Television may have changed considerably over the past decade, but there has been at least one constant: the gentle swish of a fish tail in the Roku aquarium.
The Aquatic Life animated screen saver gave the streaming company’s users a moment of calm before diving into a frenzied array of programming options. Over time, the screen saver developed a following of its own, beloved by children, cats and those looking to add a splash of colour to their living rooms.
But come Dec 1, the aquarium will go dark. Over the past week, Roku customers have been greeted with the message that they will be automatically switched over to the urban scroll of the Roku City streetscape, in all its purple glory.
The change was announced after Jim Sachs, who designed the 3D aquarium in 2000, refused to renew the license with Roku, citing Fox Corp’s US$22bil (RM89.64) acquisition of the streaming company, which was finalised on Nov 6.
In an interview, Sachs, 77, said he could not work for the Murdoch family. Fox Corp, whose assets include Fox News and the Fox broadcast network, is led by Lachlan Murdoch, the eldest son of the company’s founder, Rupert Murdoch.
Sachs said he first learned of the Fox acquisition of Roku while watching the news on his Roku TV.
Roku, which offers hundreds of screen savers, declined to comment on the imminent departure of Aquatic Life. Fox did not respond to a request for comment. Sachs’ decision not to renew the Roku license was reported earlier by Ars Technica and Cord Cutters News.
Roku users, in posts online, mourned the loss of their digital pet eels, shared rallying cries to “save the fishes!” and asked what their cats were supposed to watch while their owners were at work. One user joked that the Roku aquarium was the longest she had been able to keep fish alive.
Many others were sentimental. Roku users with autism said the screen saver was calming. Parents said their children named every fish in the aquarium. One Reddit user said that watching the aquarium reminded him of his wife, who had selected the screen saver before she died of cancer seven years ago.
Sachs said the aquarium allowed people “to forget most of their problems,” and added that he felt “terrible” that it was disappearing from their screens.
“The whole point of the aquarium is producing a product that makes millions of people happy, hurts nobody and uses no resources except inconveniencing a few electrons,” he said. “There’s no downside, and now there is. Now I’m taking their comfort screen away. And I hate that.”
Olivier Grandvoinet, 33, opted for the Aquatic Life screen saver when he bought his Roku TV about six years ago because, he said, “it felt like home.” Grandvoinet, who lives in California’s Bay Area, said the screen saver reminded him of growing up in Hawaii and swimming in the ocean every day.
“It’s a warm, comforting feeling,” he said. Through a move, a job search and his effort to build a catering business, the screen saver provided “consistency through all the changes.” He named his favourite fish in the display, an eel, Emeelio.
Sachs first fell in love with saltwater aquariums 50 years ago when he was a pilot in the Air Force and travelled to places like Japan and the Philippines.
“I would go to all the saltwater aquarium stores and just salivate over the calm look and feel of the saltwater tanks,” he said. “I knew that somehow that was going to change my life. And it did.”
Sachs got into computers in the early 1980s and began designing games and eventually creating computer desktop designs. But there was little growth.
“I thought, I need to do something big, kind of world-changing,” he said. He spent a year designing the aquarium and released it in 2000 as a screen saver, charging US$19.95 (RM81.29) per download. At its peak, Sachs was making US$8,000 (RM32,596.80) a day.
The screen saver caught the eye of a Microsoft executive who was dropping off dive equipment at a scuba shop in Maui and saw the fish floating across the shop’s computer screen. Microsoft went on to include it as part of its Windows package.
Then an old friend, Anthony Wood, the founder of Roku, asked Sachs if he could use the aquarium as a default screen and offered to pay him
US$80,000 (RM325,968) a year for it. It has been a fixture on Roku screens for 10 years.
Sachs said Roku called him several times to try to persuade him to reconsider, but never offered him more money.
“They knew there was no amount of money that would let me have the Murdoch family as my bosses,” he said.
Sachs offers a downloadable version of the screensaver that he says is “far superior,” with better resolution and options to pick a background colour, choose from among more than 30 colourful fish and run a playlist.
Design-wise, Sachs considers the Roku version “an embarrassment.”
“The bubbles don’t look real, the shading is wrong, the animation of the eel is kind of cartoonish,” he said. Sachs’ contract with Roku included terms for him to travel to Roku headquarters once a year and work with engineers on tune-ups for the aquarium. But they never reached out.
The US$80,000 (RM325,968) licensing fee was his only source of income for many years. But the fish funded his five-floor, 7,000 sq. feet (650 sq. metres) home in Ashland, Oregon, which includes a 17-seat movie theatre and a game room based on the interior of the Nautilus submarine from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. It does not, however, have an aquarium.
“It’s the only castle in the world built by imaginary fish,” he said. – ©2026 The New York Times Company
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
