Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science List Of Species On Exhibit 3/14/19

[geomorph]

This is an attempt to list every species on exhibit at the Frost Museum of Science in Miami, Florida during my visit on 3-14-19. I am including species for which there is a sign on each exhibit, and using the named zones on the map going from the lower level of the museum to the top. This list may be of more interest to those already familiar with the museum since I am not arranging the species by animal type.

Museum Exterior - Plaza

• geomorph
• 12 Sep 2019

Taken 3/14/19. This fairly new museum is located on the shore of Biscayne Bay in Miami, Florida...

Museum Exterior - Aquarium

• geomorph
• 12 Sep 2019

Taken 3/14/19. This fairly new museum is located on the shore of Biscayne Bay in Miami, Florida...

Museum Atrium - Aquarium

• geomorph
• 12 Sep 2019

Taken 3/14/19. This fairly new museum is located on the shore of Biscayne Bay in Miami, Florida...

CREATURES OF LIGHT: (1 Exhibit)
This dark exhibit hall on the first floor is about bioluminescence and populated with oversized models of various animals, except for...

Small-sized wall tank, very dark:
Splitfin Flashlight Fish


AQUARIUM: THE DEEP: (5 Exhibits)
The aquarium part of the museum is experienced through 3 stacked floors of exhibits. There is no set route between the exhibits so I will describe them from the lower floor to the upper.

Large-sized wall aquarium with curved viewing panel:
Fish (1 species of schooling)(unsigned, unidentified)

Extra-large-sized round open-topped tank viewed from a 31-foot lens on the bottom floor, a few round windows on the middle floor, and from a curved railing section on one side of the surface on the top floor. The exhibit is titled 'Gulf Stream':
Bar Jack
Blue Runner
False Pilchard
Lesser Devil Ray
Little Tunny
Mahi Mahi
Rainbow Runner
Scalloped Hammerhead Shark
Silky Shark
Yellow Jack
3 small-sized square pedestal tanks, containing 1 species each:
Blue Blubber
Blue Blubber
Moon Jelly

Aquarium - Gulf Stream Exhibit - The Deep Level - Oculus

• geomorph
• 12 Sep 2019
• 1

Taken 3/14/19. This fairly new museum is located on the shore of Biscayne Bay in Miami, Florida...

Aquarium - Gulf Stream Exhibit - The Deep Level - Oculus

• geomorph
• 12 Sep 2019
• 2

Taken 3/14/19. This fairly new museum is located on the shore of Biscayne Bay in Miami, Florida...

Aquarium - Gulf Stream Exhibit - Vista Level

• geomorph
• 12 Sep 2019

Taken 3/14/19. This fairly new museum is located on the shore of Biscayne Bay in Miami, Florida...

AQUARIUM: THE DIVE: (14 Exhibits)
This middle floor of the aquarium includes 3 exhibits of the underwater portions of exhibits that will also be viewed from the top floor surface.

Large-sized thin-depth wall tank viewed from large window as well as from open-topped surface viewing on top floor, titled 'Coral Reef':
Blue Chromis
Blushing Star Coral
Boulder Brain Coral
Button Polyps
Creole Wrasse
Delicate Spiny Sea Rod
Finger Coral
Flame Cardinalfish
Foureye Butterflyfish
Giant Caribbean Anemone
Greater Star Coral
Highhat
Knobby Sea Rod
Lesser Starlet Coral
Lettuce Coral
Massive Starlet Coral
Mustard Hill Coral
Sea Plume
Sea Rod
Spanish Hogfish
Staghorn Coral
Symmetrical Brain Coral

Aquarium - Coral Reef Exhibit - The Vista Level

• geomorph
• 12 Sep 2019

Taken 3/14/19. This fairly new museum is located on the shore of Biscayne Bay in Miami, Florida...

Aquarium - Coral Reef Exhibit - The Dive Level

• geomorph
• 12 Sep 2019

Taken 3/14/19. This fairly new museum is located on the shore of Biscayne Bay in Miami, Florida...

Large-sized wall tank viewed from several large windows and a pop-up bubble window as well as from an open-topped surface viewing on top floor, titled 'Florida Reef':
Banded Butterflyfish
Bandtail Puffer
Barred Hamlet
Bermuda Chub
Bluehead Wrasse
Bluestripe Grunt
Blue Tang Surgeon
Butter Hamlet
Caesar Grunt
Creole Wrasse
Dusky Squirrelfish
Foureyed Butterflyfish
French Angelfish
French Grunt
Glassy Sweeper
Grey Angelfish
Highhat
Longspine Squirrelfish
Ocean Surgeonfish
Porkfish
Puddingwife Wrasse
Queen Angelfish
Redband Parrotfish
Reef Butterflyfish
Rock Beauty
Sailor's Grunt
Scrawled Filefish
Sergeant Major
Sharpnose Puffer
Slippery Dick
Smallmouth Grunt
Spanish Hogfish
Striped Parrotfish
Taillight Filefish
Yellowhead Wrasse
Yellowtail Snapper

Aquarium - Florida Reef Exhibit - The Vista Level

• geomorph
• 12 Sep 2019

Taken 3/14/19. This fairly new museum is located on the shore of Biscayne Bay in Miami, Florida...

