Seattle Aquarium Seattle Aquarium 'Ocean Pavilion' Grand Opening Species List

Northwest_FIsh_Keeping

Northwest_FIsh_Keeping

Well-Known Member
After $160M, over a decade in planning, and 4 years construction, the long awaited 'Ocean Pavilion' campus extension has finally opened. This building focuses exclusively on the Coral Triangle region of the Indo-Pacific as it aims to educate on how we all share 1 Ocean and the same challenges despite being on opposite sides of the world.
To preface, I was a Highschool Intern (yesterday was my last day as I'm too old now since I've graduated this past summer, but I still have ties to the Aquarium) so there's a lot of explaining I'm able to do about the different species and plans. The biggest being the reason why I put "Grand Opening" in the title is because this is only about 25% of the amount of species that will be in the building. For example, 'The Reef' currently only has about 50% of the fish its intended to house. We do have a lot of placeholder species on display right now that will be moved around or taken off display once the actual species are ready for exhibit. A lot of species we have are very delicate, so they need extra time to adjust to exhibit. It still looks somewhat full, but you can tell that there are some things missing and some tanks are quite sparse. Expect over the next few weeks / possibly couple months for everything to be officially moved in. A lot of it was due to unexpected timeline delays such as the concrete strike back in December, which slowed down the processes of acclimation and moving animals in + a lot of pressure to open up during Summer (which is why we're opening at the tail end of Summer).

At the end of this list, I will cover a good amount of species that aren't on exhibit yet to look forward to, but will be over the next couple weeks as previously mentioned. (This is all public knowledge so I'm not leaking anything just to be safe). Also check out the media section of the Aquarium to see the photos of majority of these species I've posted.

Once all the species are moved in, I will make an updated list that should be much, much more extensive. These are jus the species you're most likely going to see if you visit between now and the next couple weeks.

To start:

One Ocean Hall | Kind of like the center of the building, a lot of it involves projectors and digital images, but there is 1 tank in this area that houses:
  • Yellow Seahorses (Hippocampus kuda)

The Reef | The crown jewel of the building, this 500,000 Gallon Tank is home to a majority of the Elasmobranchs & Large Reef Fishes with 5 different viewing points. As mentioned before, only about 50% of the intended animals are in here, so far it houses:
  • (3) Ocellated Eagle Rays (Aetobatus ocellatus)
  • (1) Zebra / Indo-Pacific Leopard Shark (Stegostoma tigrinum)
  • (1) Giant Moray Eel (Gymnothorax javanicus)
  • (250+) Yellow & Blue Fusiliers (Caesio cuning)
  • Bluespine Unicorn Tangs (Naso unicornis)
  • Naso Tangs (Naso lituratus)
  • Eye-Stripe Tangs (Acanthurus dussumieri)
  • Fowleri Tangs (Acanthurus fowleri)
  • Emperor Angelfishes (Pomacanthus imperator)
  • Clown Triggerfishes (Balistoides conspicillum)
  • Porcupine Pufferfish (Diodon holocanthus)
  • Grey Dogface Pufferfish (Arothron nigropunctatus)
  • Pyramid Butterflyfishes (Hemitaurichthys polylepis)
  • Saddle Butterflyfishes (Chaetodon ephippium)
  • Spotted Sweetlips (Plectorhinchus chaetodonoides)
  • Purple Square block Anthias (Males & Females) (Pseudanthias pleurotaenia)
  • Blue Streak Cleaner Wrasses (Labroides dimidiatus)
  • Yellow Stripe Wrasse (Coris flavovittata)
  • Moorish Idols (Zanclus
  • cornutus)
  • Foxface Rabbitfishes (Siganus vulpinus)
  • Coral Rabbitfishes (Siganus corallinus)
  • Yellow Stripe Goatfishes (Mulloidichthys flavolineatus)
  • Manybar Goatfishes (Parupeneus multifasciatus)
The Archipelago | Made up of two tanks, the left side is a Mangrove Lagoon that holds roughly 11,000 Gallons and the right is an Inshore Reef that's 2 stories tall (viewable from both floors) and holds about 20,000 Gallons. Starting with the Mangrove side:
  • Australian Stripey's (Microcanthus strigatus)
  • Silver Monos (Monodactylus argenteus)
  • Spotted Scats (Scatophagus argus)
  • Yellow Stripe Goatfishes (Mulloidichthys flavolineatus)
  • Chocolate Chip Sea Stars (Protoreaster nodosus)
  • Red Mangrove Trees (Rhizophora mangle)
Now for the Inshore Reef:
  • Moorish Idols (Zanclus
  • cornutus)
  • Powder Brown Tangs (Acanthurus japonicus)
  • Big Eye Soldierfishes (Myripristis jacobus)
  • Foxface Rabbitfishes (Siganus
  • vulpinus)
  • Various Astrea Snails, Cerith Snails, and Blue Leg Hermit Crabs are also littered everywhere.
  • Various Hammer Corals, Plating & Encrusting Montipora Corals, Mushroom Corals, Photosynthetic Gorgonians, & Zoanthid Corals are also in here. More stony corals to come.
At Home in the Ocean | A Hallway style of that displays various symbiotic relationships, weird species, and smaller niche ecosystems, this is definitely where a lot of the placeholders are and you can tell, I'll explain what species are placeholders and what is meant to be there at the end.
A majority of the larger tanks also have questions / themes engraved above them so I'll list those first, then the smaller unnamed displays.
  • 'Want to be friends?' | Ocellaris Clownfishes (Amphiprion ocellaris) / Tomato Clownfishes (Amphiprion frenatus) / Rainbow Bubbletip Anemones (Entacmaea quadricolor) / Giant Carpet Anemones (Stichodactyla gigantea)
  • 'Want to play Hide & Seek?' | Epaulette Shark (Hemiscyllium ocellatum) / Razorfishes (Aeoliscus strigatus)
  • 'Want to go out... or stay in?' | Orange Weedy Scorpionfish (Rhinopias frondosa)
  • 'Read my mind?' Dwarf Cuttlefishes (Sepia bandensis)
  • 'Want to see a Magic Trick?' | Spotted Garden Eels (Heteroconger hassi) / Splendid Garden Eels (Gorgasia preclara) / Purple Square Spot Anthias (Male & Females) (Pseudanthias pleurotaenia)
  • 'Watch out!' | Devil Scorpionfish (Scorpaenopsis diabolus) / Blunt Slipper Lobster (Scyllarides squammosus) / Ornate Spiny Lobster (Panulirus ornatus)
  • 'Are you a Night Owl too?' | Longspine Cardinalfishes (Zoramia leptacantha) / Sixline Wrasses (Pseudocheilinus hexataenia) / Orange Sun Corals (Tubastrea sp.) / Black Sun Corals (Tubastrea micrantha) / Purple Gorgonian (Menella sp.) / Blueberry Gorgonians (Acalycigorgia sp.) / Wire Corals (various colors) (Cirrhipathes spiralis)
Now for the unnamed displays:
  • Yellow Leaf Scorpionfishes (Taenianotus triacanthus)
  • Many Lined Pipefishes (Dunckerocampus multiannulatus)
  • 'Caulerpa Prolifera' algae
  • Upside Down Jellies (most likely Cassiopea andromeda but I will have to get that confirmed)
  • Australian Sea Apples (Pseudocolochirus axiologus)
  • Peacock Mantis Shrimp (Odontodactylus scyllarus)
There also Pink & Black Sea Cucumbers (Holothuria edulis) spread throughout the various tanks to help keep the sand clean

The Jelly Nursey | Currently there are no Jellies, however the first species that will be on display are the Spotted Lagoon Jellies (Mastigias papua). This tank will rotate somewhat periodically with different species of Jellies.


