Giant fish tanks of the world

T

temp

Well-Known Member
Size isn't everything, but standing in front of a massive ocean tank does provide a feeling that is hard to replicate by smaller exhibits.

In the following, I've tried to list all aquarium fish tanks that contain 4 million liters (1.1 million gallon) or more. There are a number of aquariums with tanks that come close, but I had to place the limit somewhere and if lowering the border to 3 MM l. (0.8 MM gal) the list would be too long. This is about single tank only; not combined volume of all tanks at the aquarium!

Two of the listed tanks do periodically have dolphins mixed with the fish, but tanks aimed at mammals are excluded. The numbers I've provided are only approximate because of conversions between units and that even a small differenece in water level can result in quite big differences in volume.

THE GIANTS:

* Georgia Aquarium (USA): 24 MM l. (6.3 MM gal).
* Chime-Long Ocean Kingdom (China): 22.7 MM l. (6 MM gal).
* Marine Life Park (Singapore): 18 MM l. (4.8 MM gal)
* Atlantis–Lost Chambers (United Arab Emirates): 11.5 MM l. (3 MM gal).
* Dubai Aquarium and Underwater Zoo (United Arab Emirates): 10 MM l. (2.6 MM gal).
* Cube Oceanarium (China): 10 MM l. (2.6 MM gal).
* Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium (Japan): 7.5 MM l. (2 MM gal).
* L'Oceanogràfic (Spain): 7 MM l. (1.8 MM gal)

Notice: When Chime-Long Ocean Kingdom opened it was recognized by Guinness World Records as having the largest tank in the world. I suspect there are two possibilities: Either they're wrong and Georgia's tank is larger. Alternatively the volume provided by Georgia includes the rear holding pool (see attached map) or water volume in pumps (a lot in big tanks), which possibly would make the actual main tank smaller than Chime-Long's. Regardless, Chime-Long's record for largest acrylic viewing window was beaten a month ago when Cube Oceanarium opened.

THE BIG ONES:
These 16 tanks are all 4–6 MM l. (1.1–1.6 MM gal) and are listed by geography, not relative size:

* USA: Monterey Bay Aquarium; Shark Reef at Mandalay.
* Denmark: Den Blå Planet–National Aquarium; Nordsøen Oceanarium.
* Norway: Atlanterhavsparken.
* Portugal: Lisbon Oceanarium.
* Spain: Aquarium Finisterrae.
* UK: Blue Planet Aquarium; Deep Sea World.
* Turkey: Antalya Aquarium; TurkuaZoo.
* China: Nanjing Underwater World; National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium–Taiwan; Ocean Park Hong Kong.
* Japan: Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan.
* South Korea: Aquaplanet Jeju.

There are three additional that I suspect belong in "THE BIG ONES", but I'm not sure and I've been unable to find good info on their exact sizes: Istanbul Aquarium (Turkey), Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise (Japan), and Aquaplanet Yeosu (South Korea).
I would be interested in knowing if I missed any in the list.
 

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What a list! Very interesting. Thanks for sharing this.
I thought L'aquarium Barcelona might have been a candidate but apparently their main tank is 3.7 million litres.
Istanbul Akvaryum mention that their main tank is around 4 million litres.
 
Thanks for the replies. Devilfish, the number you provided for Istanbul Aquarium is similar to the one I heard, but it is always a bit difficult to get definite info on this aquarium because of the frequent confusion with Istanbul's other large aquarium, TurkuaZoo. With your confirmation, I feel more confident adding Istanbul Aquarium to the list.

It is interesting that two countries that consistently are listed as some of the best zoo countries in the world are entirely absent from the list: The Netherlands and Germany. The Netherlands have tanks that come fairly close to the 4 million liter border: Both Diergaarde's Oceanium and Burgers' Ocean would have been included if I had placed the border at 3 MM l (0.8 MM gal) instead. The largest in Germany is 2.6 MM l (0.7 MM gal) at Ozeaneum and 1.8 MM l (0.5 MM gal) at Hagenbeck. Otherwise public aquariums in Germany are dominated by Sea Life centers.

If anyone knows of other fish tanks that are at least 4 MM l (1.1 MM gal) and missing from my list in the first post I would still be interested in knowing about it. Also details about the size of the fish tanks at Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise (Japan) and Aquaplanet Yeosu (South Korea).
 
The Seas With Nemo & Friends in the Epcot park at Walt Disney World in Florida has a main tank which is very large; about one third of it is for dolphin but the fish can enter that part if they choose (I think). Sources claim it as 5.7 million gallons, but that might include the whole facility. However, most of the facility is that main tank so it should probably be in the list!
 
