorful fish slowly dancing their slow ballet and water glittering around them is such a captivating sight. Some even go on to create their own aquascapes at home, perpetuating the cycle of aquarium fascination.

But have you ever wanted to take it to the next level? Well, this creator did just that, decided he wasn’t satisfied, and then went even further. He created a massive aquarium in a cistern under his home – and people are in love with it.

More info: TikTok Part 1 | TikTok Part 2

TikTok creator cowturtle – Nick Tobler – has a fascination with all sorts of wildlife and is keen to share his passion online

Image credits: cowturtle9427

Nick showed off the eel pit as it was a year ago, without the snazzy additions of today

Image credits: cowturtle9427

“Hi, TikTok, I just want to do a quick video on my eel hole”

“First things first, this is not my basement. Now, the reason I want to do this eel hole is that I like keeping really weird fish and I like exploring really weird places.”

Image credits: cowturtle

“And this is the rainwater cistern under my new house”

“So these concrete walls, they’re meant for holding rainwater and they’re actually meant for supplying drinking water and the house water. So the walls are totally safe. The cinder blocks are made with lime, which is toxic but I’ve acid-bathed them and that takes the toxicity out of them. So they are totally safe.”

Image credits: cowturtle9427

“And you can see I’ve had the minnows in since the beginning, since I touched the water”

“They’ve been here the whole way. I’ve never noticed any dead minnows, there should be about two dozen in here somewhere. They can actually get up under these walkways and they’re all, I’m sure, hiding. I did add a goldfish. Yeah, hit me with your questions. I’ll do my best to explain.”

Image credits: cowturtle9427

“This is the light, this will be the permanent light”

“I’ll increase the angle and it’ll go all the way across. I’m going to put a canister filter here and we’re going to do that over the waterfall, I think.  And then later on, try to get the waterfall nice looking.”

Image credits: cowturtle

“And this water is still not even close to being clear all the way”

“You can start seeing gravel, there’s a bag of gravel right there. So it has cleared up a lot in the last few days. I think a canister filter will help even more.”

Image credits: cowturtle9427

Cowturtle showed off his newest addition to the eel pit for more biodiversity, blue crabs, from two months ago

Image credits: cowturtle

“Hi, everybody. Super exciting update today in the eel pit”

“I actually went to a local Asian grocery store and picked up five blue crabs. I wanted to do two males and three females, but all they actually had was females. So we’re going with that for now.”

Image credits: cowturtle

“Size-wise, I think they should get along with all the eels and gar in the pit”

“They actually had some live bass also, but no plans for bass in the eel pit. But here are the crabs I chose. Like I said, looking at them, I believe they’re all female. But they should do fine with everyone down there.”

Image credits: cowturtle

“If I do run into any issues with them, worst case, I don’t have a problem eating them”

“You can see that big broad – I’m not sure the exact term for it. But that’s actually their – if they were like a lobster, that’d be their tail floated up so they actually carry their eggs and stuff like that under there. So the females have much broader, I call it a tail flap. I’m sure there’s a scientific term for it. But that is the first blue crab, its name will be Creeb. Her name, I suppose.”

Image credits: cowturtle

“One of the reasons I was adding the crabs is, one, I like just diversity in general down here”

“But I think we did lose Sriracha, the orange crayfish. With winter flooding, I think the eel pit raised and the water was too high for a few days, where he actually got out of that bucket out here. The bucket was fully underwater. So I think he tail flicked himself out of there and managed to get himself eaten.”

Image credits: cowturtle

“That was Neil, by the way, that eel that came up and ate, but yeah”

“Here is Creeb checking me out. I’m checking him out. And that gar behind them is Jason slowly backing up. I love how the gar move. When they’re trying to be slow, they just kind of use their fins and paddle away, backwards and forwards.”

“Super cool. Yeah, you can see water’s clear. This is about 12-foot side to side”

“So more than 12-foot visibility, actually just stirred up the filter so the water is actually a little bit cloudy here. Thanks for watching, everybody.”

Image credits: cowturtle9427

Watch the original videos here:

@cowturtle Eel hole coming along. #eelpond #eelhole #fishtok #aquariums #rarefish #monsterfishkeepers #aquariumfish #exoticpets ♬ original sound – cowturtle

@cowturtle Crabs for the eel pit! If you have any names leave them in the comments! #eelpit #eeltok #eelpond #fishtok #aquariums #freshwateraquarium ♬ original sound – cowturtle

Nick does not intend to stop any time soon, adding more species recently – snails, sturgeon, loaches, and more

Nick Tobler, also known as cowturtle, is an aquarium store manager, moonlighting as the “eel daddy”. On his TikTok, Instagram and even YouTube pages, you can find all sorts of interesting animals, especially aquatic ones. There are very interesting “creature features” with Nick showing off different animals he comes across and sharing some interesting facts about them.

If that wasn’t interesting enough, he enjoys exploring random places, from beautiful natural formations to abandoned mines, where he has to wade nearly waist-deep in water to get inside them. And, of course, being the nature aficionado that he is, he always manages to detect very interesting creatures, fish, butterflies, crawfish – and he always has to say something educational about them.

But the thing that’s gotten many people interested in his socials is the fact that over more than a year, he has converted a rainwater cistern under his garage into a stunning ecosystem. One of the first things he did after preparing it for fish, was release 12 American eels into it, the titular inhabitants of the “eel pit.”

The commenters rejoiced at this new development with similar enthusiasm that I imagine people felt when the first humans stepped on the Moon’s surface, describing it as a “monumental historical event.” Some wanted to know how long the eels live, and the creator replied to them: “In the wild 10-15 years, in captivity 80+, no joke,” making the eel pit a truly long-lasting achievement.

The eel pit has also celebrated its official one-year anniversary since its creation. For the occasion, Nick shared a recap video of the most critical moments from its history. Nick says a lot of the inhabitants of the pit have interesting names, especially the eels: Crunchwrap Supreme, Eel-bow, Teq-eel-a, Eely Dan, Meelanie, and many others.

Image credits: cowturtle9427

The eel pit family has grown further, with Nick adding in some blue crabs to the mix. The crabs also have inventive names: “Kreebe, Rangoon, Cake, and Eugene.” And just in case you’re still doubting Nick’s (and his commenting community’s) naming skills, he has several gar (a kind of fish), named Garlic and Garfield.

A lot of the inhabitants of the pit aren’t actually from pet stores, but actually animals that cowturtle has bought in grocery stores, effectively rescuing them from ending up on someone’s dinner plate to thriving and being taken care of in the eel pit.

About 8 months ago, the channel Aqua Beasts RJ had the chance to interview Nick and have a house tour with him. Nick’s house has the things you’d imagine it to have, an exhibit of preserved animals, skeletons, aquariums and terrariums on almost every flat surface. He also owns insects, reptiles, and the aquariums are populated with loads of rare fish.

All of the animals have huge enclosures and look well taken care of. The coup-de-grace of the video is, of course, the eel pit. Nick is super friendly with the animals, recalling how they have been doing recently, hand feeding and petting his animals.

Recently, he has added even more interesting lifeforms to the pit, with sturgeons, snails, and hundreds of loaches, with more plans for improvement in the future.

The recent video of crabs being added to the eel pit has exploded, getting almost 12 million views, with 1.2 million likes and almost 7000 comments. Commenters are very positive about Nick’s content, saying how much they enjoy his content, joking how they would like to be inhabitants of the pit as well, as it seems very calm and peaceful.

People expressed an odd fascination with Nick’s work, being scared of so many fish but admiring the pit at the same time

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