Aquarium - Florida Reef Exhibit - The Dive Level

• geomorph
• 12 Sep 2019

Taken 3/14/19. This fairly new museum is located on the shore of Biscayne Bay in Miami, Florida...

Large-sized wall tank viewed from a round window as well as from an open-topped surface viewing on top floor within the walk-through aviary, titled 'The Florida Coast':
Fish (unsigned, unidentified)

Aquarium - Florida Coast Exhibit - The Vista Level

• geomorph
• 12 Sep 2019

Taken 3/14/19. This fairly new museum is located on the shore of Biscayne Bay in Miami, Florida...

Aquarium - Florida Coast Exhibit - The Dive Level

• geomorph
• 12 Sep 2019

Taken 3/14/19. This fairly new museum is located on the shore of Biscayne Bay in Miami, Florida...

Medium-sized open-topped long rectangular touchtank:
Invertebrates (unsigned, unidentified)

Small-sized square pedestal tank:
Bladdertipped Anemone
Carpet Anemone
Common Clown Fish
Emperor/Banggai Cardinal Fish
Hawaiian Whitespotted Puffer
Pajama Cardinalfish
Pinkbar Goby
Pink Skunk Clownfish
Torch Coral
Yellowtail Clownfish

Small-sized square pedestal tank:
Humu-humu-nuku-nuku-a-pua'a
One Spot Foxface
Red Lionfish
Yellow Tang

Small-sized square pedestal tank:
Giant Green Anemone
Pacific Red Octopus
Short Plumose Anemone
Strawberry Anemone

Small-sized square pedestal tank:
Flamboyant Cuttlefish

Aquarium - The Dive - Flamboyant Cuttlefish Exhibit

• geomorph
• 12 Sep 2019

Taken 3/14/19. This fairly new museum is located on the shore of Biscayne Bay in Miami, Florida...

Small-sized square pedestal tank:
Slate-pencil Sea Urchin
Upside-down Jellyfish

Small-sized square pedestal tank:
Blue Tang Surgeon
Sargeant Major

Small-sized square pedestal tank:
Bristletail Filefish
Brown Puffer
Clown Wrasse
Fringed Filefish
Green Razorfish
Lantern Seabass
Plainhead Filefish
Scrawled Filefish

Small-sized square pedestal tank:
Northern Seahorse

Aquarium - The Dive - Northern Saehorse Exhibit

• geomorph
• 12 Sep 2019

Taken 3/14/19. This fairly new museum is located on the shore of Biscayne Bay in Miami, Florida...

Small-sized square pedestal tank:
Fish (touchscreen sign broken, unidentified)

Small-sized square pedestal terrarium:
Blue Poison Dart Frog
Yellow And Blue Poison Arrow Frog
Yellow Striped Poison Arrow Frog


AQUARIUM: THE VISTA: (14 Exhibits)
This is the top floor of the aquarium and is entirely outside beneath a sheltering roof and awning structure.

Aquarium - The Vista - View of Downtown Miami

• geomorph
• 12 Sep 2019

Taken 3/14/19. This fairly new museum is located on the shore of Biscayne Bay in Miami, Florida...

Medium-sized shallow open-topped touchtank:
Bat Ray

Aquarium - Florida Bay Exhibit - Bat Ray Touchtank

• geomorph
• 12 Sep 2019

Taken 3/14/19. This fairly new museum is located on the shore of Biscayne Bay in Miami, Florida...

Medium-sized netted walk-through aviary:
Common Gallinule
Snowy Egret (unsigned)
Royal Tern
Sandwich Tern

Medium-sized shallow open-topped beach-themed tank inside walk-through aviary:
Atlantic Lookdown
Bigeye Mojarra
Checkered Pufferfish
False Herring
Flagfin Mojarra
Pinfish
Slender Mojarra
Spotfin Porcupinefish

Aquarium - Aviary - Beach Exhibit

• geomorph
• 12 Sep 2019
• 2

Taken 3/14/19. This fairly new museum is located on the shore of Biscayne Bay in Miami, Florida...

Medium-sized shallow open-topped lagoon-themed tank inside walk-through aviary:
Blue Angelfish
Cottonwick Grunt
French Angelfish
French Grunt
Gray Angelfish
Gray Snapper
Lane Snapper
Porkfish
Queen Angelfish
Redband Parrotfish
Schoolmaster Snapper
Tomtate Grunt
Upside-down Jelly
White Grunt

Aquarium - Juvenile Fish Exhibit in Aviary

• geomorph
• 12 Sep 2019

Taken 3/14/19. This fairly new museum is located on the shore of Biscayne Bay in Miami, Florida...