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temp said:
Devilfish, the number you provided for Istanbul Aquarium is similar to the one I heard, but it is always a bit difficult to get definite info on this aquarium because of the frequent confusion with Istanbul's other large aquarium, TurkuaZoo.

Also details about the size of the fish tanks at Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise (Japan) and Aquaplanet Yeosu (South Korea).
Click to expand...

Thanks. Even within Istanbul there's a lot of confusion, many tour guides and information desks are unaware that there is more than one aquarium in the city.

Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise's main tank is stated to be around 1.5 million litres [translation from Japanese wikipedia page, and converted from tons.]
This blog suggests that Aquaplanet Yeosu's main tank is 6 million litres, but I can't find any more credible sources:
Aqua Planet at the Yeosu Expo site | The Korea Blog
 
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Thanks geomorph. I had excluded Epcot's Seas With Nemo & Friends because I though it essentially was a dolphin tank where fish played a secondary role (similar to many dolphin tanks around the world), but your info+youtube videos supports the fact that much of it is all fish. You suggested that 1/3 was for dolphins and based on youtube videos it is somewhere between 1/3 and 1/4. Since the sections are separated by bars smaller fish can enter the dolphin section.
The entire circular tank has a diameter of 61 m (200 ft) and a maximum depth of 8 m (26 ft). Based on this it is reasonable to assume that most–if not all–of the 21.6 million liter (5.7 million gallons) is the main tank alone. Even if subtracting a third for dolphins, this tank easily qualifies for the list.

Great work devilfish: So, it appears Hakkeijima is out and Yeosu is in.
 
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Atlantis Paradise Island's main tank (Bahamas) is listed on their website as holding 2.7 million gallons.
 
Good list. I've never seen a giant fish tank before, but if I'm ever near these places, I'll know to visit! I've always wanted to see a big tank.
 
AquaKing said:
This list here seems to very accurate and well researched:

www.worldcitiesranking.com/best-aquariums-top10/

There is even a sortable list containing the best 30 aquariums in the world on their website.
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting the link! There are detailed descriptions of all the world's largest aquariums and at the bottom a list of the 9 facilities that have whale sharks in their collection.
 
lintworm said:
Though the make the American mistake that bigger is necessarily better....
Click to expand...

I don't know how exactly they come up with their final ranking but they seem to take into account a lot of different criteria like species, viewing panel, tunnels etc. (not just size). Probably they consider everything together.
 
Seems accurate, but I would exclude Shanghai and Dubai in the list, as they isn't as good as the one list.I would probably add shedd and ocean park(base on personal as I visit it much) on the list instead of in the honourable mentions.
 
aardvark250 said:
Seems accurate, but I would exclude Shanghai and Dubai in the list, as they isn't as good as the one list.I would probably add shedd and ocean park(base on personal as I visit it much) on the list instead of in the honourable mentions.
Click to expand...

While the first 7 aquariums on the list (www.worldcitiesranking.com/best-aquariums-top10/) seem very clear (with quite a difference between the top 3 and the rest) the differences between number 8 and 30 appear to be not that big anymore. Number 8-30 seem rather on quite a similar level. So it's more a matter of preference and weight of the criteria how you list them. Some have huge tanks and others special animals or long tunnels etc...
 
I actually prefer Shanghai's to Singapore's, though that's obviously a matter of taste.
It's also worth pointing out that the picture for the Cube in Chengdu is actually the SEA in Singapore, so if by some strange coincidence the author happens to view this thread they may want to change that :)
 
I have to say that the worldcitiesranking is the first published aquarium list where I'm actually pretty impressed by their general info accuracy.
Do I agree with the exact order in their best listing? In many cases not but that part will always be subjective. For example, as I've said before I consider the Berlin Zoo Aquarium the best for freshwater in the world, tied with Shedd, and for that reason alone I rate it very highly (not in top-5, but in or at least near top-10). However, on pretty much every measure used in the worldcitiesranking Berlin Zoo Aq would achieve a low score and I strongly suspect that few "ordinary" aquarium visitors would rank it as highly as I do. In Okinawa Churaumi I spend more time in their deep sea section than at their ocean tank with whale sharks. That's the difference between a fish crazy person (me!) and 99.99% of the world population.

Minor note: After the taxonomic changes, far from fully resolved (especially West Amazonian populations), it appears increasingly unlikely that any of us have seen the real Arapaima gigas. Almost all aquariums still list their arapaimas as such, so it is not really fair to blame wcr for that.
 
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