One such customer is Mandy Hsieh, who sees the aquarium she'd had for about three months more in terms of decor or design than a hobby.
"I like finding colors of fish that are bright and colorful," she said. "Looking at them makes me feel happier when I come home from work. Some are ugly, but I have one that helps keep the tank clean. I call it Ah-ma. I want to start adding coral because it's so colorful and cool, but I need a bigger tank first."
While Huang and his neighbors are themselves cashing in on the coral craze, their best business remains flogging fish.
"I'll sell maybe a dozen clown fish a day and another few dozen of other varieties," Huang said. "But each month I'll sell maybe a half dozen arowanas."
Clown fish cost NT$200 to NT$300. Other common species can run up upwards of NT$1,000 or more. But arowanas, or "lucky" fish, can set you back as much as NT$70,000. They're also called dragon fish for their brilliantly colored scales and a pair of feelers protruding from their chin.
"People say that if you keep an arowana, you'll keep healthy because they live a long time. They're a very sturdy fish," Huang said, adding that arowanas are only collected by the most serious aquarists, who sometimes enter the fish in yearly competitions both here and in other Asian capitals.
"In America they eat gold fish at college parties," Huang said. "But in China and Japan some fish are considered living gems."
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