Whether you’re looking to plunder some treasure or live a noble life out on the high seas, a pirate theme for a fish tank is one of the most obvious and popular ways to decorate a fish tank.
Bonus: We’ve also featured decorations for space themed for aquariums if you want something different…
Fish live in water, and pirates have been extra popular over the last decade or so thanks to a certain movie franchise, so it makes sense that this is a common theme for people to choose for their tanks.
And because of how common it is to look for sea/ocean/pirate accessories, there are a ton to choose from. But they’re not all created equal…
So, we’ve gone through the massive collection of pirate aquarium decorations out there and hand-curated a select few that are among the best. Of course, it’s going to come down to your style, what you’re looking for, whether you want something more realistic or more cartoon looking, how large your tank is, and other factors… but the following products will get you off to a great start as you sail the seas with your fishy friends.
Skeleton Arm (Imitation Coral)
This first decoration is very cool, especially if you have sand or rocks that you can partially bury this arm under. It’s made by a company called Deep Blue Professional, and it measures just shy of a foot long, so make sure it’ll fit in your aquarium if you have a smaller one. One of the fingers has a jeweled ring on it, so you can tell this arm definitely used to belong to a pirate!
One thing to keep in mind is scale, too. If you’re going for a life-size scale, this fits in perfectly, but if you have other decorations like little treasure chests and stuff, it can throw off the scale, if that’s something you’re concerned with.
On the other hand, a small treasure chest with your normal size fish swimming around is also going to throw off the scale, making it seem like your fish are massive compared to the tiny chest. It really just comes down to what your priorities are, how realistic you’re trying to make everything look, and how much attention you’re paying to those types of details.
Regardless of whether or not you’re concerned about the overall scale of your tank, this arm makes a great decoration that’ll definitely get people’s attention.
Buried Treasure Chest
- Safe for Freshwater and Marine Aquariums and Terrariums
- Hand Painted Detail
- Solid one piece construction
- Swim thru holes for fish
This is a pretty standard decoration if you’re looking for pirate fish tank decorations. You’ve got to have a treasure chest, right? It’s just over 5 inches, quite affordable, and looks pretty good.
If your fish are small enough, they’ll be able to swim through the hole in the top of the chest, but make sure that they aren’t super close in size to it because it could pose a possible risk of getting stuck. Unlikely to happen, but it’s better to think about these types of things ahead of time.
Drunken Moving Skeleton
- Real motion air-driven ornaments provide entertaining action while aerating your tank.
- Pirate skeleton raises & lowers rum jug for a drink while guarding his treasure chest.
- Bonus: Includes one free plastic pressure control valve.
- Requires air pump & tubing (not included).
A drunken pirate is also a pretty standard decoration for a tank, but this one is special. It just sits there, unless you’ve got an air pump setup in your aquarium, in which case that’s where the fun really gets started.
You can hook this guy up to your air pump with normal aquarium tubing, and when the pump is running, he’ll move! The air pump causes this skeleton to take sips from his jug, which adds a whole extra layer of life and interaction to your aquarium. Usually, it’s the fish themselves that bring the action, but it’s a blast to have decorations like this, too.
He’s super easy to setup, you just plug him into your existing air pump setup. If you don’t have an air pump for your aquarium yet, we suggest looking into that because there are so many cool possibilities that it opens up, even having a little bubble maker in the corner is great. It gets the water moving around in your tank, and adds to the visual appeal.
Live Action Treasure Chest
- AIR DRIVEN ORNAMENTS BRING ANIMATION TO YOUR TANK: the real motion air driven ornament’s movements...
- CHEST OPENS AND CLOSES WITH THE STEADY STREAM OF BUBBLES: the treasure chest cover rises and falls...
- PROVIDES MUCH NEEDED AERATION FOR YOUR TANK: bubbles escape the chest to provide your tank with much...
- MADE OF FISH SAFE AND DURABLE MATERIAL: the Penn Plax Aerating Treasure Chest is made from a durable...
- SHOP PENN PLAX FOR ALL YOUR PET’S NEEDS: continue to customize your aquarium with Penn Plax Action...
Here’s another treasure chest for all you treasure-seekers out there. This chest also hooks up to an air pump, so if you find treasure to be a bit more wholesome than a hammered pirate, this is a great choice. The chest opens and closes due to the air pump, which once again is a very good addition to your aquarium.
It doesn’t open and close the full way. The air bubbles that come from inside the chest will cause the lid to stay open and bob up and down a bit. Once again, as far as cartoon-like and fun effects go, this is stellar – but if you’re looking for realism, this might not be the best option.
This treasure chest uses the standard 3/16” tubing, and you’ll need to pick that up separately since it’s not included. This same brand, Penn Plax, also has plenty of other pirate-themed live action decorations, so make sure you check them out at Amazon and take a look at some of the shipwrecks and other choices they have.
Pirate Hand Grasping a Treasure Map
- Safe for fresh or salt water aquariums; non-toxic
- Handcrafted
- Durable quality
- Authentically detailed; life-like
- 9.0"L x 8.0"W x 3.5"H
There’s no easier way to find the hidden treasure than to get your hands on a map. We’ve got some good news and bad news in this case. The bad news? It seems like somebody else already got their hands on this map first. The good news? It doesn’t look like they’re going to be getting in your way…
This decoration is shaped like a skeleton hand grasping a treasure map, and the map itself is rolled up, allowing your fish to use it as shelter and to swim through it, which is an amazing touch.
