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This is an oldie but a goodie and will make your Windblows using friends green with envy: make your desktop a virtual aquarium! You do have to buy two software titles but they’re reasonably priced. Also, I’m fairly certain you could do this without spending any money using freeware or open source software.*

Here’s what you need:

• xBack from Gideon Softworks
• Marine Aquarium from SereneScreen.com

xBack is a slick utility for replacing your desktop with a screen saver and is $10. Marine Aquarium, $14.95, is a virtual aquarium that comes a both a regular application and a screen saver module. Both allow downloading as a demo so you can try before you buy although I don't think you'll be able to try Marine Aquarium with xBack.


Start by installing both apps and then restart your computer. After restarting launch xBack. You’ll see xBack installs an xBack menu in your menu bar. You’ll probably also notice that the screen saver you selected in System Preferences is now playing as your desktop behind all your desktop icons, dock and any open windows. Cool! To change the screen saver just choose Configure from xBack’s menu bar drop down menu.


To get Marine Aquarium to play as your desktop make sure you’ve installed the Marine Aquarium 2.6.saver screen saver module in your Library>Screen Savers folder. Once thats done, open Marine Aquarium as a desktop app first and configure it to you liking. I disable the clock and the automatic lighting so I just end up with just the aquarium on a black background. You can quit Marine Aquarium at this point. You can also try to configure Marine Aquarium from within xBack (using the Configure option) and then choosing Options from within xBack. This works fine with other OS X screen savers but for whatever reason doesn’t work as well with the Marine Aquarium screen saver. I’ve always had better luck configuring Marine Aquarium with the desktop app first and then choosing it from within xBack. YMMV.

Now choose Configure from xBack’s menu bar drop down menu. You should see the Marine Aquarium screen saver module as one of the options. Choose it and voila! You now have possibly the coolest desktop on planet!








*I’m fairly certain you can do this with other freeware or open source apps that allow you to set a screen saver as your desktop. xBack, however, works perfectly with Leopard and brings more configurable options to the table. Also, it’s just plain more convenient than any other app I’ve found and at $10 is well worth the price. Additionally, I don’t know of any open source titles that can create a screen saver aquarium. Therefore, if you go the freeware/open source route, you’ll be limited to using Leopard’s built in screen savers.

Have fun!

Joseph Henry