Information & Context
So as you can see, there is still a good amount of diversity for the opening, just not as much as there eventually will be. There's quite a bit I need to talk about for context, but I'll start with the place holder species in At home in the Ocean first.
  • The Epaulette Shark & Razorfish are actually destined to live in the Mangrove Lagoon. Currently they're place holders for the Weedy Seadragons that will be housed in that tank.
  • The Orange Weedy Scorpionfish is destined to live in the 'Watch Out!' Tank since that's basically a Venomous Fish & Oddball Invert Tank. I'm unsure about what is meant to live in the 'Want to go out.. or stay in?' Tank, but it is a replica of a cave / recess on the Reef so most likely some more nocturnal species.
  • The Dwarf Cuttlefish are placeholders for the Flamboyant Cuttlefish that will be housed in there. The Dwarf Cuttles will be moved off exhibit when the Flamboyants are ready. Fun Fact: That is meant to be a Cephalopod tank, hence the 'Read my Mind?' engraving, and a Day Octopus is planned for the future.
  • More fish should be added to the 'Are you a night owl too?' tank as that is a Non-Photosynthetic Reef, I'd expect some more Mesophotic species to go in there hopefully.
'The Reef' is meant to house many, many more fish soon. A lot of them are smaller reef fish so I'll go over the main show stoppers that will be moving in soon:
  • (3 is what I've heard) Juvenile Black Tip Reef Sharks (Carcharhinus melanopterus)
  • (1) Bowmouth Guitarfish (Rhina ancylostoma)
  • (1) Leopard Whipray (a true H. Leoparda from Japan)
  • (unspecified amount) Javanese Cownose Rays (Rhinoptera javanica)
  • (1) Female Zebra / Indo-Pacific Leopard Shark will join later down the line to make a breeding pair with the male that is already in the tank. (She's currently at the Offsite Facility, she's just a little younger so she needs some more time to grow before joining the exhibit)
  • (3) Napolean Wrasses
  • Double Lined Fusiliers, Orbicular Batfishes, Milkfishes, and many more medium - large sized Reef Fish are also moving in. I know we do have a Honeycomb Moray in collection that was acquired about a year & half ago, so I'd expect him to go into the Reef as well, but I haven't heard anything in a minute about him so I hope he's alright.
'The Archipelago' is also destined for many more fish and corals. The Mangrove Lagoon side specifically is going to house:
  • (2 Female) Blue Spotted Mask Rays (Neotrygon kuhlii)
  • (I believe a pair) Epaulette Sharks
  • Live Seagrass
  • Giant Clams
  • various Soft Corals
  • and a few more fish species
The Inshore Reef side is destined to house:
  • A group of Snub-nosed Pompano (Trachinotus blochii)
  • Various species of Angelfishes, Tangs, Anthias, Damselfishes, etc. So basically your average mixed species Reef Tank.
  • Various species of Stony Corals.
'One Ocean Hall' aka the Seahorse Tank will soon house Banded Pipefishes (Dunckerocampus dactyliophorus) and Alligator Pipefishes (Syngnathoides biaculeatus) alongside the Seahorses.

Closing | If I'm being 100% honest, if you were to buy a general admission ticket, I'd wait a few more weeks while the rest of the species are moved in because $50 is quite steep to pay (you do get access to all 3 buildings) but with OP being the newest, it wouldn't be worth just to see a quarter of the species that are destined to be in the building by the time everything is moved in. I believe the building will live up to the hype, with both the collection of species and also the architecture since it really is incredible inside and everything is so well put together.
 
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Appreciate the detailed list of species. A few questions I had:

1) Is the Reef exhibit supposed to mimic a specific region in the Indo-Pacific? I'm assuming Australia's Great Barrier Reef based on the list so far?

2) I'd be curious to know how long the puffer lasts on exhibit. Baltimore's puffers where quickly moved out of their Great Barrier Reef replica, Blacktip Reef, after they munched the faux coral and displays too much. Hopefully Seattle has better luck!

3) So with three buildings spread across an outdoor park, how is the Aquarium managing guest way finding, ticketing, and ultimately, the avalanche of confusion heading their way?

I frequent Seattle often, so I'm excited to see this complete next visit!
 
NAIB Volunteer said:
Appreciate the detailed list of species. A few questions I had:

1) Is the Reef exhibit supposed to mimic a specific region in the Indo-Pacific? I'm assuming Australia's Great Barrier Reef based on the list so far?

2) I'd be curious to know how long the puffer lasts on exhibit. Baltimore's puffers where quickly moved out of their Great Barrier Reef replica, Blacktip Reef, after they munched the faux coral and displays too much. Hopefully Seattle has better luck!

3) So with three buildings spread across an outdoor park, how is the Aquarium managing guest way finding, ticketing, and ultimately, the avalanche of confusion heading their way?

I frequent Seattle often, so I'm excited to see this complete next visit!
Click to expand...
1) From what I know, it's based on a specific area in Raja Ampat, Indonesia where the ReShark Nursey is. A team had gone out there before Covid hit and really liked it, and since the Zebra Sharks are 'the big stars' of the exhibit (they're being promoted as that), they decided to mimic that area for them. The Archipelago is also based on a real site in Palau I believe as well, I just can't remember the exact name of it

2) Yeah hopefully they shouldn't cause too much trouble, Balitmore's puffer was a Scribbled Puffer (Arothron mappa) which is quite larger than our species so in theory we should be okay but you never know ;)

3) So far there are 2 maps posted by each entrance showing that the aquarium's are all on the same campus and that you just need 1 ticket. Pier's 59 & 60 (aka the old building) are connected which does help somewhat (I still get a lot of questions about if they're the same unfortunately). The ticketing hasn't been too much of a problem, there's a couple employees at both entrances to the buildings that scan the ticket (the original idea was to install self scanning kiosks which I'm glad we didn't' do because that'd have made things much more confusing). I believe a few more measures will be put in place to avoid more confusion.
 
I'm tentatively planning a trip to Seattle next June. It's totally up in the air whether it will materialize, but if it does, I'll definitely try to fit in an aquarium visit. Should this building be fully stocked by then?
 
JAG said:
I'm tentatively planning a trip to Seattle next June. It's totally up in the air whether it will materialize, but if it does, I'll definitely try to fit in an aquarium visit. Should this building be fully stocked by then?
Click to expand...
Oh definitely, honestly I'd probably expect the building to be fully stocked by the end of the year. It's just a lot of things went in a couple weeks before opening, so the more delicate stuff aren't able to be added that fast so it'll be a bit before they're on exhibit but a year is more than enough. The only thing you won't see is all the coral grown in because that'll take a few years
 
Thanks a lot for keeping all of us so well informed with the hugely expensive Ocean Pavilion project. I've been to Seattle Aquarium 8 times, but not since 2012 and I've been waiting for the construction to be done. I think that for the cost ($50 U.S./$67 Canadian for me), I will wait until next year before I make a trip to the facility. I'll let the commotion die down, avoid the initial surge in attendance, and also allow the tanks to be fully stocked, and then it will be worth the ticket price.

The aquarium has updated its map online:

Aquarium Map | Seattle Aquarium

I'm sure in a couple of years, when the excitement dies down from the culmination of the $160 million Ocean Pavilion project, the aquarium can start looking at those outdated marine mammal exhibits for Northern Fur Seals, Harbor Seals, Sea Otters and River Otters. All are quite poor by modern standards.
 
Northwest_FIsh_Keeping said:
Oh definitely, honestly I'd probably expect the building to be fully stocked by the end of the year. It's just a lot of things went in a couple weeks before opening, so the more delicate stuff aren't able to be added that fast so it'll be a bit before they're on exhibit but a year is more than enough. The only thing you won't see is all the coral grown in because that'll take a few years
Click to expand...

