- “The AquaScum 2003 is an all-purpose, self-cleaning maintenance free salt water purifier that is guaranteed to even extend the life of your aquarium fish. The AquaScum is programmed to scan your tank environment every five minutes?”
- ―Peach, reading the manual of the AquaScum 2003
The AquaScum 2003 is a talking filter bought by Dr. Sherman for his office fish tank after he enters his office one day to find the tank very dirty (caused by Nemo, who managed to successfully jam the filter).
Role in the film[]
The AquaScum 2003 is designed to automatically scan the tank environment for any foreign contaminant to remove by using a class 3 laser beam. It includes a talking voice to check the status, such as the temperature and potential of hydrogen (pH) balance. This makes it so Dr. Sherman doesn't have to take his fish out and put them in individual bags and clean the tank like Gill expects him to do as a part of his escape plan for Nemo. Dr. Sherman instead installed the device to unknowingly stop his fish, especially Nemo, from escaping the office.
But at the end of the film, the AquaScum stopped working since the tank gang managed to successfully sabotage it. Even though it had a lifetime guarantee and low maintenance warranty. Now Dr. Sherman has to take his fish out and put them in individual bags and clean the tank himself. But when he wasn't looking, the fish secretly escaped out the window, roll across the street, and into the harbour. And now he has no idea where they went.
Trivia[]
- 2003 may be a reference to the year in which Finding Nemo was released.
- There is a hidden commercial of the AquaScum 2003 located on the second disc of the 2003 Collector's Edition DVD of Finding Nemo. It can be selected by highlighting the return arrow and pressing down on the remote. A hidden fish will appear and it will lead to the commercial.
- It's possible that after Nemo escaped the dentist office, the Tank Gang somehow managed to sabotage the AquaScum 2003 through unknown means, which may explain why it stopped working.
