Colonie

A 650-gallon fish tank shaped like a wine bottle made a big splash at All Star Wine & Spirits.

So many kids came to see the fish that owner Craig Allen thought someone put a "Chuck E. Cheese" sign on his Latham store.

The reality TV show "Tanked" built the aquarium and unveiled it on camera in front of hundreds of fans inside the wine store in February. The tank held more than 65 saltwater fish as colorful and beautiful as their names: harlequin tusk, puffer fish, powder blue tang and foxface.

Within two months, most of the fish died.

"I'll take the blame," said Allen, who said he was overconfident about how the fish would do in the new tank.

The death of the fish taps into fears raised by aquarium enthusiasts who claim that Animal Planet's "Tanked" and National Geographic's "Fishtank Kings" sacrifice fish in pursuit of dramatic TV. Endless discussions on Internet message boards criticize the shows for stocking aquariums too quickly with large, flashy fish in tanks that are not properly acclimated.

The stars of "Tanked" say the critics have it wrong. Indeed, it looks like they took pains to protect the fish in the Latham wine bottle tank.

"Our first thing is to take care of the fish and make sure the fish are safe," said Wayde King, CEO of Acrylic Tank Manufacturing and co-star of "Tanked." Reached by phone at his Las Vegas office, King had not heard of the fish losses at All Star Wine & Spirits.

Several hundred people filled the wine store on Feb. 7 for the moment when the "Tanked" stars unveiled the 17-foot high aquarium to Allen, who had commissioned the $100,000 tank. In reality TV lingo, this is the "reveal."

But this one was faked, for a good reason.

Before fish are put in a new tank, they are placed in large bags filled equally with water from their old and new tank so they can adjust to the new water. That process took longer than expected on the All Star set, and the fish weren't ready for the scheduled 7 p.m. reveal, Allen said.

Rather than throwing the fish in the tank before they were ready, the film crew taped Allen walking in and shouting "Wow" in front of the crowd and fishless aquarium. The tight camera angles dodged the tank. The aquarium was finally filled with fish by 2 a.m., and the money shots were recorded. The episode, which aired in March, mixed shots of the full tank with Allen's dramatic entrance, creating the illusion that it happened at the same time.

The producers of "Tanked" hired Eddie's Aquarium Centre in Cohoes to monitor the fish and tank for five days after the film crew packed up and left. Ed Duncan, owner of Eddie's, sent daily water results to the show's aquarium expert in Las Vegas.

"Part of the drama is to have the tank filled with gorgeous fish right away and that presents a challenge when the tank isn't really ready to accommodate that," Duncan said.

Starting a new aquarium is tricky business. Fish waste raises toxin levels in the water, and new tanks don't have enough bacteria to break down the waste. Fish experts recommend introducing fish slowly because it usually takes four to six weeks to grow enough bacteria to eliminate the waste. The process can be sped up by adding live bacteria to the tank.

Allen himself is not a novice. The wine store owner has kept saltwater tanks for more than a decade and has several in his store. He also has an employee who has experience with fish, and was in contact with an aquarium expert in Clifton Park.

Allen shipped in seawater, flew in live cultures of bacteria and used seeded bio-balls to kick-start the tank's bacteria levels. He had video cameras on the tanks so he could monitor the fish overnight from home.

"We probably had more people that cared and were paying attention than most," Allen said.

Allen signed a 10-page agreement with the "Tanked" production company that detailed a specific protocol on how to care for the fish. The agreement released the production company from responsibility if any fish died after the show was filmed, but the document stated the tank owner should hire a professional to provide ongoing maintenance. It also stated: "After the production company is finished filming you will need to find a home for the excess livestock in the aquarium, if any."

It's an important point.

"Tanked" overstocks the aquariums for filming, said Izzy Capuano, technical advisor for the show. Capuano owns Infinity Aquarium in Las Vegas and often appears on "Tanked." He is the expert who monitored the wine bottle tank in the days after the film crew left. "All the fish you see for filming, typically, a big percentage are pulled out and either reintroduced slowly or kept out," Capuano said in a telephone interview.

Eddie's Aquarium had eight tanks ready to handle 30 or 40 fish, Duncan said.

But Allen said he doesn't recall anyone telling him to take out excess fish.

"That's news to me," Allen said.

Allen said he was told to expect 30 percent of the fish to die, but Duncan said that was a miscommunication by a show's staff member and Capuano outright said it was wrong.

"We would never knowingly set up a tank sacrificing 30 percent of the fish," the "Tanked" expert said.

If tank owners follow the show's protocol, "everything goes smoothly," Capuano said. "I believe the owner (Allen) got a little crazy and wanted to keep everything in the tank."

For the first two weeks, everything did go smoothly inside the wine bottle tank.

"I was probably a little cocky thinking our tank wasn't going to have one fish die," Allen said. Early on, Allen sent 10 or so fish down to Eddie's, but he brought most of them back to the wine store.

Then the fish started getting sick from spikes in the waste level, stress and parasites. Allen and his staff member monitored the water levels, changed the water and put sick fish into a medicated tank in the back of the store.

About 60 percent of the fish died in the first two months. One of the casualties was the harlequin tusk, an Australian fish with purple teeth and the most expensive fish in the tank at $300. Today, only 10 fish are alive.

"Do you not think that I care?" Allen said. "I'm the one who is attached to them and feeds them and has them like pets. I'm also the one who puts the money up."

Allen spent about $3,000 on the fish.

"I was upset because I thought everything was going to go perfect, and it didn't," Allen said. In retrospect, he said "I've never had a tank where everything works just perfect. I should have known and not got cocky."

He admits he probably should have removed more fish earlier. He said he plans to restock the tank, but this time he is doing it slowly.

"Tanked" is in its third year on Animal Planet. The show has had mishaps. The crew installed a 5,000-gallon tank in a Coney Island Applebee's, where a whitetip shark died after colliding with a plastic replica of the Wonder Wheel. The "Tanked' crew also installed a working gumball machine fish tank at Serendipity Restaurant at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. When the tank was removed, rumors circulated on the Internet that the tank failed and the fish died.

King, the co-star of "Tanked," said he wanted to set the record straight. The gumball tank worked perfectly, he said. Caesars didn't want to maintain it, so the fish were relocated and King took the tank back. He refashioned it into a snow globe fish tank for another client.

Neither Serendipity or Caesar's returned calls for comment.

"There is a lot to be done to maintain an aquarium and we are hoping it's being done, but we can't be there after we leave," King said. "If you sell a car, you can't tell if they are changing the oil."

ccrowley@timesunion.com • 518-454-5348 • @cathleencrowley • http://facebook.com/cathleenFcrowley