Nice. Yeah, my brother keeps a five gallon reef aquarium in my bedroom (no space in his room), so I'm well acquainted with vulnerabilities of some marine life. The growth rates of coral, too; sometimes they take months to settle into a new environment and it may be months before any growth is visible. Or they can grow like weeds, if they're happy enough. *shrug* Hopefully the new Seattle corals take off quickly! Thanks for the info.
 
snowleopard said:
Thanks a lot for keeping all of us so well informed with the hugely expensive Ocean Pavilion project. I've been to Seattle Aquarium 8 times, but not since 2012 and I've been waiting for the construction to be done. I think that for the cost ($50 U.S./$67 Canadian for me), I will wait until next year before I make a trip to the facility. I'll let the commotion die down, avoid the initial surge in attendance, and also allow the tanks to be fully stocked, and then it will be worth the ticket price.

The aquarium has updated its map online:

Aquarium Map | Seattle Aquarium

I'm sure in a couple of years, when the excitement dies down from the culmination of the $160 million Ocean Pavilion project, the aquarium can start looking at those outdated marine mammal exhibits for Northern Fur Seals, Harbor Seals, Sea Otters and River Otters. All are quite poor by modern standards.
Click to expand...
Definitely, I gotta agree especially compared to PDZA, our Marine Mammal exhibits aren't the greatest. I know the entirety of Pier 60 (Dome, Marine Mammals, Birds, Puget Sound Fish) will be renovated in that phase. I'm not sure if they're knocking everything down, but it'll definitely look different afterwards. I'm not 100% on the timeline for that, but I've heard anywhere between the next 10 - 20 years is when that should start.

Ebirah766 said:
Thank you so much!
Click to expand...
My yapping finally paid off :D
 
JAG said:
Nice. Yeah, my brother keeps a five gallon reef aquarium in my bedroom (no space in his room), so I'm well acquainted with vulnerabilities of some marine life. The growth rates of coral, too; sometimes they take months to settle into a new environment and it may be months before any growth is visible. Or they can grow like weeds, if they're happy enough. *shrug* Hopefully the new Seattle corals take off quickly! Thanks for the info.
Click to expand...
Hopefully, all of the corals have been aquacultured (grown in house) for years and they're pretty easy going species (Photosynthetic Gorgonians, Zoanthids, Hammers, Montipora, etc) so they grow pretty fast once established, it's just a matter of being able to cover all the rocks. But it should get a boost of Coral diversity & growth once PCR is closed down and a lot of stuff moves over to OP.

Also, one thing I was hesitant to mention because it hasn't been mentioned before but is pretty obvious from an outside perspective: The Likelihood of a Green Sea Turtle joining 'The Reef' in the future isn't out of the image I was told. Especially since we're continuing to expand our Sea Turtle rescue and rehabilitation operations, now that we have the adequate space, if a Turtle were to be deemed non-releaseable, it could find a home in Seattle ;) something to look out for in the future.
 
Northwest_FIsh_Keeping said:
Definitely, I gotta agree especially compared to PDZA, our Marine Mammal exhibits aren't the greatest. I know the entirety of Pier 60 (Dome, Marine Mammals, Birds, Puget Sound Fish) will be renovated in that phase. I'm not sure if they're knocking everything down, but it'll definitely look different afterwards. I'm not 100% on the timeline for that, but I've heard anywhere between the next 10 - 20 years is when that should start.

My yapping finally paid off :D
Click to expand...

To be fair, both the oldest male sea otter (Adaa, the otter in my avatar) and oldest female sea otter (Etika) on record were longtime Seattle Aquarium residents, so you guys must give them great care despite the somewhat outdated enclosures.

I know the AZA made the decision to end the captive breeding program to make room for rescued pups, which is an understandable and laudable goal, but I wish we could've gotten a 4th generation of sea otters from the Lootas -> Aniak/Adaa -> Sekiu genealogy.
 
Northwest_FIsh_Keeping said:
After $160M, over a decade in planning, and 4 years construction, the long awaited 'Ocean Pavilion' campus extension has finally opened. This building focuses exclusively on the Coral Triangle region of the Indo-Pacific as it aims to educate on how we all share 1 Ocean and the same challenges despite being on opposite sides of the world.
To preface, I was a Highschool Intern (yesterday was my last day as I'm too old now since I've graduated this past summer, but I still have ties to the Aquarium) so there's a lot of explaining I'm able to do about the different species and plans. The biggest being the reason why I put "Grand Opening" in the title is because this is only about 25% of the amount of species that will be in the building. For example, 'The Reef' currently only has about 50% of the fish its intended to house. We do have a lot of placeholder species on display right now that will be moved around or taken off display once the actual species are ready for exhibit. A lot of species we have are very delicate, so they need extra time to adjust to exhibit. It still looks somewhat full, but you can tell that there are some things missing and some tanks are quite sparse. Expect over the next few weeks / possibly couple months for everything to be officially moved in. A lot of it was due to unexpected timeline delays such as the concrete strike back in December, which slowed down the processes of acclimation and moving animals in + a lot of pressure to open up during Summer (which is why we're opening at the tail end of Summer).

At the end of this list, I will cover a good amount of species that aren't on exhibit yet to look forward to, but will be over the next couple weeks as previously mentioned. (This is all public knowledge so I'm not leaking anything just to be safe). Also check out the media section of the Aquarium to see the photos of majority of these species I've posted.

Once all the species are moved in, I will make an updated list that should be much, much more extensive. These are jus the species you're most likely going to see if you visit between now and the next couple weeks.

To start:

One Ocean Hall | Kind of like the center of the building, a lot of it involves projectors and digital images, but there is 1 tank in this area that houses:
  • Yellow Seahorses (Hippocampus kuda)

