A deep-pocketed restaurateur shelled out nearly $750,000 for a tuna at Japan’s Tsukiji fish market on Thursday, smashing the record price for a single bluefin.

The 269-kilogramme fish stood at an eye-popping 56.49 million yen ($736,500) when the hammer came down in the first auction of the year.

The figure dwarfs the previous high of 32.49 million yen paid at last year’s inaugural auction at Tsukiji, a huge working market in Tokyo.

Miniature specialist Anatoly Konenko, from the Siberian city of Omsk, has built the world’s smallest aquarium.

It is just 30mm wide, 24mm high and 14 mm deep – enough to hold just 10ml of water, or about two tablespoons’ worth.

The mini-aquarium is even equipped with a water purification filter to keep the water healthy for fish.

A monster tuna caught off Japan turned heads at a Tokyo fish market Friday, where the 445 kilogram (981 pound) bluefin – the biggest caught here since 1986 — sold for 3.2 million yen (36,700 dollars).

“Many of the people who work at the market have never seen a tuna that big,” said an official of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which runs the Tsukiji fish market, the world’s biggest seafood market.

A giant bluefin tuna fetched 16.3 million yen ($177,000) in an auction Tuesday at the world’s largest wholesale fish market in Japan.

The bluefin tuna weighs 232 kg – nearly four times as much as the average Japanese man.

It was caught off the northern tip of Japan’s main island of Honshu, in waters famed for high quality fish.

This 282 pound Japanese bluefin tuna was purchased at auction for $100,000 at the first auction of the New Year on the Tokyo Metropolitan central Wholesale market, commonly known as the Tsukiji market. The price was about ten times the average price and the highest in nearly a decade.

Two sushi owners, one in Hong Kong and one in Japan, paid out for the large fish Monday. This is the first large fish Tokyo auction this year, which usually determines how the market will react over the course of the year. So, if that’s true, we’re in for a very stakes year.

Members of international tuna conservation organizations have agreed to cut their bluefin catch quota for 2009 by 20 percent to 22,000 tons which could mean more high prices this year.

Yesterday, some of you, reading our post on NYC aquariums, were probably wondering how come a simple fish can be as expensive as a luxury car. Here is the answer !

The fish that was getting all the attention at Aquarama 2007, and is considered by some to be the most expensive aquarium fish in the world, is a 15″ platinum arowana .This particular aquatic vertebrate is owned by Aro Dynasty, a Dragon fish breeder based out of Singapore.

Its white coloration is an exceedingly rare mutation of the rather common arowana. Arowanas are not usually so pricey, but this platinum-colored mutation is unique in its own way. This fish is of the species Osteoglossum that are mostly found in South America.

The fish measures around 40cm/15″ in length, and looks stunning. It is, however, not entirely perfect because It does have one minor flaw. The fish’s right eye is starting to look downwards. This is a common problem with arowanas and in fact many keepers are paying for cosmetic surgery for their prized arowanas.

It was recently offered for sale to prospective buyers by a UK arowana importer for more than £200,000 ($300,000). However, Aro Dynasty told Practical Fishkeeping Online that the fish is now “off the market.” It confirmed that it turned down S$80,000 for the fish a few years ago.