The design itself and the look of this ornament are great, along with the function of providing a necessary little nook for your tank. It’s just under 8 inches x 8 inches, and just shy of 4 inches tall. It’s T-shaped, so it doesn’t occupy that entire space, but you’ll need at least that much room to fit it in.
This product is handcrafted, non-toxic, and safe to use in your tank (Like all of the products we’re featuring here, by the way… at least in terms of being safe for your tank. They aren’t all hand-crafted.)
Skull Mountain
- Made from non-toxic, fish safe colors and materials, measures approximately 5.3"W x 5.3"L x 5.7"...
- The light is not included. Hand Painted Detail, Safe for Freshwater and Marine Aquariums and...
- Solid one piece construction,polyresin (hardened polyester resin plastic compound) construction.
- Swim thru holes for fish, a hiding cave for fish swimming in and out.
- Build a spooky shipwreck scene with Imagitarium's wide selection of aquarium decor and plants, Can...
Here’s a perfect scene to add into your tank. While it comes from a set that also has castles and the like, this particular piece fits the pirate motif perfectly. We’ve mentioned this already, but your fish need places they can swim into to get away from the world for a bit, don’t we all need something like that? And this piece fits the bill.
It’s just over 5 inches by 5 inches, and allows fish to either swim through it, or cozy up and stay a while.
One of the images on Amazon shows a light underneath it, and that’s a great idea. You can use an aquarium light, and even one that produces bubbles for an even better effect. It’ll light up the inside of the cave, and the bubbles add some essential aeration along with the fact that they just look awesome and take your aquarium to the next level.
RAPID FIRE: Pirate Shipwreck Decorations
There are a ton of different shipwrecks to choose from, so we figured we’d just do a rapid fire list of them right here instead of going into details about all of them, because how much is there really left to say?
Here are some of the best shipwreck scenes for your pirate fish tank…
- Sunken ship stern aquarium ornament
- Resin fish tank ornament depicts the rear of a wrecked ship
- Pirate Treasure Ship Stern features a canon hole and glittering treasure
- Pairs with Penn-Plax's Pirate Treasure Ship Bow for a complete shipwreck
- Each medium Pirate Treasure Ship Stern measures approximately 7 by 4 by 6 inches
- BEAUTIFUL ORNAMENT FOR YOUR AQUARIUM: safe for freshwater and saltwater aquariums, the ship will add...
- DIMENSIONS OF THE DECORATION: this Pirate Ship measures 5 x 2 x 4 inches, the perfect size for your...
- This decor relieves boredom of your fish by giving them a new area to explore
- Provides you the beauty of the pirate treasure ship in your aquarium.
- Penn-Plax is a family-owned company in operation since 1959. We specialize in creating excellent pet...
- DECORATE YOUR AQUARIUM - The realistic sunken ship decorations painted with detail and colors,...
- MADE OF RESIN MATERIAL - This ECO-Friendly resin material non-toxic, non-pollutant fish tank...
- WORTH HAVING - This 9 inch sunken ship decoration will change your ordinary aquarium.Simply clean...
- OPTIMIZED DESIGN - Crafted with great attention to detail，Resin material is stable so it can stand...
- LATEST ORNAMENT - Each aquarium shipwreck decorations is carefully packed to ensure that it is...
- SAIL THE HIGH SEAS: Add some ominous charm and mischief to your fish tank with the Wave-Runner...
- MADE OF SAFE AND DURABLE RESIN: Our aquarium ornaments are inspected with your fish’s safety in...
- SUPER SIMPLE TO CLEAN: Before placing into your tank, or as you as perform regular cleaning and...
- MEASUREMENTS: Overall = 16.5” (W) x 5.25” (D) x 14.5” (H)
- SHOP PENN-PLAX FOR ALL YOUR PET’S NEEDS: PENN-PLAX is a manufacturer and distributor of top...
- CREATE FANTASTIC AQUARIUM - Travel back to history and have a glimpse of the ocean’s depths with...
- MADE OF RESIN MATERIAL - This ECO-Friendly resin material non-toxic, also it won't fade when the...
- SATISFIED FOR LARGE AQUARIUMS - This 15 inch Titanic shipwreck decoration will change your ordinary...
- OPTIMIZED DESIGN - Crafted with great attention to detail，Resin material is stable so it can stand...
- LATEST ORNAMENT - Each aquarium shipwreck Titanic ornaments is carefully packed to ensure that it is...
That’s what we’ve got for now, hopefully you end up loving some of these pirate fish tank decorations as much as we do!
Pirate Aquarium Decorations – Things to Consider
A few important things to keep in mind are to measure the size of your tank if you don’t know it off hand, and read the actual sizes of each product closely because sometimes they’ll end up being a lot smaller (or bigger) than you anticipated. Different fish need different amounts of room to swim around, so loading up the tank with far too many decorations and toys could be a problem, too.
Here’s some helpful information about setting up fish tanks safely:
- The Perfect Betta Fish Tank Preparation and Setup Guide
- 8 Best Saltwater Fish for Beginners: How To Start Your Aquarium [And More]
- The 8 Best Freshwater Fish for Beginners
Finally, it’s a good idea to stick to stuff that’s actually made for aquariums, unless you’re sure that it’s totally non-toxic and isn’t going to leech any paint or other chemicals into the water over time.
Setting up your tank exactly how you want it, and then watching your little fish friends live and grow in the home you’ve created for them, is an incredibly rewarding pet experience, even if it’s not quite the same as a puppy dog running up and giving you kisses everyday when you get home from work.
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