The Reef | The crown jewel of the building, this 500,000 Gallon Tank is home to a majority of the Elasmobranchs & Large Reef Fishes with 5 different viewing points. As mentioned before, only about 50% of the intended animals are in here, so far it houses:
  • (3) Ocellated Eagle Rays (Aetobatus ocellatus)
  • (1) Zebra / Indo-Pacific Leopard Shark (Stegostoma tigrinum)
  • (1) Giant Moray Eel (Gymnothorax javanicus)
  • (250+) Yellow & Blue Fusiliers (Caesio cuning)
  • Bluespine Unicorn Tangs (Naso unicornis)
  • Naso Tangs (Naso lituratus)
  • Eye-Stripe Tangs (Acanthurus dussumieri)
  • Fowleri Tangs (Acanthurus fowleri)
  • Emperor Angelfishes (Pomacanthus imperator)
  • Clown Triggerfishes (Balistoides conspicillum)
  • Porcupine Pufferfish (Diodon holocanthus)
  • Grey Dogface Pufferfish (Arothron nigropunctatus)
  • Pyramid Butterflyfishes (Hemitaurichthys polylepis)
  • Saddle Butterflyfishes (Chaetodon ephippium)
  • Spotted Sweetlips (Plectorhinchus chaetodonoides)
  • Purple Square block Anthias (Males & Females) (Pseudanthias pleurotaenia)
  • Blue Streak Cleaner Wrasses (Labroides dimidiatus)
  • Yellow Stripe Wrasse (Coris flavovittata)
  • Moorish Idols (Zanclus
  • cornutus)
  • Foxface Rabbitfishes (Siganus vulpinus)
  • Coral Rabbitfishes (Siganus corallinus)
  • Yellow Stripe Goatfishes (Mulloidichthys flavolineatus)
  • Manybar Goatfishes (Parupeneus multifasciatus)
The Archipelago | Made up of two tanks, the left side is a Mangrove Lagoon that holds roughly 11,000 Gallons and the right is an Inshore Reef that's 2 stories tall (viewable from both floors) and holds about 20,000 Gallons. Starting with the Mangrove side:
  • Australian Stripey's (Microcanthus strigatus)
  • Silver Monos (Monodactylus argenteus)
  • Spotted Scats (Scatophagus argus)
  • Yellow Stripe Goatfishes (Mulloidichthys flavolineatus)
  • Chocolate Chip Sea Stars (Protoreaster nodosus)
  • Red Mangrove Trees (Rhizophora mangle)
Now for the Inshore Reef:
  • Moorish Idols (Zanclus
  • cornutus)
  • Powder Brown Tangs (Acanthurus japonicus)
  • Big Eye Soldierfishes (Myripristis jacobus)
  • Foxface Rabbitfishes (Siganus
  • vulpinus)
  • Various Astrea Snails, Cerith Snails, and Blue Leg Hermit Crabs are also littered everywhere.
  • Various Hammer Corals, Plating & Encrusting Montipora Corals, Mushroom Corals, Photosynthetic Gorgonians, & Zoanthid Corals are also in here. More stony corals to come.
At Home in the Ocean | A Hallway style of that displays various symbiotic relationships, weird species, and smaller niche ecosystems, this is definitely where a lot of the placeholders are and you can tell, I'll explain what species are placeholders and what is meant to be there at the end.
A majority of the larger tanks also have questions / themes engraved above them so I'll list those first, then the smaller unnamed displays.
  • 'Want to be friends?' | Ocellaris Clownfishes (Amphiprion ocellaris) / Tomato Clownfishes (Amphiprion frenatus) / Rainbow Bubbletip Anemones (Entacmaea quadricolor) / Giant Carpet Anemones (Stichodactyla gigantea)
  • 'Want to play Hide & Seek?' | Epaulette Shark (Hemiscyllium ocellatum) / Razorfishes (Aeoliscus strigatus)
  • 'Want to go out... or stay in?' | Orange Weedy Scorpionfish (Rhinopias frondosa)
  • 'Read my mind?' Dwarf Cuttlefishes (Sepia bandensis)
  • 'Want to see a Magic Trick?' | Spotted Garden Eels (Heteroconger hassi) / Splendid Garden Eels (Gorgasia preclara) / Purple Square Spot Anthias (Male & Females) (Pseudanthias pleurotaenia)
  • 'Watch out!' | Devil Scorpionfish (Scorpaenopsis diabolus) / Blunt Slipper Lobster (Scyllarides squammosus) / Ornate Spiny Lobster (Panulirus ornatus)
  • 'Are you a Night Owl too?' | Longspine Cardinalfishes (Zoramia leptacantha) / Sixline Wrasses (Pseudocheilinus hexataenia) / Orange Sun Corals (Tubastrea sp.) / Black Sun Corals (Tubastrea micrantha) / Purple Gorgonian (Menella sp.) / Blueberry Gorgonians (Acalycigorgia sp.) / Wire Corals (various colors) (Cirrhipathes spiralis)
Now for the unnamed displays:
  • Yellow Leaf Scorpionfishes (Taenianotus triacanthus)
  • Many Lined Pipefishes (Dunckerocampus multiannulatus)
  • 'Caulerpa Prolifera' algae
  • Upside Down Jellies (most likely Cassiopea andromeda but I will have to get that confirmed)
  • Australian Sea Apples (Pseudocolochirus axiologus)
  • Peacock Mantis Shrimp (Odontodactylus scyllarus)
There also Pink & Black Sea Cucumbers (Holothuria edulis) spread throughout the various tanks to help keep the sand clean

The Jelly Nursey | Currently there are no Jellies, however the first species that will be on display are the Spotted Lagoon Jellies (Mastigias papua). This tank will rotate somewhat periodically with different species of Jellies.


Information & Context
So as you can see, there is still a good amount of diversity for the opening, just not as much as there eventually will be. There's quite a bit I need to talk about for context, but I'll start with the place holder species in At home in the Ocean first.
  • The Epaulette Shark & Razorfish are actually destined to live in the Mangrove Lagoon. Currently they're place holders for the Weedy Seadragons that will be housed in that tank.
  • The Orange Weedy Scorpionfish is destined to live in the 'Watch Out!' Tank since that's basically a Venomous Fish & Oddball Invert Tank. I'm unsure about what is meant to live in the 'Want to go out.. or stay in?' Tank, but it is a replica of a cave / recess on the Reef so most likely some more nocturnal species.
  • The Dwarf Cuttlefish are placeholders for the Flamboyant Cuttlefish that will be housed in there. The Dwarf Cuttles will be moved off exhibit when the Flamboyants are ready. Fun Fact: That is meant to be a Cephalopod tank, hence the 'Read my Mind?' engraving, and a Day Octopus is planned for the future.
  • More fish should be added to the 'Are you a night owl too?' tank as that is a Non-Photosynthetic Reef, I'd expect some more Mesophotic species to go in there hopefully.
'The Reef' is meant to house many, many more fish soon. A lot of them are smaller reef fish so I'll go over the main show stoppers that will be moving in soon:
  • (3 is what I've heard) Juvenile Black Tip Reef Sharks (Carcharhinus melanopterus)
  • (1) Bowmouth Guitarfish (Rhina ancylostoma)
  • (1) Leopard Whipray (a true H. Leoparda from Japan)
  • (unspecified amount) Javanese Cownose Rays (Rhinoptera javanica)
  • (1) Female Zebra / Indo-Pacific Leopard Shark will join later down the line to make a breeding pair with the male that is already in the tank. (She's currently at the Offsite Facility, she's just a little younger so she needs some more time to grow before joining the exhibit)
  • (3) Napolean Wrasses
  • Double Lined Fusiliers, Orbicular Batfishes, Milkfishes, and many more medium - large sized Reef Fish are also moving in. I know we do have a Honeycomb Moray in collection that was acquired about a year & half ago, so I'd expect him to go into the Reef as well, but I haven't heard anything in a minute about him so I hope he's alright.
'The Archipelago' is also destined for many more fish and corals. The Mangrove Lagoon side specifically is going to house:
  • (2 Female) Blue Spotted Mask Rays (Neotrygon kuhlii)
  • (I believe a pair) Epaulette Sharks
  • Live Seagrass
  • Giant Clams
  • various Soft Corals
  • and a few more fish species
The Inshore Reef side is destined to house:
  • A group of Snub-nosed Pompano (Trachinotus blochii)
  • Various species of Angelfishes, Tangs, Anthias, Damselfishes, etc. So basically your average mixed species Reef Tank.
  • Various species of Stony Corals.
'One Ocean Hall' aka the Seahorse Tank will soon house Banded Pipefishes (Dunckerocampus dactyliophorus) and Alligator Pipefishes (Syngnathoides biaculeatus) alongside the Seahorses.

Closing | If I'm being 100% honest, if you were to buy a general admission ticket, I'd wait a few more weeks while the rest of the species are moved in because $50 is quite steep to pay (you do get access to all 3 buildings) but with OP being the newest, it wouldn't be worth just to see a quarter of the species that are destined to be in the building by the time everything is moved in. I believe the building will live up to the hype, with both the collection of species and also the architecture since it really is incredible inside and everything is so well put together.
Click to expand...
Add to this list a Purple Weedy Scorpionfish (Rhinopias frondosa) that went in the "Want to go out... or stay in?" Tank today. This guy will also move over to the "Watch Out!" Tank once everything is sorted out.

SeaOtterHQ said:
To be fair, both the oldest male sea otter (Adaa, the otter in my avatar) and oldest female sea otter (Etika) on record were longtime Seattle Aquarium residents, so you guys must give them great care despite the somewhat outdated enclosures.

I know the AZA made the decision to end the captive breeding program to make room for rescued pups, which is an understandable and laudable goal, but I wish we could've gotten a 4th generation of sea otters from the Lootas -> Aniak/Adaa -> Sekiu genealogy.
Click to expand...
That's true, same could be said with Barney (Harbor Seal) right now as I believe he just turned 40 (or 39, I forgot) and he's been here his whole life. Hopefully he'll live long enough to at least get a little bit of time in the new habitat when that starts construction, but it really is a testimony to how well they're taken care of.
 
