To supply fresh and quality quarantined seafood in live seafood specialty restaurants, facilities for short-term culture or holding of live marine fish and shellfish are a necessity. In this study, the performance of a simple recirculating aquarium system for the culture and holding of marine fish was evaluated. The aquarium system consisted of a culture tank, a foam fractionator for solids removal, and a Styrofoam bead filter for nitrification and solids trapping. In the first trial, the aquarium was stocked with a total of 12 kg Korean rockfish, which were fed approximately $0.5\%$ of the total fish body weight daily. During the 2-month culture period, total ammonia nitrogen (TAN) and nitrite nitrogen $(NO_2-N)$ concentrations remained below 1mg/L and 2mg/L, respectively. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) fluctuated between 13.6 and 31.2 mg/L on selected sampling days. The total suspended solids (TSS) removed by the foam fractionator was between 2.7 and 4.6g daily. The Styrofoam bead filter not only reduced TAN and $NO_2-N$ in the culture tank water, but also trapped solids equivalent to 8.3-26.7\% of the weight of feed supplied. In Trial 2, 30kg of live fish were held in the aquarium without feeding for a 24-hour period and the water quality parameters were monitored. TAN and $NO_2-N$ concentrations first increased and then decreased to around 0.3mg/L. These results demonstrate that the recirculating aquarium system is a functional option for the short-term culture or holding of marine fish.