Latest pet population statistics show that there are around 1 million fewer fish tanks in people’s homes, possibly due to rising energy prices.

Outdoor ponds – which saw a big leap during the pandemic years as more people spent time in their gardens – have remained fairly steady at 6 million, down just half a million in a year.

Pet Food UK’s Pet Population data reveals that in 2023 there are 7 million indoor tanks which equates to 15% of the population and 6 million households are enjoying an outdoor pond (12% of households). This compares to 8 million fish tanks (17% of households) and 6.5 million garden ponds (12% of households) in 2022.

“It is perhaps not surprising to see that indoor fish tanks numbers have dipped in the past year. It seems likely that rising energy prices have made people take the sad decision to shut down their tanks,” remarked OATA Chief Executive Dominic Whitmee.

“There is plenty of advice online about how to make small changes to tanks that will help lower energy costs and the numbers of tanks in households remains higher than the pre-pandemic years so looking longer-term these are still high figures for our industry.

“Nevertheless I think this shows that the price of energy is affecting our industry and not just for home aquarists. It is particularly frustrating that despite intense lobbying and robust data, the Government has continually ignored our requests for aquatic businesses to receive additional financial support during the energy crisis because, like fishkeepers, high energy prices are severely affecting them.”

Pet Food UK’s latest Pet Population Data report can be found here https://www.ukpetfood.org/information-centre/statistics/uk-pet-population.html