I didn't realize seals could even live that long. Not that I've ever given that any thought, admittedly. A very impressive lifespan, anyway.
 
Northwest_FIsh_Keeping said:
After $160M, over a decade in planning, and 4 years construction, the long awaited 'Ocean Pavilion' campus extension has finally opened. This building focuses exclusively on the Coral Triangle region of the Indo-Pacific as it aims to educate on how we all share 1 Ocean and the same challenges despite being on opposite sides of the world.
To preface, I was a Highschool Intern (yesterday was my last day as I'm too old now since I've graduated this past summer, but I still have ties to the Aquarium) so there's a lot of explaining I'm able to do about the different species and plans. The biggest being the reason why I put "Grand Opening" in the title is because this is only about 25% of the amount of species that will be in the building. For example, 'The Reef' currently only has about 50% of the fish its intended to house. We do have a lot of placeholder species on display right now that will be moved around or taken off display once the actual species are ready for exhibit. A lot of species we have are very delicate, so they need extra time to adjust to exhibit. It still looks somewhat full, but you can tell that there are some things missing and some tanks are quite sparse. Expect over the next few weeks / possibly couple months for everything to be officially moved in. A lot of it was due to unexpected timeline delays such as the concrete strike back in December, which slowed down the processes of acclimation and moving animals in + a lot of pressure to open up during Summer (which is why we're opening at the tail end of Summer).

At the end of this list, I will cover a good amount of species that aren't on exhibit yet to look forward to, but will be over the next couple weeks as previously mentioned. (This is all public knowledge so I'm not leaking anything just to be safe). Also check out the media section of the Aquarium to see the photos of majority of these species I've posted.

Once all the species are moved in, I will make an updated list that should be much, much more extensive. These are jus the species you're most likely going to see if you visit between now and the next couple weeks.

To start:

One Ocean Hall | Kind of like the center of the building, a lot of it involves projectors and digital images, but there is 1 tank in this area that houses:
  • Yellow Seahorses (Hippocampus kuda)

The Reef | The crown jewel of the building, this 500,000 Gallon Tank is home to a majority of the Elasmobranchs & Large Reef Fishes with 5 different viewing points. As mentioned before, only about 50% of the intended animals are in here, so far it houses:
  • (3) Ocellated Eagle Rays (Aetobatus ocellatus)
  • (1) Zebra / Indo-Pacific Leopard Shark (Stegostoma tigrinum)
  • (1) Giant Moray Eel (Gymnothorax javanicus)
  • (250+) Yellow & Blue Fusiliers (Caesio cuning)
  • Bluespine Unicorn Tangs (Naso unicornis)
  • Naso Tangs (Naso lituratus)
  • Eye-Stripe Tangs (Acanthurus dussumieri)
  • Fowleri Tangs (Acanthurus fowleri)
  • Emperor Angelfishes (Pomacanthus imperator)
  • Clown Triggerfishes (Balistoides conspicillum)
  • Porcupine Pufferfish (Diodon holocanthus)
  • Grey Dogface Pufferfish (Arothron nigropunctatus)
  • Pyramid Butterflyfishes (Hemitaurichthys polylepis)
  • Saddle Butterflyfishes (Chaetodon ephippium)
  • Spotted Sweetlips (Plectorhinchus chaetodonoides)
  • Purple Square block Anthias (Males & Females) (Pseudanthias pleurotaenia)
  • Blue Streak Cleaner Wrasses (Labroides dimidiatus)
  • Yellow Stripe Wrasse (Coris flavovittata)
  • Moorish Idols (Zanclus
  • cornutus)
  • Foxface Rabbitfishes (Siganus vulpinus)
  • Coral Rabbitfishes (Siganus corallinus)
  • Yellow Stripe Goatfishes (Mulloidichthys flavolineatus)
  • Manybar Goatfishes (Parupeneus multifasciatus)
The Archipelago | Made up of two tanks, the left side is a Mangrove Lagoon that holds roughly 11,000 Gallons and the right is an Inshore Reef that's 2 stories tall (viewable from both floors) and holds about 20,000 Gallons. Starting with the Mangrove side:
  • Australian Stripey's (Microcanthus strigatus)
  • Silver Monos (Monodactylus argenteus)
  • Spotted Scats (Scatophagus argus)
  • Yellow Stripe Goatfishes (Mulloidichthys flavolineatus)
  • Chocolate Chip Sea Stars (Protoreaster nodosus)
  • Red Mangrove Trees (Rhizophora mangle)
Now for the Inshore Reef:
  • Moorish Idols (Zanclus
  • cornutus)
  • Powder Brown Tangs (Acanthurus japonicus)
  • Big Eye Soldierfishes (Myripristis jacobus)
  • Foxface Rabbitfishes (Siganus
  • vulpinus)
  • Various Astrea Snails, Cerith Snails, and Blue Leg Hermit Crabs are also littered everywhere.
  • Various Hammer Corals, Plating & Encrusting Montipora Corals, Mushroom Corals, Photosynthetic Gorgonians, & Zoanthid Corals are also in here. More stony corals to come.
At Home in the Ocean | A Hallway style of that displays various symbiotic relationships, weird species, and smaller niche ecosystems, this is definitely where a lot of the placeholders are and you can tell, I'll explain what species are placeholders and what is meant to be there at the end.
A majority of the larger tanks also have questions / themes engraved above them so I'll list those first, then the smaller unnamed displays.
  • 'Want to be friends?' | Ocellaris Clownfishes (Amphiprion ocellaris) / Tomato Clownfishes (Amphiprion frenatus) / Rainbow Bubbletip Anemones (Entacmaea quadricolor) / Giant Carpet Anemones (Stichodactyla gigantea)
  • 'Want to play Hide & Seek?' | Epaulette Shark (Hemiscyllium ocellatum) / Razorfishes (Aeoliscus strigatus)
  • 'Want to go out... or stay in?' | Orange Weedy Scorpionfish (Rhinopias frondosa)
  • 'Read my mind?' Dwarf Cuttlefishes (Sepia bandensis)
  • 'Want to see a Magic Trick?' | Spotted Garden Eels (Heteroconger hassi) / Splendid Garden Eels (Gorgasia preclara) / Purple Square Spot Anthias (Male & Females) (Pseudanthias pleurotaenia)
  • 'Watch out!' | Devil Scorpionfish (Scorpaenopsis diabolus) / Blunt Slipper Lobster (Scyllarides squammosus) / Ornate Spiny Lobster (Panulirus ornatus)
  • 'Are you a Night Owl too?' | Longspine Cardinalfishes (Zoramia leptacantha) / Sixline Wrasses (Pseudocheilinus hexataenia) / Orange Sun Corals (Tubastrea sp.) / Black Sun Corals (Tubastrea micrantha) / Purple Gorgonian (Menella sp.) / Blueberry Gorgonians (Acalycigorgia sp.) / Wire Corals (various colors) (Cirrhipathes spiralis)
Now for the unnamed displays:
  • Yellow Leaf Scorpionfishes (Taenianotus triacanthus)
  • Many Lined Pipefishes (Dunckerocampus multiannulatus)
  • 'Caulerpa Prolifera' algae
  • Upside Down Jellies (most likely Cassiopea andromeda but I will have to get that confirmed)
  • Australian Sea Apples (Pseudocolochirus axiologus)
  • Peacock Mantis Shrimp (Odontodactylus scyllarus)
There also Pink & Black Sea Cucumbers (Holothuria edulis) spread throughout the various tanks to help keep the sand clean

The Jelly Nursey | Currently there are no Jellies, however the first species that will be on display are the Spotted Lagoon Jellies (Mastigias papua). This tank will rotate somewhat periodically with different species of Jellies.


