Actually, quite excited about when it finally opens.
Chester Zoo Chester Zoo News 2024
- Thread starter bongorob
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Very sad, but also sadly overdue. It is far too easy for people to smack the glass (I once got into a blazing row in there with somebody who was letting her son try to smash the tanks), I doubt it is DDA compliant, and the layout and size of the building makes unpleasantly claustrophobic when busy. I certainly wouldn't want to be in there if there was a fire.
Presumably this will mean more tanks in existing buildings; I'm told that the proximity of Blue Planet makes it difficult to make a business case for a new aquarium at the zoo.
I'm sad that the aquarium is closing. I realise that the old idea of a zoo with a lion house, a monkey house, a reptile house and an aquarium is now out of fashion, but it does have advantages: even a small aquarium like Chester's can show the diversity of fishes (and other aquatic animals) in a way that a scattering of individual tanks in different buildings cannot and it is obviously easier to manage and care for these creatures if they are all in the same place.
I hope that I can take a good many more photos there before it finally closes.
I hope that I can take a good many more photos there before it finally closes.
Also alot of nostalgia, in my early 40's now and not much left of the zoo I remember visiting as a kid, aquarium, tropical house not much else, a few more but not accessible now by the public now
Not least because the aquarium was the first building you came to when you came in through the old entrance. It's actually rather tucked away now and I suspect that many visitors never even find it; the small size of the building means that fifty or sixty people constitute overcrowding so it tends to look more heavily visited than it really is.
Personally I've long thought that it should either be used as an off show facility with either no public access or a single visitor corridor across the front with a couple of big tanks much as the Parrot breeding centre only has one public aviary.
Kalaw
Well-Known Member
Wonder if the Aquarium will remain standing or be demolished, and as it hardly has the space or infrastructure to serve as another exhibit, I strongly suspect the latter. Hopefully something interesting can go in its place, and that perhaps in the long-term, somewhere in the very distant future, Chester can open the world-class zoo aquarium that the UK is lacking akin to what can be found in continental zoos.
Sad about the aquarium but can't say I am too surprised. I'm hoping most of the species on show remain that way in other parts of the zoo. Chester in general do have a good amount of aquaria dotted around the zoo so either way there will still be a decent fish collection.
I would think it would have to be outside the zoo itself ...
I recall when I went to Berlin in '22 I spent one of the days at their Aquarium alone... I guess if you have the stamina you could do it with the zoo ... but then you wouldn't have a proper experience of either methinks !
There are some real rarities in the aquarium builing such as the Bandula Barbs and Chilingali Cichlids, but a lot of what is currently on show in the aquarium is pocket money aquarium shop stuff such as Odessa Barbs and Bleeding Heart Tetras, plus native British marines which can be found in any Sea Life Centre. There is something of a sense of exhibit space having to be filled while the interesting work goes on backstage.
I tend to favour an approach based on the old Kew Gardens Evolution House, which used a combination of fossils and live plants and reconstructions to depict plant evolution. Do the same thing for animals, with a focus on fish and inverts but also with some significant taxa such as Tuatara and Tree Shrews and so forth.
There are several possibilities for the future. I guess that when the aquarium is closed to visitors it will remain as on off-show facility for a while: this period may last for several weeks, months or years, depending on the particular structural problems with the building and the development of new off-show facilities. The zoo has plenty of space in the off-show complex on the other side of Caughall Road, but that might need upgraded power supply and waste water drainage just to replace the tanks behind the scenes in the current building (which fill the sides and rear of the building*). I suppose it might be possible to use shipping containers for fishes, like the ones in use for amphibians etc, but that might restrict the aquarists to using small tanks for small fishes. I believe that when Gordon McGregor Reid was the Director there was a plan to build a large off-show aquatic holding and breeding facility further down Caughall Road, but that never happened.
* The original entrance to the building was to the left of the current exit, and there was a corridor around the outside of building, with moderately sized tanks let into the inside wall. When you reached the corner where the current entrance was constructed, you turned right to the pathway which is used currently. Most of the current tanks, both on and off show, were installed when the building was refurbished in 1991.
* The original entrance to the building was to the left of the current exit, and there was a corridor around the outside of building, with moderately sized tanks let into the inside wall. When you reached the corner where the current entrance was constructed, you turned right to the pathway which is used currently. Most of the current tanks, both on and off show, were installed when the building was refurbished in 1991.
This might be a good idea for a new build, but the existing outlets get crowded at moderately busy times now. I don't think think the Hamerton model would work at Chester.
Don't overlook the range of Goodeids, the Malagasy cichlids and the Omani blind cave fish. These are real rarities and the zoo has had considerable success with them. On the other hand I think it is also important to have a range of species on display to show some of the diversity of fishes from butterfly barbs to elephant nose fishes, reedfishes and seahorses. Moreover I think the interesting work ought to be on-show as far as possible.
I was thinking of some of the smaller outlets such as the posh coffee shop in Islands or the cafe at the end of the canal which already houses the Pudu viewing area.
Oh I'm not, and I breed Goodeids too so I have an interest, but the Goodeids are also on show in Tropical Realm and the Omani cave fish in the Bat House and last time I was there the Malagasy cichlids were all off show and their former tank was occupied by Chilingali Cichlids, which are also in the Okapi house.
Well, small fish are the ones which need the most work. Every single taxon of Liquorice Gourami, for example, and many African Killifish, and most Bettas, and lost and lots of livebearers.
I personally think Chester Zoo cannot do without a dedicated vivarium/aquarium/terrarium building. Period!
That's really good news. When was the last time there was an onager foal? (Is foal the right term for onagers?)