Small-sized netted aviary:
Eastern Screech Owl

Small-sized pond tank and shore viewed from curving viewing panel:
American Crocodile

Aquarium - American Crocodile Exhibit

• geomorph
• 12 Sep 2019

Taken 3/14/19. This fairly new museum is located on the shore of Biscayne Bay in Miami, Florida...

Small-sized pond tank and shore viewed from curving viewing panel:
American Alligator

Small-sized yard with burrow, viewed from curving viewing panel:
Gopher Tortoise

Medium-sized pedestal terrarium:
Eastern Indigo Snake

5 small-sized wall terrariums set in simulated rocky wall, containing 1 species each:
Florida Cottonmouth
Florida Pine Snake
Red Rat Snake
Southern Copperhead
Timber Rattlesnake

SUMMARY:
By my count, the total number of exhibits currently at Frost Museum of Science is: 34
By my count, the total number of species in permanent exhibits with identification signs is: 135
The number of species I counted can be broken down into the following categories:
Mammals: 0
Birds: 5
Reptiles: 9
Amphibians: 3
Fish: 90
Invertebrates: 28

 

[DavidBrown]

At one time I if remember correctly they were going to have an exhibit about diving birds of the Everglades, but that sounds like it did not happen.

What was your impression of this aquarium?

 

[geomorph]

At one time I if remember correctly they were going to have an exhibit about diving birds of the Everglades, but that sounds like it did not happen.

What was your impression of this aquarium?

This aquarium definitely feels like a half-satisfying facility; as a part of a museum with various other science galleries, it is successful, but if a visitor is planning only to see the live animal exhibits it is disappointing.

The Florida Coast exhibit had a sign next to its underwater viewing window that was a model of a double-crested cormorant, and another sign showed one diving. It is an exhibit with its surface area contained within the aviary, so it is possible they planned to have a live one...or did already?

 

[Great Argus]

Medium-sized netted walk-through aviary:
Common Gallinule
Egret (unsigned, unidentified)
Royal Tern
Sandwich Tern

The picture you uploaded to the gallery is of a Snowy Egret.

 

[geomorph]

The picture you uploaded to the gallery is of a Snowy Egret.

Fixed it, thank you!

 

[snowleopard]

Thank you for such a great thread...it's just a pity that this new aquarium has only 34 exhibits and is slightly underwhelming. Nevertheless, if I do another big Florida zoo trip one day then I'll be sure to stop by for a visit.

 

[zoo_enthusiast]

This aquarium definitely feels like a half-satisfying facility; as a part of a museum with various other science galleries, it is successful, but if a visitor is planning only to see the live animal exhibits it is disappointing

I have visited a couple years ago, and was very disappointed! At that time they still had a tiger shark which was my main goal. It was housed in the main open-top tank, and the viewing was horrible. I still cannot believe that the tank lacks any normal viewing windows The shark is gone now...

 

[MarkinTex]

I went there in June of this year and was underwhelmed. For a facility that only opened at that location in 2011, it felt old and outdated. I was actually surprised to later find out that it was indeed this new, because when I was there, I assumed the building was built in the 1970s. The design of the building itself is terrible. It's a 6-level building, and while (almost) all the exhibits are inside, the levels are accessed by a multilevel concrete open air structure that's dank and dingy and feels like you're walking through a parking garage. The bulk of exhibits, including all the aquarium, are in the main building, but some of the exhibits are on the other side of the dank parking garage-like structure. We went on a rainy day that exacerbated the dankness, and also highlighted the flaws of the design. For instance, to get to restrooms, I had to walk outside the covered area, in the rain. The museum's cafe is also separated from the rest of the structure so we had to dash through the rain to get to it. And it was really poorly run, overcrowded, and of course, like most museum/zoo cafes, the food was overpriced and underwhelming. Back to the overall layout of the facility, the parking garage-like structure access to the various exhibits is very confusing and the maps are unhelpful, sometimes you end up on a sort of half-level just below the level you actually want to get to.

The aquarium occupies three levels of the main building. When we went there, several of the elevators were out of order, so we had to use stairwells. The flow of the exhibits on each floor isn't very good, especially at the middle level where most of the smaller tanks are; we had to backtrack to make sure we saw everything. Several of the tanks didn't look that well-maintained, and this floor had an especially prominent low tide odor. The top level of the aquarium is open air, and while covered with a roof above, on an especially rainy day like the one we visited, there are areas you have to avoid if you don't want to get wet, and some of the floor can be slippery as a result. The area around the aviary and the ponds where the alligators and some turtles were housed had a strong barnyard odor.

Overall, visiting this museum and aquarium was a last resort during a 5 day trip to Miami that ended up being mostly rainy; I wouldn't recommend it, not worth your time or money ($30 per adult plus $18 for parking) if you're in Miami when the weather is nice.