Information & Context
So as you can see, there is still a good amount of diversity for the opening, just not as much as there eventually will be. There's quite a bit I need to talk about for context, but I'll start with the place holder species in At home in the Ocean first.
  • The Epaulette Shark & Razorfish are actually destined to live in the Mangrove Lagoon. Currently they're place holders for the Weedy Seadragons that will be housed in that tank.
  • The Orange Weedy Scorpionfish is destined to live in the 'Watch Out!' Tank since that's basically a Venomous Fish & Oddball Invert Tank. I'm unsure about what is meant to live in the 'Want to go out.. or stay in?' Tank, but it is a replica of a cave / recess on the Reef so most likely some more nocturnal species.
  • The Dwarf Cuttlefish are placeholders for the Flamboyant Cuttlefish that will be housed in there. The Dwarf Cuttles will be moved off exhibit when the Flamboyants are ready. Fun Fact: That is meant to be a Cephalopod tank, hence the 'Read my Mind?' engraving, and a Day Octopus is planned for the future.
  • More fish should be added to the 'Are you a night owl too?' tank as that is a Non-Photosynthetic Reef, I'd expect some more Mesophotic species to go in there hopefully.
'The Reef' is meant to house many, many more fish soon. A lot of them are smaller reef fish so I'll go over the main show stoppers that will be moving in soon:
  • (3 is what I've heard) Juvenile Black Tip Reef Sharks (Carcharhinus melanopterus)
  • (1) Bowmouth Guitarfish (Rhina ancylostoma)
  • (1) Leopard Whipray (a true H. Leoparda from Japan)
  • (unspecified amount) Javanese Cownose Rays (Rhinoptera javanica)
  • (1) Female Zebra / Indo-Pacific Leopard Shark will join later down the line to make a breeding pair with the male that is already in the tank. (She's currently at the Offsite Facility, she's just a little younger so she needs some more time to grow before joining the exhibit)
  • (3) Napolean Wrasses
  • Double Lined Fusiliers, Orbicular Batfishes, Milkfishes, and many more medium - large sized Reef Fish are also moving in. I know we do have a Honeycomb Moray in collection that was acquired about a year & half ago, so I'd expect him to go into the Reef as well, but I haven't heard anything in a minute about him so I hope he's alright.
'The Archipelago' is also destined for many more fish and corals. The Mangrove Lagoon side specifically is going to house:
  • (2 Female) Blue Spotted Mask Rays (Neotrygon kuhlii)
  • (I believe a pair) Epaulette Sharks
  • Live Seagrass
  • Giant Clams
  • various Soft Corals
  • and a few more fish species
The Inshore Reef side is destined to house:
  • A group of Snub-nosed Pompano (Trachinotus blochii)
  • Various species of Angelfishes, Tangs, Anthias, Damselfishes, etc. So basically your average mixed species Reef Tank.
  • Various species of Stony Corals.
'One Ocean Hall' aka the Seahorse Tank will soon house Banded Pipefishes (Dunckerocampus dactyliophorus) and Alligator Pipefishes (Syngnathoides biaculeatus) alongside the Seahorses.

Closing | If I'm being 100% honest, if you were to buy a general admission ticket, I'd wait a few more weeks while the rest of the species are moved in because $50 is quite steep to pay (you do get access to all 3 buildings) but with OP being the newest, it wouldn't be worth just to see a quarter of the species that are destined to be in the building by the time everything is moved in. I believe the building will live up to the hype, with both the collection of species and also the architecture since it really is incredible inside and everything is so well put together.
Click to expand...
Couple corrections and updates: Instead of Fowerli Tangs, they're actually Ringtail Tangs (Acanthurus xanthopterus), we don't have Fowerli Tangs just yet.

An old face returns as yesterday, a Cushion Star (Culcita novaeguineae) was added to the 'Watch out!' tank in 'At home in the Ocean'. This was the same individual that used to be in the PCR gallery before being taken out a few months back.

The Batfish species I also heard wrong, they're actually Pinnatus Batfish (Platax pinnatus) and not Orbicular Batfish which I'm surprised by because they're the more uncommon of the two but I'm excited about those.

Also a tip for those that come by, most of the signage tablets have been pre-programmed with a lot of species that aren't on exhibit just yet. This is to avoid the hassle of having to constantly update them whenever something new goes on display. Which also means you get to see some things that we have planned for the future, such as Ribbon Eels (Rhinomuraena quaesita) that will most likely end up in the 'Want to go out.. or stay in?' Tank at some point.
 
Northwest_FIsh_Keeping said:
After $160M, over a decade in planning, and 4 years construction, the long awaited 'Ocean Pavilion' campus extension has finally opened. This building focuses exclusively on the Coral Triangle region of the Indo-Pacific as it aims to educate on how we all share 1 Ocean and the same challenges despite being on opposite sides of the world.
To preface, I was a Highschool Intern (yesterday was my last day as I'm too old now since I've graduated this past summer, but I still have ties to the Aquarium) so there's a lot of explaining I'm able to do about the different species and plans. The biggest being the reason why I put "Grand Opening" in the title is because this is only about 25% of the amount of species that will be in the building. For example, 'The Reef' currently only has about 50% of the fish its intended to house. We do have a lot of placeholder species on display right now that will be moved around or taken off display once the actual species are ready for exhibit. A lot of species we have are very delicate, so they need extra time to adjust to exhibit. It still looks somewhat full, but you can tell that there are some things missing and some tanks are quite sparse. Expect over the next few weeks / possibly couple months for everything to be officially moved in. A lot of it was due to unexpected timeline delays such as the concrete strike back in December, which slowed down the processes of acclimation and moving animals in + a lot of pressure to open up during Summer (which is why we're opening at the tail end of Summer).

At the end of this list, I will cover a good amount of species that aren't on exhibit yet to look forward to, but will be over the next couple weeks as previously mentioned. (This is all public knowledge so I'm not leaking anything just to be safe). Also check out the media section of the Aquarium to see the photos of majority of these species I've posted.

Once all the species are moved in, I will make an updated list that should be much, much more extensive. These are jus the species you're most likely going to see if you visit between now and the next couple weeks.

To start:

One Ocean Hall | Kind of like the center of the building, a lot of it involves projectors and digital images, but there is 1 tank in this area that houses:
  • Yellow Seahorses (Hippocampus kuda)

