It all started on Kickstarter. I was looking into getting a large-scale tank for my living room. I went down the usual rabbit hole—big reef tanks, maintenance, costs… and the reality that almost everyone has seen one.

Don’t get me wrong, reef tanks can be beautiful. But they take a ton of work, a ton of money, and in the end… it’s still just another reef tank. Been there, done that. I wanted something MORE.

Then one day I saw a jellyfish tank on Kickstarter—and like a kid at an aquarium gift shop, I fell in love. Jellyfish! How many people do you know that have jellyfish at home? Exactly. None that I knew either.

Honestly, I didn’t even realize you could keep them at home. I always thought jellyfish were reserved for the big commercial aquariums—the kind where you press your nose against the glass and say “whoa.”

The Kickstarter tank was cool, sure… but I wanted something bigger. A real centerpiece. Something that would stop people mid-conversation and make them say, “Wait… are those jellyfish?”

So I started looking online for larger jellyfish tanks—and the prices were… let’s just say they were enough to make my wallet clam up. There was basically one company selling tanks in that size range, and the cost felt a little… fishy.

That’s when it hit me: why not design my own? The goal was simple—build something twice the size, half the price, and still make it sustainable as a business. If I could pull that off… well, that would be pretty rad.

So I rolled up my sleeves, dove in, and started designing. And that’s how Bad Squishy was born. 🪼