In Feng Shui, water symbolizes wealth. The word "fish" in Mandarin is pronounced the same way as "excess". That's the reason why rearing fish is one of the most effective ways to bring you wealth so that you can enjoy a life of excess.

To be able to activate the wealth energies in your home, shop or office, you'll need to learn how to set up an aquarium in the right way.

When I'm talking about setting up your aquarium in the right way, I'm neither talking about water temperature nor am I talking about ammonia and nitrite levels. I'm talking about how to set up the aquarium based on the principles of Feng Shui to attract wealth.

Where do you place your aquarium?

The location of your aquarium is very important since you want to place it where it's most ideal to accumulate wealth energies.

Of the four sectors of your house, the front and the back have the biggest impact on your wealth. It's not advisable, however, to set up your aquarium at the back of your house.

The back of the house, where the bedrooms are usually at, is a sector that should be kept peaceful and quiet. Since there's too much activities and movement generated by the aquarium with the fishes swimming and the filter pumping away, it's recommended that you place the aquarium in the front sector near the front door.

What's the shape of your fish tank?

You may not know this, but the shape of your fish tank is an important factor that you need to pay attention to when setting up the aquarium.

Buying a fish tank of the wrong shape may actually adversely affect the health of the people living in the house (or working in the office) instead of attracting wealth.

The best fish tank (strictly from a Feng Shui perspective) is a circular fish tank.

Why are circular fish tanks the best?

First, circular fish tanks do not have sharp corners (or "poison arrows") which can be detrimental to your health.

Second, a circle belongs to the Metal element. And according to the Cycle of Birth of the Five Elements, Metal melts into a liquid state when subjected to intense heat. Hence, Metal is said to give birth to Water (Wealth).

The conventional rectangular tank (with 90-degree corners) is considered neither good nor bad so if you can't find a circular tank, go for the rectangular ones.

How many fish should I keep?

The number of fish you should rear will depend on your element.

If you belong to the Water element, you should have either 1 or 6 fish.

If you belong to the Fire element, you should have either 2 or 7 fish.

If you belong to the Wood element, you should have either 3 or 8 fish.

If you belong to the Metal element, you should have either 4 or 9 fish.

If you belong to the Earth element, you should have either 5 or 10 fish.

It doesn't mean that the more fish you have, the more wealth you'll attract. The number of fish you keep should depend on the size of your fish tank. Afterall what you want is a thriving aquarium.

What types of fish should you keep?

In general you can keep any kind of fish although the arowana, flower horn fish (Luo Han) and goldfish are good for attracting wealth.