The Reef | The crown jewel of the building, this 500,000 Gallon Tank is home to a majority of the Elasmobranchs & Large Reef Fishes with 5 different viewing points. As mentioned before, only about 50% of the intended animals are in here, so far it houses:
  • (3) Ocellated Eagle Rays (Aetobatus ocellatus)
  • (1) Zebra / Indo-Pacific Leopard Shark (Stegostoma tigrinum)
  • (1) Giant Moray Eel (Gymnothorax javanicus)
  • (250+) Yellow & Blue Fusiliers (Caesio cuning)
  • Bluespine Unicorn Tangs (Naso unicornis)
  • Naso Tangs (Naso lituratus)
  • Eye-Stripe Tangs (Acanthurus dussumieri)
  • Fowleri Tangs (Acanthurus fowleri)
  • Emperor Angelfishes (Pomacanthus imperator)
  • Clown Triggerfishes (Balistoides conspicillum)
  • Porcupine Pufferfish (Diodon holocanthus)
  • Grey Dogface Pufferfish (Arothron nigropunctatus)
  • Pyramid Butterflyfishes (Hemitaurichthys polylepis)
  • Saddle Butterflyfishes (Chaetodon ephippium)
  • Spotted Sweetlips (Plectorhinchus chaetodonoides)
  • Purple Square block Anthias (Males & Females) (Pseudanthias pleurotaenia)
  • Blue Streak Cleaner Wrasses (Labroides dimidiatus)
  • Yellow Stripe Wrasse (Coris flavovittata)
  • Moorish Idols (Zanclus
  • cornutus)
  • Foxface Rabbitfishes (Siganus vulpinus)
  • Coral Rabbitfishes (Siganus corallinus)
  • Yellow Stripe Goatfishes (Mulloidichthys flavolineatus)
  • Manybar Goatfishes (Parupeneus multifasciatus)
The Archipelago | Made up of two tanks, the left side is a Mangrove Lagoon that holds roughly 11,000 Gallons and the right is an Inshore Reef that's 2 stories tall (viewable from both floors) and holds about 20,000 Gallons. Starting with the Mangrove side:
  • Australian Stripey's (Microcanthus strigatus)
  • Silver Monos (Monodactylus argenteus)
  • Spotted Scats (Scatophagus argus)
  • Yellow Stripe Goatfishes (Mulloidichthys flavolineatus)
  • Chocolate Chip Sea Stars (Protoreaster nodosus)
  • Red Mangrove Trees (Rhizophora mangle)
Now for the Inshore Reef:
  • Moorish Idols (Zanclus
  • cornutus)
  • Powder Brown Tangs (Acanthurus japonicus)
  • Big Eye Soldierfishes (Myripristis jacobus)
  • Foxface Rabbitfishes (Siganus
  • vulpinus)
  • Various Astrea Snails, Cerith Snails, and Blue Leg Hermit Crabs are also littered everywhere.
  • Various Hammer Corals, Plating & Encrusting Montipora Corals, Mushroom Corals, Photosynthetic Gorgonians, & Zoanthid Corals are also in here. More stony corals to come.
At Home in the Ocean | A Hallway style of that displays various symbiotic relationships, weird species, and smaller niche ecosystems, this is definitely where a lot of the placeholders are and you can tell, I'll explain what species are placeholders and what is meant to be there at the end.
A majority of the larger tanks also have questions / themes engraved above them so I'll list those first, then the smaller unnamed displays.
  • 'Want to be friends?' | Ocellaris Clownfishes (Amphiprion ocellaris) / Tomato Clownfishes (Amphiprion frenatus) / Rainbow Bubbletip Anemones (Entacmaea quadricolor) / Giant Carpet Anemones (Stichodactyla gigantea)
  • 'Want to play Hide & Seek?' | Epaulette Shark (Hemiscyllium ocellatum) / Razorfishes (Aeoliscus strigatus)
  • 'Want to go out... or stay in?' | Orange Weedy Scorpionfish (Rhinopias frondosa)
  • 'Read my mind?' Dwarf Cuttlefishes (Sepia bandensis)
  • 'Want to see a Magic Trick?' | Spotted Garden Eels (Heteroconger hassi) / Splendid Garden Eels (Gorgasia preclara) / Purple Square Spot Anthias (Male & Females) (Pseudanthias pleurotaenia)
  • 'Watch out!' | Devil Scorpionfish (Scorpaenopsis diabolus) / Blunt Slipper Lobster (Scyllarides squammosus) / Ornate Spiny Lobster (Panulirus ornatus)
  • 'Are you a Night Owl too?' | Longspine Cardinalfishes (Zoramia leptacantha) / Sixline Wrasses (Pseudocheilinus hexataenia) / Orange Sun Corals (Tubastrea sp.) / Black Sun Corals (Tubastrea micrantha) / Purple Gorgonian (Menella sp.) / Blueberry Gorgonians (Acalycigorgia sp.) / Wire Corals (various colors) (Cirrhipathes spiralis)
Now for the unnamed displays:
  • Yellow Leaf Scorpionfishes (Taenianotus triacanthus)
  • Many Lined Pipefishes (Dunckerocampus multiannulatus)
  • 'Caulerpa Prolifera' algae
  • Upside Down Jellies (most likely Cassiopea andromeda but I will have to get that confirmed)
  • Australian Sea Apples (Pseudocolochirus axiologus)
  • Peacock Mantis Shrimp (Odontodactylus scyllarus)
There also Pink & Black Sea Cucumbers (Holothuria edulis) spread throughout the various tanks to help keep the sand clean

The Jelly Nursey | Currently there are no Jellies, however the first species that will be on display are the Spotted Lagoon Jellies (Mastigias papua). This tank will rotate somewhat periodically with different species of Jellies.


Information & Context
So as you can see, there is still a good amount of diversity for the opening, just not as much as there eventually will be. There's quite a bit I need to talk about for context, but I'll start with the place holder species in At home in the Ocean first.
  • The Epaulette Shark & Razorfish are actually destined to live in the Mangrove Lagoon. Currently they're place holders for the Weedy Seadragons that will be housed in that tank.
  • The Orange Weedy Scorpionfish is destined to live in the 'Watch Out!' Tank since that's basically a Venomous Fish & Oddball Invert Tank. I'm unsure about what is meant to live in the 'Want to go out.. or stay in?' Tank, but it is a replica of a cave / recess on the Reef so most likely some more nocturnal species.
  • The Dwarf Cuttlefish are placeholders for the Flamboyant Cuttlefish that will be housed in there. The Dwarf Cuttles will be moved off exhibit when the Flamboyants are ready. Fun Fact: That is meant to be a Cephalopod tank, hence the 'Read my Mind?' engraving, and a Day Octopus is planned for the future.
  • More fish should be added to the 'Are you a night owl too?' tank as that is a Non-Photosynthetic Reef, I'd expect some more Mesophotic species to go in there hopefully.
'The Reef' is meant to house many, many more fish soon. A lot of them are smaller reef fish so I'll go over the main show stoppers that will be moving in soon:
  • (3 is what I've heard) Juvenile Black Tip Reef Sharks (Carcharhinus melanopterus)
  • (1) Bowmouth Guitarfish (Rhina ancylostoma)
  • (1) Leopard Whipray (a true H. Leoparda from Japan)
  • (unspecified amount) Javanese Cownose Rays (Rhinoptera javanica)
  • (1) Female Zebra / Indo-Pacific Leopard Shark will join later down the line to make a breeding pair with the male that is already in the tank. (She's currently at the Offsite Facility, she's just a little younger so she needs some more time to grow before joining the exhibit)
  • (3) Napolean Wrasses
  • Double Lined Fusiliers, Orbicular Batfishes, Milkfishes, and many more medium - large sized Reef Fish are also moving in. I know we do have a Honeycomb Moray in collection that was acquired about a year & half ago, so I'd expect him to go into the Reef as well, but I haven't heard anything in a minute about him so I hope he's alright.
'The Archipelago' is also destined for many more fish and corals. The Mangrove Lagoon side specifically is going to house:
  • (2 Female) Blue Spotted Mask Rays (Neotrygon kuhlii)
  • (I believe a pair) Epaulette Sharks
  • Live Seagrass
  • Giant Clams
  • various Soft Corals
  • and a few more fish species
The Inshore Reef side is destined to house:
  • A group of Snub-nosed Pompano (Trachinotus blochii)
  • Various species of Angelfishes, Tangs, Anthias, Damselfishes, etc. So basically your average mixed species Reef Tank.
  • Various species of Stony Corals.
'One Ocean Hall' aka the Seahorse Tank will soon house Banded Pipefishes (Dunckerocampus dactyliophorus) and Alligator Pipefishes (Syngnathoides biaculeatus) alongside the Seahorses.

Closing | If I'm being 100% honest, if you were to buy a general admission ticket, I'd wait a few more weeks while the rest of the species are moved in because $50 is quite steep to pay (you do get access to all 3 buildings) but with OP being the newest, it wouldn't be worth just to see a quarter of the species that are destined to be in the building by the time everything is moved in. I believe the building will live up to the hype, with both the collection of species and also the architecture since it really is incredible inside and everything is so well put together.
Click to expand...
The Spotted Lagoon Jellies are now in the 'Jelly Nursery' Tank, they're pretty small since they're cultured in house but are fast growers.

