Showtime at the Conroy family’s Orlando home arrives every evening around 7. That’s when Lips, Frenchy, Hollywood, Dory and a dozen or so other salt- water fish are fed.

“It’s a blast to watch,” says Claudia Conroy, who has made the 500-gallon custom aquarium the focal point of her family’s lakeside home. Her 25-year-old son, Bobby, often does the honors at mealtime, pouring a bit less than a cup of thawed shrimp and crayfish into a small holding tank hidden in cabinetry below the 3-by-8-foot aquarium. As soon as the food reaches the fish, says his mom, “you can understand where the expression ‘feeding frenzy’ comes from.”

While plenty of hobbyists still sprinkle fish food into 30-gallon tanks purchased at pet stores, the world of large custom aquariums takes the experience to a luxurious level. With light- weight acrylics that can be molded into any shape an enthusiast can imagine and afford, tanks can be built into walls, made into room dividers, fashioned into headboards and even hung from ceilings. Pumps, filters and other essential equipment can be hid- den away in cabinets, utility rooms or outside. No noise, no mess – just beautiful saltwater fish on a synthetic coral reef that’s as colorful as the real thing.

Custom aquariums are almost always saltwater. Saltwater fish are more difficult to maintain than freshwater varieties, but they’re far more colorful. And with an appropriately liberal bud- get, maintenance can be a breeze.

For Conroy, a petite, self-described “high-strung” woman with a gift for interior design, a saltwater aquarium was part of her second home even before it was built in 2009. She wanted the family’s home-away-from-home to be all about water and tranquility.

The primary residence for Claudia and her husband, Bob, is in Long Grove, Il., where they run a successful recycling business. They have three adult children – Chrissy, Brittney and Bobby – and a granddaughter, 13-month-old Ella, who already has the word “fish” in her vocabulary. Their second home, from which they can watch Disney fireworks nightly, includes a boat dock; an infinity-edge custom pool in the backyard; a wall-of- water fountain in the foyer; and colorful glass bubbles dangling playfully in the great room. At the center of it all is the aquarium, framed by maple cabinetry with crown molding.

ly visits, for an extra charge most will come daily when owners leave town, and make emergency visits whenever necessary. “We answer the phone 24/7,” Lund says.

But even with such personal service, would-be custom aquarium owners need to understand the commitment involved be- fore taking the plunge, warns Nasrallah. He estimates that of the roughly two-dozen custom homes he builds each year, fewer than a half-dozen include custom aquariums. “The payoff is great,” Nasrallah says, “but it’s definitely a high-maintenance item.”

Maintenance goes beyond keeping fish healthy, says Claudia Conroy. She wants them happy, too. Yes, she can tell when her fish are happy and they really do have distinct personalities, insists Conroy. Her current BFF, a puffer fish dubbed Puff Daddy, is at times aloof, at other times eager to annoy the resident hermit crab – and always hungry. Conroy still pines for her former favorite, a blue-and-gold majestic angelfish that took sick and died last year. “When it was sick, all the other fish seemed to know; they’d come and stay by it. Maybe I’m projecting, but even though they’re fish, they become part of the family.”

That’s why – like her pet Labrador, Duke – her fish have names: There’s Hollywood, a Blue-faced angelfish that “looks like he’s wearing sunglasses”; Dory, a blue hippo tang recognizable to anyone who’s seen Finding Nemo; and Frenchy, a French angelfish that last year was one of the tank’s smaller creatures but is now easily its largest. Lips, a naso tang with a come-hither smile, even has a nickname: Betty Boop.

For granddaughter Ella’s enjoyment, Conroy would like to add a clownfish – to be named Nemo, of course – to the mix. And she thinks a lobster would be really cool. She won’t rush anything, though. She doesn’t want any new additions up- setting her happy tank. After all, it’s her lifeline to a favorite pastime.

“I have extreme claustrophobia, so I’ll never scuba dive,” she explains. “This is the closestIcangettothesebeautifulfish.”