Also some exciting news, word of mouth is that the Bowmouth Guitarfish ('Rhina' is her unofficial name based off her genus name, some people on staff pronounce it "Rhy-na" and others say "Rey-na", personally I like the latter more) is going to be moved over into 'The Reef' within the next 2 - 3 weeks. I will update when that move happens, but she is probably the single rarest animal in the building so I'm really excited about that.
 
Actually to add onto that, a binder of species was released that contains some really awesome information about animals that could (most likely will) be joining the OP shortly. This list was last updated in July, so I'd expect most of these to still be in our collection, A lot of it is smaller reef fish, but here are some of the really cool ones that were mentioned: (This list was made to help ID animals for guests via volunteers, so I shouldn't be leaking anything since this should be public info)
Northwest_FIsh_Keeping said:
  • Big Eye Soldierfishes (Myripristis jacobus)
Click to expand...
And thanks to that binder, I wanna clarify that I got this ID wrong as well, the Soldierfish in our collection are actually Pearly Soldierfishes (Myripristis kuntee) which I have never heard of before but that's what they're listed as. Correcting this right now so that I can make sure I'm right for when I compile the complete species list later on.

Anyways:
  • Queensland Grouper (Epinephelus lanceolatus)
  • Panther Grouper (Cromileptes altivelis)
  • Honeycomb Moray (Gymnothorax favagineus)
Last I had heard of groupers was almost 2 years ago and it was that we ended up scrapping them off of the final stocking list. It looks like we changed our minds since these 2 are listed and will most likely end up in 'The Reef'. And the Honeycomb Moray still lives! I had not heard anything about him for a while so I wasn't sure where he was at but apparently he lives behind the scenes of the OP at the moment. Word is that he could end up in 'The Reef', or 'At home in the Ocean', there's just some debate about where to put him since he is very picky with his diet (he was actually confiscated from a fish store due to poor housing conditions so I'm guessing he just got fed 1 or 2 types of food at most)
  • Banded Archerfishes (Toxotes jaculatrix)
  • Oriental Flying Gurnard (Dactyloptena orientalis)
The Archerfish for sure will end up in the Mangrove Lagoon side of the 'Archipelago', and I'm guessing the Flying Gurnard as well since in the wild they inhabit Sandy Bottoms, but it could also end up in 'At home in the Ocean' if it's a smaller individual.
  • Golden Sweepers (Parapriacanthus ransonneti) | Looks like they're related to Cardinalfish, a big group of these will most likely end up in the Inshore Reef side of the 'Archipelago' since in the wild they live near rocky ledges
  • Ribboned Pipefishes (Haliichthys taeniophorus) | One of my favorite species of Pipefish, these will definitely end up in 'At home in the Ocean' in the near future. They were shown in the concept art for the exhibit so I'm glad we've got them.
  • Australian Spotted Jellies (Phyllorhiza punctata) | This species I wouldn't be surprised to see soon, they are compatible with the Spotted Lagoon Jellies so they may be co-housed together, especially since we only have 1 Jelly display tank.
  • Blubber Jellies (Catostylus mosaicus) | These will most likely end up as their own display in the future since their requirements are a little more difficult than the other 2 species mentioned.
  • Ink-Spot Sea Squirts (Polycarpa aurata) | Will most likely end up in the Non-Photosynthetic Reef Tank since they are filter feeders that need constant food.
  • Tridacna maxima, gigas, and derasa | The 3 species of Giant Clam that will be in the Mangrove Lagoon side. T. gigas is the true Giant Clam that reaches multiple feet in length so I'm excited to see those in future years once they pack on some size.
I definitely didn't name everything on the list (just those that I thought were interesting), and there's definitely been some new additions since then, but those are some species to look forward to in the near future.
 
@Northwest_FIsh_Keeping Thank you so much for this truly fascinating and detailed species update! It’s awesome to get insight from someone in the building and I really appreciate it. I’m definitely excited to make the trip to see the Ocean Realm, I haven’t been in 10 years!

I’m curious - do you think that any other shark and ray species could be brought in for the future? At 500,000 gallons, it seems to me that gray reefs or other larger sharks could potentially join the exhibit eventually. Very interested in your thoughts or any insight you might have into future plans, if you’re able to say.
 
Local_Shark said:
@Northwest_FIsh_Keeping Thank you so much for this truly fascinating and detailed species update! It’s awesome to get insight from someone in the building and I really appreciate it. I’m definitely excited to make the trip to see the Ocean Realm, I haven’t been in 10 years!

I’m curious - do you think that any other shark and ray species could be brought in for the future? At 500,000 gallons, it seems to me that gray reefs or other larger sharks could potentially join the exhibit eventually. Very interested in your thoughts or any insight you might have into future plans, if you’re able to say.
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Definitely. I know that for the future, we do want to try and bring in species that would be apart of the ReShark Conservation program (such as how we have the pair of Zebra Sharks) so depending on what species is nominated and brought on next for that, there's a good chance a pair or more of that species could find a home here to help with that.
I have a pretty good hunch that in a few years, we could also get some Sharks from the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium in Tacoma, specifically like you mentioned, their Grey Reef Sharks. Their shark tank is around 240,000 gallons, so just under half the size of ours and they currently have 18 total sharks in there (3 Zebra, 4 Nurse, 5 Black Tips, 1 Tasseled Wobbegong, 2 White Tips, and 3 Grey Reefs) and most of them are still juveniles, but as they get bigger that tank is going to get crowded fast so I wouldn't be surprised if we ended up receiving some of their Black Tip Reef & Grey Reef Sharks specifically.
 
Northwest_FIsh_Keeping said:
Definitely. I know that for the future, we do want to try and bring in species that would be apart of the ReShark Conservation program (such as how we have the pair of Zebra Sharks) so depending on what species is nominated and brought on next for that, there's a good chance a pair or more of that species could find a home here to help with that.
I have a pretty good hunch that in a few years, we could also get some Sharks from the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium in Tacoma, specifically like you mentioned, their Grey Reef Sharks. Their shark tank is around 240,000 gallons, so just under half the size of ours and they currently have 18 total sharks in there (3 Zebra, 4 Nurse, 5 Black Tips, 1 Tasseled Wobbegong, 2 White Tips, and 3 Grey Reefs) and most of them are still juveniles, but as they get bigger that tank is going to get crowded fast so I wouldn't be surprised if we ended up receiving some of their Black Tip Reef & Grey Reef Sharks specifically.
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Yeah, that’s exactly what I was thinking. I also wonder if perhaps PDZA’s scalloped hammerheads might come into play, given that that exhibit is also in the vicinity of 200,000 gallons and eventually those sharks will outgrow it at their full size. One would assume that both Seattle and Monterey would be options in that respect.
 
Local_Shark said:
Yeah, that’s exactly what I was thinking. I also wonder if perhaps PDZA’s scalloped hammerheads might come into play, given that that exhibit is also in the vicinity of 200,000 gallons and eventually those sharks will outgrow it at their full size. One would assume that both Seattle and Monterey would be options in that respect.
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I think Monterey will probably receive them, they've currently got 3 Females AFAIK and PDZA's trio are also all females, so there shouldn't be any compatibility issues between them, and those are the only Sharks in Monterey Bay's Open Sea tank which is double the size of ours. We're also going to have some smaller rays on exhibit (Javanese Cownose Rays for now, the Leopard Whipray and Eagle Rays are safe I'm sure, as in not potential prey items) so that also poses some other problems. Realistically MBA will probably get them, though they would be awesome to have here
 
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